Sociology aids community service people in understanding the socially pertinent systems and structures that help in improving the community’s needs. The understanding of the various systems in which the people network with one another and the bigger society. The people in the community service domain can gain awareness of the leading causes of difficulties and advance more effective clarifications.
The organization I contacted was Beach Church because I always go there to join the various groups involved in multiple activities. The church’s role is to bring together the various members of society to serve the almighty God by contributing to the community by providing free event space for anyone in need. I got involved in helping prepare for the event set for the disabled/special needs children to play and do activities together. Preparing for a good cause that aims at changing the lives of an individual or a specific group is imperative for nurturing a good society. Therefore, it is everyone’s obligation to engage in an activity that positively impacts the wider community.
I chose the Beach Church because it already consisted of various groups who could unite to serve the community in multiple ways. The activity was very pertinent because it involved engaging with different people who identified the need to engage the disabled/special needs children in various games and activities with the aim of creating the spirit of togetherness and inclusivity. I took part in washing plastic balls for a ball pit. In the process of washing the plastic balls, I learned the positive impact of being patient, calm, and determined. Patience and calmness allowed me to be a good listener, kind, and hard-working. During the activity, I felt challenged by the perplexing work of washing the many plastic balls. However, the desire to serve the community by helping the needy kept me on track. Conclusively, at the end of the activity, I felt it was gratifying to volunteer for the church because they supported a good cause and let children be children. It was very remarkable and promising to engage the disabled children in daily and normal activities as well as the importance of interacting with other people.
Functionalists’ perspectives show that the family is endowed with performing functions including; the provision of social identities, reproduction, regulation of sexual activity, provision of practical and emotional support, and socializing children. The functionalist perspective considers society a compound system that operates together to uphold stability and solidarity (Hiranandani, 23). The church is a social organization that brings together various families to further educate them about the values of solidarity and stability. Thus, involving in church-led activities is instrumental in helping sociologists identify the social challenges affecting communities. The functionalist perspective shows that sports are instrumental in maintaining social order. The activity enabling the disabled/special needs to play and do activities together was very important in inducing them to the regular society and allowing them to interact with their fellows and the rest of the community. Therefore, the heart of the event’s idea was portraying the parenthood concept, an elementary duty of society as it leads to its continued existence and the children’s socialization.
Symbolic interactionist perspective advance that persons with disabilities/needy are more systemically beleaguered because of the consequences that arise out of such interactions. Most frequently, disabled people avoid social interactions because they are usually dubbed social deviants. The symbolic interactionist perspective reveals a stigma among disabled people (Salvini 61). Through interactions with the community, disabled people are highly stigmatized, which leads to people considering them deviants. Hence, events aimed at creating social interactions in modes that differ from the conventional interactions, persons that are disabled are modified given that the proper communication channels are used to create positive meaning (Hiranandani 38). The freshly created meaning impacts distinct development and also promotes societal improvement. Therefore, symbolic interactionism, the bottom-up methodology, centers on micro-level connections and social arrangements which are very important in understanding the individual challenges of disabled children and advancing solutions for the larger society.
Conclusively, volunteers in social events are pertinent in ensuring any program’s success as they work with self-centered motivations. Also, awareness creation events have been instrumental in changing society’s perspective toward disabled people. The functionalists and symbolic interactionist perspectives show that the family and society, in general, are insignificant in empowering the lives of disabled victims.
Works Cited
Hiranandani, Vanmala. “Towards a Critical Theory of Disability in Social Work.” Critical Social Work, vol. 6, no. 1, 2019.
Salvini, Andrea. “Symbolic Interactionism and Social Research.” The Oxford Handbook of Symbolic Interactionism, 2022.
write