My final blog

     Coming in to this course, I was very nervous. It wasn’t like anything I had ever done before. In college, we had a lot of theory class yes, but we had more hands on stuff (role-plays, labs, presentation etc.). We learned about the policies that affect the type of clients I was studying to work with, children. Taking this BSW course was to expand the type of clients I could work with and for my own personal knowledge. Right away at the beginning of this course, I understood that it was going to provide me with a good basis to understand the WHY AND HOW of many of the things I had learned in college. For me, the main thing I have taken with me at this end of the course is that the people have the answers. We are able to apply what we learned to issues going on in the world and make a difference. This has been shown to me in three ways; class learning material, blog & presentations, and classroom discussions.     

The readings in the book and classroom discussions really helped me to look into the past regarding the social welfare programs we have now like employment insurance, child tax benefit and social assistance. I have acquired an understanding of where these programs came from and why they were development. In addition, I am able to comprehend the purpose of the programs. Moreover, gaps in our system also became more apparent to me, helping me to see places that I may need to advocate for my future clients such as lack of affordable housing or not fitting a certain criteria for funding assistance. I can see how social policies affect so much of these things we can do as social workers. Something else made clearer to me because of readings and classroom slides were the vast ideologies that are used to implement many of our policies.  I always knew what the political parties were but never understand what they really stood for or represented. I now understand. I have a clearer grasp on how each party affects us in the ways we live our daily lives. I am not proud to say that I have never voted before. At first, it was just because I was never sent that little card in the mail and I made excused, but I never really understood anything about it or had a position. I can now say that I know where I would like to place my vote, and this course did that for me. 

Secondly, the blogs and presentations were amazing. I learned so much about different groups of people. Everyone did such a great job of researching relevant topics to each group and taught me so many new things. I had no idea some of the struggles individuals in each group went through. Again, this really opened up my eyes to many gaps we have in our society. As advance as we think we are here in Canada, in some ways, we have fallen way behind.  I was shocked to find out some issues still going on with our LGBT community. I couldn’t believe the post about gay men not being able to donate blood. Similarly, I always knew immigrants and refugees coming into Canada had struggles but I had no idea that Canada had a bill that allowed for these families to be separated until the family could be cleared. These are just two of the many things I have learned over reading the blogs of my colleagues. I have enjoyed looking over them and even having the ability to add my own comments on it.  My own personal blog encouraged me to dig deeper into a society that I felt comfortable that I knew lots about. At first, picking this topic seemed to be an easy one. We are northern Canadians right. We must have a good idea about the issues going on here. However, I was wrong. I think we had a good basis but there was so much more to discover. Over the past year I saw those Ontario Northland is not for sale signs everywhere. I had an idea of what they were about but didn’t really think much of it to be honest. After researching the topic and blogging about it, I found myself being an advocate for this. I truly believed in what I was writing and shared it with whoever would listen. We were really close to the subject matter in our blog and I feel good about the fact that we, as a group, we able to educate the class in some of the issues we see going on. 

The classroom discussions are the last thing I would like to mention as a learning experience for me. I always enjoy listening to teachers who have a lot of experience in the material they are presenting. However, the best part is always when you can learn from the students in your class. Some of us are working in the field already, are knowledgeable about a certain culture or even part of a particular culture or have even experienced some of the things we discussed in class. Our classroom had a great learning environment that allowed free discussion were people felt safe to disclosed information for the learning of our classmates. I loved that part of the class. I really enjoyed hearing all the stories of the people in the field and people who shared experiences of their cultures. This is something that really stood out for my in this class. 

Overall, this class had provided me with many different learning experiences that I am grateful more. Mostly though, it has shown me that we have the answers. Who better to solve the problem of the people, than the people themselves? 

     Angele, Timmins