Social Worker Manifesto

         I think that I have always wanted to be a social worker, though I did not know the name for what it was that I wanted to be. My parents met working as Legal Aid lawyers, and my father still works with low-income clients, so for several years I wanted to be a lawyer. I then realized that law school would be frustrating for me in that it would not focus on the area in which I wanted to work. In addition, lawyers' main job is to sue, not to help people better their own lives. I now know that I want to be a social worker. I want to make a difference in peoples' lives, and I know that I can do that through the social work profession. It is a line of work that will be rewarding both for me and for my clients.
         My most beneficial strength for the social work profession is my drive to defend social justice. When I see people in unfair situations, my first instinct is to find a way to rectify their circumstances. I think that majoring in social work will give me the knowledge and the resources to help people to better their own lives.
         Having struggled through my own issues, I have a strong desire to help people work through their own difficulties. While I believe in the human ability to persevere and rise above poor circumstances, I believe that people sometimes need assistance to work within the systems in their environment. If a person does not know how to work with the systems, he or she cannot maximize the possibilities for making best use of benefits.
         My understanding of social work's purpose is that social workers empower people to take full advantage of their situations. Most often, social work involves people who are experiencing some sort of problem within the context of their personal systems. It is the job of the social worker to work both with the client and with the other systems in order to find a way to solve or minimize the problem.
         The most important of social work's main values is the belief in the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings. Hearing this value in my first social work course was somewhat of a "eureka moment." I have held this belief throughout my life, and I take it very seriously. In the past, teachers have become angry when I argued the worth of individuals whom the teachers had deemed "evil." I do not accept the concept of a completely evil being, because I believe very strongly that all human beings do have that inherent worth, no matter how evil they may seem.
         I look forward to learning more about the Code of Ethics. I think that it is very important that social work has its own set of values that are taught to all social work students. Similarly to doctors, it is important that a client receive the best possible service, and having a distinct code of ethics is the best way to ensure that all clients are treated equally by their social workers. My understanding of the Code of Ethics is that it was put in place to ensure that clients are treated fairly and with dignity. Given the value of the inherent worth of every person, the Code of Ethics is very important to me.