My Story Part 73 – Social Workers

When I say social worker what comes to mind?

Maybe a therapist, maybe a school social worker or someone who works with welfare clients or a person that works with children and families… well you are half right. They are what we call the Micro practice side; case and group work. Then there is the Macro practice side; policy, administrative and community organizing concentrations and that is what I am doing, community organizing.

What do we all have in common; we care for people and want to make the world a better place. We are the bridge builders.

Macro social workers write the agencies policies and run the organizations. We organize the senior centers and the neighborhood groups. In addition, we run political campaigns and run for office.

Last year, I was invited to a meeting with US Rep. Chris Murphy from the 5th Congressional District and it was like a class reunion. There were so many social worker interns or graduates there that we outnumbered the non-MSW people who were attending the meeting.

When I was at the hearing for the anti-discrimination bill last month, in the video you see a number of people sitting around me and they all have a MSW. Many of the interns to the legislators are also MSW students. In addition, there are four or five legislators who have their MSW in the Connecticut legislature including the Speaker of the House, the the mayor of Hartford has his MSW. And don’t forget the President of the United States has a MSW in community organizing.

When I thought of a social worker, I thought of only the Micro social worker So when I asked friends what I should do when I retired and they told me to get my MSW, I dismissed the idea. Once I found out about the Macro side, I liked the idea. I think that for me, it is a good match, I have too much empathy, I would believe any hard luck story that I hear and a good Micro social worker needs to be a good reader of people. But a Macro perspective is a better match; I want to change the world, starting with fighting for Human Rights for the trans-community.

The trans-community needs more social workers, both Micro and Macro; we need our own out there advocating on our behalf. We need Micro social workers to help us navigate the bureaucratic red tape and we need trans-therapist. We also need trans-Macro social workers to lobby to help us achieve our equal rights and we need trans-social workers to help change policies.