Introduction

Social workers are found in every facet of community life, including schools, hospitals, mental
health clinics, senior centers, elected office, private practices, prisons, military, corporations, and
in numerous public and private agencies. Some social workers help clients who face a social
problem, such as inadequate housing, unemployment, substance abuse, disability or a life-
threatening disease. Social workers also assist families that have serious domestic conflicts,
sometimes involving child or spousal abuse. The objective of this assignment is to discuss one
specific field of social work were I would want to work in after graduating from Kitwe
Community Development Staff Training College and to explain in detail what work I will be
doing in that field of social work.

Field of social work: Advocacy and community organization

The field of social work I would like to work in after graduating from Kitwe Community
Development Staff Training College is advocacy and community organization. Advocacy and
community organization focuses on the theories, principles, and practice of providing services to
communities, organizing communities and neighborhoods for social action, serving as
community liaisons to public agencies, and using community resources to furnish information,
instruction, and assistance to all members of a community.

Advocacy and community organization is a key concept in social work practice. It is defined as
exerting influence on behalf of organisations and groups within legal power and political
structure. Advocacy involves either an individual or group, or their representatives, pressing their
case with influential others, about situations which either affect them directly or, and more
usually, try to prevent proposed changes, which will leave them worse off (Pardeck, 1996).

Gates (1994) cites four variations of advocacy: legal advocacy, the representation of the user in a
formal context, for instance a health-review tribunal; self-advocacy, where the individual or a
group of individuals speak up for themselves, a form of empowerment; collective or class
advocacy, the large organisations who speak for the interests and rights of a category of people;
and citizen advocacy, the representation of the user’s interests by a competent advocate (eg a
Social worker).

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Advocacy and community organization is a concept embraced by social work and advocating for
clients is vital for the social work profession. The primary goals of advocacy are achieving social
justice and people empowerment. In achieving these goals, a proactive, responsive and
participatory approach is necessary (Pardeck, 1996). My role as an advocate would be to speak
on behalf of my clients and to empower them to advocate on their own behalf, whenever their
rights have been denied; for example in accessing clean drinking water, good sewage systems or
demanding gabbage collection (sanitation) and better road networks in communities from local
authorities. The advocacy role, from a social context, includes the redistribution of power and
recourse to an individual or group, guarding their rights and preserving their values, conserving
their best interests and overcoming the sense of powerlessness (Pardeck, 1996).

Advocacy and social reform are central tasks of the social work professional, and have
historically been regarded as core practice skills that, along with the emphasis on social justice,
distinguish social work from other helping professions (Crean & Baskerville, 2007). Richan
(1973) defined advocacy as an action on behalf of an aggrieved individual, group or class of
individuals people subject to discrimination and injustice. Advocacy efforts can be carried out
for individuals, groups, and communities in society (Spicuzza, 2003). Political advocacy and
community organizing are vital functions of the social work purpose, to be carried out across all
domains, including clinical social work settings. At a minimum, social workers are to be policy
sensitive in dealing with clients; social workers need to understand policies affecting their
clients, how to access resources, and the potential barriers to accessing resources for their clients
(Jannson, 2002)

Furthermore, when discussing about advocacy and community organization, we can move from
individual care provided to micro-level to influencing government policy on the macro-level of
social work. Advocacy and community organization in social work is seen as an activity,  which
the main purpose  is to positively argue in favor of others, and to present the social problems of
clients using concrete facts in the most favorable light. Part of advocacy in social work is also a
request targeted to the benefit of its clients in a way that is understandable and acceptable to the
community.

Henderson and Pochin (2001) opine that advocacy and community organization in social work
can be understood as a process in which a social worker gradually identifies the views and

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concerns of a particular client, and then focuses on representing clients' expectations in the
environment in order to achieve redress and ensure the rights and claims of the client, whose he
represents. Henderson and Pochin point out that for advocacy, it is important that the goals
monitored by a advocate social worker on behalf of his client are in minimal conflict with his
personal conviction. Next, the authors point to the fact that advocacy in social work is not only
focused on concrete assistance to a particular person, but its activities are also aimed at
developing and strengthening the social skills of the client,  so that in the future client will be
able to speak for himself.

Brandon and Brandon (2001) in an effort to clarify the essence of advocacy and community
organization, place emphasis on the personality of the client when they write that:  advocacy is a
method focusing to one or more vulnerable individuals or the whole group who as a result of
their own powerlessness, need their representative that exert adequate pressure on influential
personalities in society, whose to become acquainted with the facts that directly affect the lives
of people with the intention of remedying the situation. Advocacy is more focused on preventive
activities to avoid the implementation of changes that would cause a worsening of the already
difficult life situation of the client or clients.

