Stomping Ground Skills in the “Real World”
“Social justice is love applied to systems, policies, and cultures.” - Bernice King
As a part of my graduate program, I am required to do two different field placements. For my first year, I am working as a case manager at a local refugee outreach center. This means I work with clients for a variety of reasons. They may need assistance accessing social services, contacting their landlord with a housing issue, or wondering how to sign their kids up for school. Each day is different and exciting.
While this work is entirely different than the work I did with camp, I am noticing all of the skills I learned as a camp director to make me a better case manager. Specifically, working at Stomping Ground has taught me the importance of partnering with those we hope to serve, rather than doing the work for them or assuming we know what is best for them.
In my past few weeks there, we have had many families come in who are looking to change the names of their children on their birth certificates. In most cases, the child’s middle name and last name is incorrect and they need it to be switched. This is due to the language and cultural barrier that exists at the hospital when they try to complete their birth certificate paperwork. I heard from other case managers that this is an issue refugee families in the community have been facing for a long time.
Problem Solving Using Community Thinking
Now, I could go into all of the consequences and work an individual has to do after the fact of having a baby to make a name change, but I’m sure you already know how important our names are and how difficult it is to get anywhere with inaccurate identification. AND on top of that have very little time to do all the things it takes to raise a child or multiple children…
Once hearing that this is a problem so many are facing, I reached out to one of the administrators at the local hospital. I told her about the issues we are seeing and asked if she would be willing to meet with me so I can learn more about the process that takes place in the hospital, and the services that may or may not be available to refugee families. (BOOM. SG TIP: Want to get to the bottom of an issue or a barrier someone is facing? Go directly to the source. Community thinking.)
I was able to get 30 minutes of her time this morning to learn more. The conversation started out a bit tense. I think she assumed that I was going to complain and blame her for the incorrect paperwork when really I was just looking to learn more to be able to better support my clients. I explained to her that my intention was not to be harsh or rude, rather that I believed if we both heard from each other a little bit more about the work we both do we could build a relationship and better understanding of one another. More importantly, we could both help each other out and therefore better serve our community members.
Radical Empathy in Action
From there on out, the conversation was a lot more productive. I asked her to share with me what happens for a parent in the hospital postpartum to better understand the paperwork process. After hearing about this process, I expressed some of the different needs our families will require due to language barriers and cultural differences. Many of these included the different ways other cultures name their children as it is vastly different from American culture. I also was incredibly grateful to have another staff member on the call who does a ton of work in the refugee community, and better understands their experiences on a first hand basis.
After the call, I debriefed with my supervisor. She congratulated me for my work and we talked a lot about how we were able to have a more effective conversation once we let our walls down and build some understanding for one another. So often in our culture, we feel the need to argue our job is harder than another person’s, and therefore become defensive of our work and worried about anyone critiquing it or assuming they know better. This conversation proved to me that if we can both more authentically share where we are coming from, we can all do a better job at our respective workplaces and better serve the communities we intend to.
Social Work Skills Are Camp Skills!
So much of my thinking around this approach has come directly from my work with Stomping Ground and the partnerships we have in different communities. When it comes to an issue a person might be facing, it is not our job to criticize the person or question their ability, but rather the system in place that is not working for them. Working for Stomping Ground has taught me how to think systems-oriented, rather than assuming an individual is at fault or solely responsible for their individual circumstance. When a camper or staff member may have trouble adjusting to our community it is not our job to tell them they don’t fit in, rather, critically analyze our systems to consider how we may be more inclusive of their needs and comfort. It is vital to include said campers and staff in this conversation. I am grateful Stomping Ground proved to me this can be one of the most effective ways to build inclusive and empathetic communities. In my role as a case manager, I knew it was not only important for me to find the person with power at the hospital capable of making a change but also include my clients in the conversation to determine how to best advocate on their behalf. From there, we all partnered together to have this conversation and better support one another. This is how we build restorative, empathetic communities.
I believe these brief conversations we have with others have the power to make huge impact. Not only is it important to advocate on behalf of others, but also go out of our way to connect with others who can help us in those efforts and make an even BIGGER impact. Stomping Ground fosters a space for community members to see the impact these types of conversations can have and know that their actions have power. I am grateful to come from a community that values these types of interactions and know that I will fall on my “Stomping ground skills” a million more times as I pursue the field of social work.
