Bshs 325 - Macro Systems Paper

Macro Systems Paper

Sherria Deshazor

BSHS/325

01/26/2015

Instructor Erin Jacobs

Macro Systems Paper

There are a lot of different areas that affect us as a community, as individuals and within our own families. There are expectations on how people believe things should be. As a human service professional it is important to understand the different areas of social systems and what roles we as professionals and the other things that will play a part in these areas. Empowerment understands a person’s own strengths and resources available to them in order to solve their own problems. Empowerment has several dimensions including personal, interpersonal and a political understanding. Personal empowerment comes from within ones’ self. It is closely related to self-worth. The idea of empowerment can push a person towards their personal goals. Interpersonal empowerment is more than one person working toward a goal. These people collectively contribute the strengths and knowledge to reach the goal. Personal empowerment is something we all have experienced at a few different times in our lives. This is when an individual decides to make a positive improvement in their lives or within their community or neighborhood. They stand up for what they believe is right and worth fixing or fighting for, maybe not just for themselves, but for others. At an intimate level we may decide to change how we show affection, compromise, and our understanding towards situations with our loved one. We set goals for ourselves and do what is necessary to make improvements in order to reach those goals.

Interpersonal empowerment is a little different from personal empowerment because interpersonal empowerment involves two or more people making a decision together to make a change. While political empowerment is something we have all either experienced or read about. It is when there is an increase in the strengths of different areas within a community. These areas are spiritual, education, gender, economic, social, and political. Political empowerment is when the government works with the community to make a change. If the community has a high level of poverty, the government may find organizations within the community to help find or build resources for job search, affordable housing, food supplement programs, or rehab and other types of counseling.

Functionalism is viewed as an individual or group believing that things in their community have a purpose, therefore they work together to function properly. When an individual is threatened with possibly becoming part of the poverty level a warning is given. This then causes the individual to work towards avoiding this outcome by working hard and reaching out to find the proper resources available. At some point in our lives, we may have seen or experienced a level of poverty. According to Goransoon, (2002), “Poverty deprives people of the freedom to decide over and shape their own lives. It robs them of the opportunity to choose on matters of fundamental importance to themselves. The essence of poverty is not only lack of material resources but also lack of power and choice. A litmus test of if an intervention decreases poverty could thus be if the effect is that poor people have increased scope to decide over their lives in areas of relevance to them.” (Perspectives of Poverty)

If poverty is something we notice happening to ourselves we tend to work harder to avoid being seen in this state of living by our society, community, and neighborhood. So much of our lives are based on what others think of us, how they will respond to us, and with judgment always being used on individuals it can make an impact on why or why not people fight to make an improvement to come out of the poverty level.

With the interactions’ theory the poor are viewed, judged and labeled by others in the society for so long they tend to hold onto those judgments. They settle for what they believe is their way of life as if they have no way to improve, they became comfortable so they will remain living at a poor poverty level. To eliminate poverty levels individuals need to work hard to reach a positive outcome. These individuals need to realize that they deserve more, that there are resources available to them to help achieve those positive outcomes they need.

 Human Service Professionals will often see levels of poverty with their clients living situations. It is important to understand the three categories’ that social work is viewed within. These categories are micro, mezzo, and macro. Often times in the profession of social work we will find that these three categories will work and influence one another. Micro systems is the most common social system used within the human service profession because it is when the professional is working with one individual to find their client a job, affordable housing, health care, and other resources to better the individual. You can also see micro systems used in a school with a school counselor helping a student. Mezzo systems are when a social worker helps to bring people together in order to benefit from the society or resources available to the individuals. Mezzo systems can be used in group therapy sessions or neighborhood community groups. On the Macro level of social systems we often find that this is used in a larger scale such as social workers advocating for a neighborhood or community for improved resources by collaborating with multiple services.

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