1 post tagged “graduating”

 i'm graduating. this is what i want to do with my life.

Critical Social Work, for me, is about the journey of resistance and struggling against oppression and for equality in creative ways. In the area of homelessness and housing,  I hope it takes the form of subverting policies through protest, creatively working with service users for their benefit and providing real options for housing. i still have many unanswered questions about practicing within oppressive systems (under-resourced housing, flaws of the mental health system, etc) and under seemingly impenetrable policies that work against homeless people. my journey will continue, as each new day presents something: a statement, an image or a practice that is politically loaded, challenging and open for critique. 

 despite my 'knowledge', i often feel inadequate & that I still know nothing about homelessness. but this is a good thing; a  ‘not-knowing stance’ is helpful to critical housing work--- I don’t have any lived experience about homelessness. my service users will be the experts in this field.  I don't know where I will be in five years. I am not sure what kind of job I really want, but do see myself working with homelessness in an anti-oppressive way. at this point, I find it very difficult to see myself working on a clinical level or under the biomedical model, even in resistance through working within and against the system. I am open to the future but see myself working on a community level, perhaps also on a policy development level or in an advocacy role. I am very excited to practice critical social work in creative, subversive and new ways in diverse contexts (political & otherwise). I look forward to subverting oppressive policies; through finding holes that can benefit service users in an increasingly neoliberal, economic rationalist environment.