Contemplating My Childhood Dreams
Contemplating back on my childhood life, I always had great thoughts. I would imagine being a lawyer, a doctor, a nurse, or even become the first female president of America. But, I have not ever deliberated a career in social work. I have realized over the years that I love helping people. However, my views on what I wanted to become when I grew up were dissimilar. In my first year of high school, I remember my counselor had me do a survey to determine the career that would interest me. From there, I found out that the most common choices were teaching, nursing or even becoming a social worker. After observing what my community goes through due to low-income and cheap childcare, I decided to settle for social work to help them in enhancing their collective and individual well-being.
Choosing Social Work as a Career
Currently, I am joining college to take a degree in Social work. As mentioned above, I have been stimulated to take this field of becoming a social worker to help the lives and the well-being of my community. From interacting with other social workers, I have come to realize that social working has many dimensions such as case managers, administrative positions, and even clinical social workers in hospital settings. So what are the issues or challenges that have driven me into picking this course?
Understanding the Challenges of Low-Income Communities
I come from a poor background, and I have experienced some of the challenges that poor people face in their daily lives. Many families lack the income to sustain their families, go to school or even provide proper childcare to their children. Over the past few years, I have come to realize that our poor community lacks the help of a social worker to help them in their social lives. I believe knowledge and guidance are the most important things that someone can have compared to money. Without these two things, it is hard for one to progress in life and become successful. For example, Leon Sykes is a 34-year-old father who has enrolled for classes in high school at Academy of Hope, which is an adult public charter school in Washington. Sykes has eight children and still works two jobs, and above this, he still drives for Lyft and Uber. Although Sykes is relieved from specific tasks like picking up his kids from school, he says that sometimes he has to decide to pick between taking classes and sustaining his family. Sykes has realized the importance of gaining knowledge, but although this is a good idea, he still faces challenges on balancing between his classes and sustaining his family.
The Need for Childcare Services
The issue arises when low-income parents participate in training and education courses. This creates a need for childcare services.
