I think most of us end up in fields like social work because we want to help in some form. Reflecting on my own career goals, I found myself at a crossroads between pursuing teaching or social work. Underpinning both of these paths, was the goal of helping people in some way. I had just finished up my undergrad and felt unsteady in having to make such a big decision that would dictate my career. I recognize the privilege in being positioned at these crossroads to even have these opportunities, and did not want to take it lightly. I decided to take a year off and work, to give myself some time to reflect on this decision. I was hopeful that real-life experience would grant me the wisdom to inform this decision. 

Throughout my undergrad I worked several jobs and my part-time job grew into full-time employment. What started as an unpaid volunteer position shifted into an important cornerstone in my social work career – it’s what helped me decide to take this leap. This job was at the Elizabeth Fry Society which is a nonprofit community-based organization that supports and advocates for and on behalf of criminalized women and girls. I was naive, flawed, and imperfect, but eager to learn. When I think back to those 13+ years ago, I valued the connections I made so much. It challenged me and ignited within me a paradigm shift that really became one of the pillars from which I operate as a social worker today. 

I was brought up with the idea of treating everyone like you would want to be treated. I was brought up to value hard work and integrity. I am forever grateful for the lessons and values my working class parents instilled in me. These are not inherently bad or harmful messages, AND social issues beget more complexity that threatens this assumption that the world is just and fair. Working with women reintegrating into community after federal prison, I learned that criminalization wasn’t as simple as making the choice to break the law and facing the appropriate consequences Hearing these stories, which I had the privilege to be trusted with, I quickly realized that the only thing that separated me from “them” was circumstance. Harrowing stories of surviving violence, cyclical poverty, intergenerational trauma, mental health issues, and addiction. We may all have choices, yes, AND we do not each have equitable access to the same choices. Sure, sometimes people make bad, even terrible choices, and for some, circumstance creates barriers that severely limit our options and survival. Furthermore, if we zoom out and employ a macro lens approaching the issue of criminalization, we can see how racialized populations are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. We can also see how folks living in poverty, with mental illness, addictions, and trauma survivors are overrepresented within these systems as well. With this in mind, one could argue that our current criminal justice system actually criminalizes these social issues.

I remember reading an article during my BSW that further expanded my lens to be able to name these structural barriers. It included a quote by Desmond Tutu, who was a strong advocate against apartheid. “There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” Instead of providing individual intervention in response to societal problems, we need to address root causes and inequities that uphold these structural barriers. We need to treat the disease (the source of oppression) instead of the symptoms (supporting individuals victimized or impacted by a flawed system). I am grateful for the instructors who shared their knowledge, wisdom, and personal experiences with myself and my classmates. I feel like it added fuel to the already ignited fire and laid the groundwork for advocacy skills and social action. After graduating, I returned to Nova Scotia and worked in several community social work roles within the nonprofit sector. I returned to E-Fry, working with criminalized women, worked at a shelter and with victims and survivors of violence, shifted into youth-specific work, worked as a therapist, and took on roles in school-based social work. This led me to working in mental health and eventually returning to school to complete my MSW. 

I feel so grateful to have started my social work journey within the nonprofit sector. I feel that starting within community really allowed me the privilege of meeting people where they are. While I was facing issues of being under-resourced and underpaid, there was often also less red tape and barriers for clients and social workers to go up against. 

These early experiences were also threaded with naïveté, mistakes, and challenges, all of which provided opportunities to learn, even if those opportunities felt cruel or harsh at the time. I dealt with imposter syndrome (which will be the topic of an upcoming blog post), questioning my abilities as a social worker, and feeling disillusioned by the sheer injustice and retraumatization of the systems we work in. Of course, I am only able to look back on these experiences now with gratitude because of the detachment and perspective-taking that time allows. I certainly didn’t always handle these moments of growing pains with such grace and reflexiveness when I was in them (don’t be fooled). Even nearly a decade later, I still come up against these challenges from time to time. Sometimes they look or feel different, and I am able to handle them differently now than I would have nine or ten years ago. We are only able to approach mistakes as challenges and opportunities to learn when we are open to new ways of thinking and doing. I think that’s the price we pay for growth. 

I was at a conference recently and the speaker, disability justice advocate, Rachele Manett spoke about bending our brains as a means to challenge and expand our current worldviews. I feel like the profession and practice of social work is always bending my brain, whether it’s monumental paradigm shifts, or scratching away bit by bit at the status quo, slowly upheaving the ways in which I feed into systems of injustice and structures of oppression. I am not saying I am perfect, an expert, or a spokesperson for the profession by any stretch of the imagination. Quite the opposite, actually. I feel like the more I learn and the longer I practice, the more I am challenged to step out of my comfort zone. The more I am invited to view things from new perspectives. The more I let go of what no longer serves my practice, and explore new ways of knowing and understanding. When we cease asking questions, and stop being curious, that’s a dangerous place to be. I will certainly continue to make mistakes, miss the mark, and not get things right sometimes, AND no matter how long I work in this field I hope to never close myself off from new opportunities to learn and grow. 

I would love to hear of others’ experiences and reflections of what brought them into social work and what your journey has been like. Feel free to reach out, connect, comment – whatever feels right for you in your experience.