The concept of personal empowerment comes within you. Its self-reliance and making your own decisions, following responsibilities. You understand and know where you are headed. It’s coming to the realization that something must change. An example of personal empowerment is a wife leaving her abusive husband because she is tired of getting hit. She has come to the realization that something must be changed. Interpersonal empowerment is one or more persons getting together to make decisions or follow through with a plan. Political empowerment is the government working to help the community and rumoring political participation.
Social work is divided into three categories: macro, mezzo and micro. These three levels of practice at times overlap and influence each other. The practice of Macro social work is the effort to help clients by intervening in large systems. Macro practice empowers clients by involving them in systemic change. An Example includes changing a health care law. Mezzo social work practice deals with small to medium sized groups such as neighborhoods, schools, and other local organizations. An example would be community organizing. Micro practice s the third and most common type of social work.
This is the type of service most people imagine social workers doing. In macro social work the social worker works with individuals and families to solve problems. Examples would be helping individuals find housing, jobs, healthcare and social services (Macro, mezzo, and micro social work, 2012). Functionalist view every in society as having a function. If it is part of society then it must have a function. This is also true for poverty. According to functionalist poverty has two main functions. First it acts as a motivator because its viewed as a warning.
People would likely want to work harder and succeed. We all have seen poverty and this is a constant reminder to work hard so we don’t end up like that. Secondly poverty acts as a “feel good factor”. It is a way of measuring how well we are doing and to work harder. When you see people in poverty you know you are doing well, and u could be worse off (perspectives on poverty, 2010). Interactions view poverty as shared expectations. The poor are judged negatively by influential groups. So they start to believe what is being said and they settle. They don’t try to improve their living or achieve success.
They believe that poverty is not a cause of economic depression, but involves the person’s self-concept. To solve the poverty problems Interactions believe that the stigma associated with poverty be eliminated. This will cause positive changes to occur. The human service worker plays a large part in the macro environment. The social worker will often be engaged in policy practice because policy changes happen very often in communities and organizations. These services workers have varies roles such as planner, policy analyst, program coordinator, community organizer, manager, and administrator.
The social worker also has responsibilities that deal with change in communities and organizations. They must identify the systems in need of change and the type of change needed. These changes may lead to community intervention, or intervention in a single organization. The macro system deals with communities, and organizations. How does this system handle child maltreatment, sexual abuse, crime, and delinquency? None of these are taken lightly. If a child is being mistreated the police and a social worker will get involved. The social worker will have regular visits with the child and the family.
If mistreatment is found then the child will be removed from the household and placed in foster care. The parents will lose custody if the children and be charged with child neglect in the correct manner. Sexual abuse is also very serious. When a report of sexual abuse occurs the police are also involved. The perpetrator is charged and is taken into custody. If it is a child they may be given counseling and regular checkups. Crime is also handled in a similar way. The police and courts get involved and then time is handed to the person who did the crime. It depends on the severity of the crime.
