Introduction
Racism is a serious social issue. It is always practiced on an individual basis or an institutional basis. Institutional racism refers to the act of an organization racially abusing an individual. Institutional racism is also known as structural racism (Dorobanțu-Dina, 2021). Institutional racism is caused by the inequality experienced in engagement in institutions in the country. It is mostly called built-in racism. Individual racism is the most reported form of racism. Social workers have the responsibility of ending racism. Handling racism at a micro level entails reflecting on personal biases and working towards unlearning them (Edwards, 2020). On the other hand, handling racism at a macro level entails using influence and government agencies to come up with policies that will end racism.
Micro Approach
Engagement
The engagement phase at a micro level will involve discussing and listening carefully to the client’s issues. It is good to give the client eye contact and also use silence when necessary (Dorobanțu-Dina, 2021). It is good to use silence since some cases are usually very touching. Then there is also a need to orient the client to the help services. That involves completing the available paperwork.
Assessment
The assessment stage will involve understanding the issues and what causes them. At a micro level, it will be important to ask the client what they think when the term racism flashes into their minds. It is also important to understand the role that they played in the situation where the racial remarks took place. It is also good to make the client understand what different decisions they can make so as not to be affected the moment people pass racially divisive remarks to them. A reflection of the values they were taught and those that have shaped them over time will also help the client manage racism. The assessment is needed to help the client reflect on personal biases.
Planning
The planning process will involve coming up with ways through which the client will be supported to understand their emotions. The social worker will plan how intervention skills will be taught. Coping skills will also be planned to ensure that the client effectively copes with their personal experience (Dorobanțu-Dina, 2021). The social worker will also work towards understanding the level of intervention for each need. That will offer the right way through which the need will be assessed. The social worker will also establish the goals that need to be met to ensure that the client’s personal experience has been improved.
Implementation
The implementation process will involve the social worker following the plan and ensuring that the client’s personal development is achieved. It will entail having different sessions with the client where they will be informed of the cope with incidences of racism. Cultural and emotional intelligence will also be taught to the client. Teaching emotional intelligence is important to help clients understand how to shift their emotions when facing racism. Cultural intelligence will also help the clients understand how they need to associate with other cultures to better their experience.
Evaluation
In this case, the evaluation criteria that the social workers need to use is goal attainment scaling. Goal attainment scaling involves assessing the goals that have been put for the client to achieve and the extent to which the client will achieve such goals. The social workers can also use a client satisfaction questionnaire to find out from the client how the sessions have been of benefit to them.
Termination
The termination of the process will be facilitated if the client has gained some good levels of personal development. That will entirely depend on the results collected from the evaluation. If the client has gained some good form of emotional and cultural development, then there will be a need to terminate the sessions. It is good to ensure that the clients have effectively understood their emotions before the sessions can be terminated.\
Follow-Up
Follow-ups will be made to assess how the client is coping. The follow-ups will involve assessing the status of the client from the referrals that have been made.
Macro Level
Engagement
The engagement stage of handling racism at the macro level entails reaching out to government agencies on the policies that have been made to curb racism. The social worker will ensure that racism is well-tackled at the government level (Dorobanțu-Dina, 2021). the social worker will also engage with other like-minded agencies to check on the policies they can push for that will help tackle racism. The social worker can also engage coalition groups to draft petitions and support legislation that is aimed at making racism a thing of the past.
Assessment
The assessment phase will involve the social worker understanding what causes racism at an institutional level and the right way to approach it. The social worker will go through legislation that already exists that seeks to end racism. They will also check on the potential policies that can be implemented, which will bring about desirable changes. That is needed to ensure that viable results are achieved. The social worker also needs to understand how people interact in society and how some interactions can easily promote racism. It is through a deeper analysis that sufficient changes will be made.
Planning
The planning phase at a micro level should entail the social workers evaluating the level of intervention for each policy. They will assess all the stages of coming up with policies and write down what they need to do to ensure that the policies are coming to exist. The social worker should work with other agencies and like-minded organizations to ensure that it comes to pass (Murray-Lichtman & Elkassem, 2021). Establishing the goals that will need to be achieved is also necessary. Those are the goals that will guide the implementation process. Specifying the actions and steps to achieve the goals is also important in the planning phase. The action steps include physically visiting the government offices to ensure that the anti-racism policies are still being given enough consideration.
Implementation
The implementation phase involves the social worker following the laid down procedures on how policies should be passed. The social worker will work with the government and likeminded agencies to ensure that the policies are being passed. The social worker will also monitor the progress of justice in case many people have fallen victim to racial abuse. The plan will also be revised when the goal is not appropriately achieved. The implementation of the policies will help reduce the rates of racial abuse in society.
Evaluation
The evaluation uses goal attainment scaling. The success of the process revolves around the establishment of policies that are directed toward ending racism. The project would have been a success if the policies had been established and published to the general public. Goal attainment scaling will entail taking into action the plan that was set and the progress made to make it a reality.
Follow-Up
Follow-ups will be made in society to find out the rates of racial abuse that are still being reported. A decrease in the rates of racial abuse will indicate that the policies have been working. In case the rates of racial abuse do not reduce, then new policies would have to be created. That will see the process start all over again.
References
Edwards, M. (2020). Social Work Practice (SW4001) Syllabus.
Murray-Lichtman, A., & Elkassem, S. (2021). Academic voyeurism: The white gaze in social work. Canadian Social Work Review, 38(2), 179-205.
Dorobanțu-Dina, R. (2021). Intercultural Competence-Way to Solve the Problems of Today’s World. Eastern European Journal for Regional Studies (EEJRS), 7(2), 142-164.
write