Social Change

As you may recall from Week 1 of this course, the purpose of interviewing in the human services profession is to gather information from interviewees about their perceptions, situations, strengths, and struggles. This information is instrumental to human services because it provides insight into individuals’ needs and challenges, and it allows professionals to determine the most appropriate resources and strategies for assistance. Also, the information gathered through interviews can be a valuable tool in creating social change. You might ask how helping individuals can affect societal change. In this Discussion, you will explore the connection between human services interviewing and social change. You also will consider how the skills and effective interviewing strategies you have studied in this course might contribute to your role as an agent of social change.    

 -Review the information in the articles “Putting the System Back into Systems Change” and “What Changes MSW Students’ View on the Mission of Social Work?” found in the Learning Resources for this week. Focus on the explanation of systems thinking and the motivations of those in the human services profession for pursuing this line of work. Consider how you, as a human services professional, could help create social change through your interactions with others.

-Reflect on how you could use interviewing skills in promoting social change.      

– Post a description of two effective interviewing skills or strategies about which you learned in this course. Then explain how each skill or strategy will allow you to be more effective in your work as a human services professional. Finally, explain the role of interviewing skills in promoting social change. Be specific in your response and provide examples.

REFERENCES      

Foster-Fishman, P. G., Nowell, B., & Yang, H. (2007). Putting the system back into systems change: a framework for understanding and changing organizational and community systems. American Journal of Community Psychology, 39(3–4), 197–215.        

Han, M., & Chow, J. C.-C. (2010). What Changes MSW Students’ View on the Mission of Social Work? Social Work Education, 29(2), 205–221. https://doi-org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.1080/02615470902912227. For more information on Social Change check on this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_change