Sally wants to be a social worker someday.

Whenever she tells people her dream of becoming one, however, she is
often met with questions, sometimes, even skepticism. People ask her why aspire to become a social worker when she can
become a teacher, a doctor, or a lawyer. Others discourage her from pursuing a career in social work and opt for a higher-
paying profession instead. Some even ask her what social work is.

In your opinion, what could be Sally's reason for wanting to become a social worker? What do you know about
social work? Answer these questions and more as you read this module.

DEFINING SOCIAL WORK

Social work is the professional activity of helping individuals, groups or communities to enhance or restore their
capacity for social functioning and to create societal conditions favorable to their goals (NASW, 1973).

According to the International Federation of Social Workers,

social work is a practice-based profession and an academic discipline
that promotes social change and development, social cohesion, and
the empowerment and liberation of people. Principles of social justice,
human rights, collective responsibility and respect for diversities are
central to social work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social
sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledge, social work engages
people and structures to address life challenges and enhance
wellbeing.

Social work is an interdisciplinary profession, which means that it covers a number of areas in the social sciences such
as psychology, sociology, political sciences, criminology, economics, ecology, and anthropology.

Social work has a lot of goals since it is a very diverse field and it is not just about helping people in their household.
According to Hepworth (2013), there are six main goals in social work:

1. Help people enlarge their competence and increase their problem solving and coping abilities, - Practitioners
assists their client to view their problems in another perspective, consider various alternatives or plan b's, show the
value of awareness of strengths and many more.
2. Help people obtain needed resources. - Practitioners involve the responsibility for linking their clients to diverse
resources and services,
3. Make organizations responsive to people. - Practitioners scrutinize the policies and procedures of organizations to
know if their clients have the access to their needed resources and service.
4. Facilitate interactions between individuals and others in their environment. - Practitioners must enhance the
relationship of family members, assist troubled students, and provide for consumer input into agency policy making
boards.
5. Influence interactions between organizations and institutions - A practitioner can coordinate medical, educational,
mental health, and rehabilitative services provided a given family by multiple resource systems.
6. Influence social and environmental policy. - Practitioners have the responsibility to work towards improving the
quality of life by promoting policies that enhance physical and social environments.
Scope
Scope Meaning
1. Enhancing Social Function Practitioners must enable individuals to achieve a reasonable degree of fulfillment and
to function as productive and contributing members of the society.

2.Remedying Personal Dysfunction Practitioners must recognize that problems at the interface between people and these
environments are not exclusively caused by environmental deficiencies.

3.Promoting Social Justice Practitioners must devote their time in providing services and obtaining resources for
their clients.

Core Values
According to Hepworth (2013), Social Work has a myriad of values, however, it can be summarized into the following core
values:
1. People should have access to the resources they need to meet life's challenges and difficulties as well as access to
opportunities to realize their potential throughout their lives.
2. Every person is unique and grips has inherent worth; therefore, interactions with people as they pursue and utilize
resources should enhance their dignity and individuality.
3. People have a right to freedom insofar as they do not infringe on the rights of others; therefore, transactions with
people in the course of seeking and utilizing resources should enhance their independence and self-determination.
4. Realization of the above values should be a mutual responsibility of individual citizens and of society. Society
should foster conditions and provide opportunities for citizens to participate in the democratic process. Citizens
should fulfill their responsibilities to the society by actively participating in the democratic process.