Schneider and Lester (2013) emphasize that advocacy is not just a direct representation of a
client, but advocacy is primarily focus and systematically influencing an unfair system. They
also point to the different roles that are linked to different forms of advocacy. As for one-to-one
advocacy, the most important task is the development of client´s autonomy and development
their social skills, in group advocacy, is the main task of advocacy in social work, active
discovery of the causes of social problems. The role of a social worker as an advocate and
community organizer include intervention with institutional agents and individual people that is
aimed at helping the client. The goal is to obtain the right benefits or the necessary services for
the client. Generally, the role of advocate is considered to be a duty of social service providers.
The role of advocate requires the ethical code of the profession and belongs to the oldest roles
social work. The advocate role is equivalent to the role of a therapist or counselor and is an
integral part of the realization of ecologically oriented social work.

A social worker acts as advocate when protecting client´s rights or for the implementation of
complex bureaucratic rules and regulations. Advocacy, as such, is typically associated with

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securing the necessary services, but we may also encounter it in defending the client's right to
deny service if these are inappropriate for the client or if the client is harming it. For example,
the provided service interferes to the client's right to free decision-making or to self-
determination. In practice, it is common for a social worker to change his roles, so he needs to
know to correctly identify the situations in which the lawyer skills are to be employed. These are
the following: if the institution, or agency refuses to provide service or financial assistance for
the client, to which it is entitled; if the services are provided inhumane way, contrary to the Code
of Ethics; if the client is discriminated; if the client is not able to act independently and
efficiently in his or her interests as a result of a disability or illness; and if the human rights are
denied and restricted (Spicuzza, 2003).

The advantages that advocacy and community organization brings are: it allows to be heard the
voice of the weakest; provides support, services, and information for the clients  help make their
own choices; it is a free and confidential service. Advocacy helps clients develop the skill to
express clearly and unambiguously own opinions and wishes; achieve that its demands and
opinions are heard; the  development and strengthen of  argument skills of client obtain an
independent opinion on the situation in which he or she found himself or herself (Ibid).

Advocacy is a key part of social work because it helps clients learn to be independent and
provides a voice for those who are traditionally underserved. Advocacy and community
organization promotes equality, inclusion and social justice, all goals of social work practice. In
addition, successful advocacy involves informing clients of their rights and how to exercise them
for their benefit, which allows clients to influence decisions that will directly affect them. Social
justice, one side of advocacy, is related to activism and occurs on a larger scale than day-to-day
client interaction. It has been defined by experts as an ideal condition in which all members of a
society have the same basic rights, protection, opportunities, obligations, and social benefits.
Advocacy helps social workers achieve the larger goal of social justice by including
disadvantaged people in the conversation (Richan, 1973).

There are a number of advocacy frameworks that have been introduced as part of contemporary
social work practice. One such model is case and systemic advocacy. It identifies two different
elements of practice. The first is case, or issue-based, advocacy, which works on an individual
basis or in small groups like families and addresses specific tasks such as accessing proper

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mental health care. The second is systemic, or cause, advocacy, which takes knowledge from
individual cases and combines it to form collective advocacy for changes in legislation or policy.
Case and systemic advocacy produce positive change on an individual and structural level. In
addition, there are active and passive approaches to advocacy. Passive advocacy requires the
social worker to speak for the client. Active advocacy, then, occurs when clients speak for
themselves.  It is important to note that these categories are fluid. Another advocacy framework
is the external and internal model. External advocacy occurs when advocates work outside of a
system, while internal advocacy refers to advocacy that works within established systems
(Brandon and Brandon, 2001).

Conclusion

This paper discussed one specific field of social work were I would want to work in after
graduating from Kitwe Community Development Staff Training College and to explain in detail
what work I will be doing in that field of social work. The field in question discussed in this
paper is advocacy and community organization. Advocacy is simply acting on behalf of another
person to help him defend his rights or enforce his legitimate claims. A social worker carries out
these activities for two reasons. The first is universal respect of the client as a human being, who
have be guaranteed access to the fulfillment of all human rights and civil liberties. The second
reason is that the client is not currently able to enforce his rights and legitimate interests by his
own forces. The social worker becomes his representative, who takes on the role of
communicating with client´s surroundings in order to reach the desired change.

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References

Brandon, D. and Brandon, T. (2001) Advocacy in Social Work, Birmingham, VenturePress

Crean, P., & Baskerville, M.A. (2007). Community advocacy—a social work role? Social Work
Review, 19(4), 3-10

Henderson, R. and Pochin, M. (2001) A Right Result? Advocacy, Justice and

Empowerment,Bristol, Policy Press

Jansson, B. (2003). Becoming an effective policy advocate. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Pardeck, J. T. (1996). Social work practice: An ecological approach. Westport, Conn: Auburn

House.

Richan, W. (1973). Dilemmas of the social work advocate. Child Welfare, 52(4), 220-226

Schneider, R., Lester, L., & Ochieng, J. (2013). Advocacy. In T. Mizrahi & L. E. Davis (Eds.),
Encyclopedia of social work (20th ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Spicuzza, F. (2003). Preparing students for social work advocacy. The Journal of Baccalaureate
Social Work, 8(2), 49-68