DSNI

In the Dudley Street Initiative we see plenty of leadership, participation, cooperation and hard work from people in the community. They seen a problem that they can all relate to and wanted to make a change. Many of the readings we do all have to do with how change is sparked or influenced. It all starts with a community common interest and it goes from there. I cant say I am just learning this because these are the basics of what a social worker does plus this is what we are doing in our class on our smaller level. We have people that are taking lead roles and tell who what to do while we all come together and brainstorm. In this documentary and the Saul Alinsky Documentaries what stands out to the most is the fact that people in the community themselves say this is an issue and we have to do something about it. Everyday people are the ones who are taking charge before it goes to a higher level.

Three potential problems in macro practice include not knowing where to start when trying to plan an intervention, not getting enough people to buy into whatever the intervention may be and not knowing how to solve the actual problem. After reading through some of the links some of these problems can easily be avoided with some effort from the community. First the people implementing the intervention should start off by getting to know the community and what is most important to them. Everybody in the community is important but it is almost impossible to get everybody involved so you should start off with key stakeholders who make important decisions in the community such as representatives and move your way down. The ideas come from the community and the persuasion starts with the key stake holders, does that make sense? GOOD

VMOSA is a good way for any group to set standards and know where to begin the intervention. VMOSA stands for Vision, Mission, Objectives, Strategies and Action Plans. This gives a basic foundation as to which direction you are trying to head in and what is expected in the near future. It gives you small steps that could be achieved in order to get to reach the big picture. This simple analysis can solve any issue and include everybody in the community if followed correctly. It reminds me of a SWOT analysis that we do for individuals.

The Power of #'s

Saul Alinsky was one of the first community organizers who was born in Chicago in 1909. He started many community organizations that challenged the rich white power. He knew that in order to change something you do not like you have to act not just pray. From studying the criminal organization of Al Capone he understood that all crime derived from poverty, in turn he grouped together unions and the church. This documentary is about how he began the push for ordinary people to group together and change anything that is not fair.

Alinsky knew that people in poverty outnumbered those with money, so it was power vs money which is hard BUT possible. He figured through his studies that change is possible with organizing the community to help each other reach a common goal. At the same time he knew it would cause some ruckus but that is only the beginning of change as long as it is planned out properly. He commented on how he wanted the unions, churches and politics all go in hand in hand in the community to make a difference.

"Somebody who goes off in a monastery and starts praying for the salvation of mankind and doesn't do a damn thing but sits there and prays, I think that when that guy comes up for judgement that the judge is going to sit there and say why you cruddy bastard"

"I tell people to hell with charity, the only thing you will get is what you are strong enough to get"

These stand out the most because it points towards the fact that no  matter what how much you speak about injustice, nothing will be done unless you go hands on with the work. We all know there is plenty of injustice in this world but are you willing to put up a fight to change it. I also love the fact that he says something about what he does will bring resistance but that is the first step to knowing you are making a difference. This documentary shows that macro practice is difficult but very possible and that through numbers anything can be done. At times you may not see the finished product as he did not but he took the first step towards making a HUGE difference and had a big ripple effect through time as we can see today.

Some History

Macro practice may be seen as early as the 1800s with most people that provided some kind of services seeming as though they had other ideas in mind such as recruiting. The reason I say this is because they seem mostly to be religious people who gave you things and prayed for you making it seem as though it was only for whatever religion they followed. After massive immigration industrialization and urbanization the growth of "poor, helpless people" only grew which was obvious that something needed to be done. 

Public Charities used early methods of approaches to make charity a more hands on approach to help people do better not to just give people what they need and make them needy. They did not want to have social Darwinism which "made" people dependent on the system. At this point taking the help was looked at as completely negative but we have made strides because of events like the Great Depression which most people relied on charity. It was not until 1898 that official Social Work classes were given at Columbia University.

There many programs here in the United States today that help people in need such as those that churches administer and those that are done by the government. A few that are implemented by the government are WIC which is food assistance, Section 8 which is help for housing and Social Security which may be gone soon.

Elizabeth Gurney Fry is one of the earliest people to be involved in social work practice. It is impressive not only because of the fact that she made strides for the whole jail/prison but she was a female at a time where we viewed women as much less. She started off by helping people in the community and taught poor kids at an early age and then eventually seen what prisoners had to deal with and made sure they made changes.





References

http://plato.bridgew.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_12662_1%26url%3d

http://plato.bridgew.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_12662_1%26url%3d

http://plato.bridgew.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_12662_1%26url%3d

Pre-Video