Essay Example on Advancing Equity in Austin: Working With the City's Equity Office

Introduction

For the last few days, I have been working with the equity departments at The City of Austin's Equity Office that provides all the requisite information for leadership, guidance, and data of the equity among people despite their social, political or financial status. The main aim of the enterprise is to ensure that people acquire all the knowledge that is requisite in enhancing equity among the people in society. During this week, I had an opportunity to interact with different people in Austin city and interact with people of different social settings (Zastrow 2016). Racism being major malpractice in the town was a significant thing that wanted to address among the people and make them understand that all people are the same regardless of their color.

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One most important thing I liked about The City of Austin's Equity Office is that there is collaboration among all the workers, and they are usually ready to support one another in all the undertakings. Therefore, when we started the fieldwork, it was easy to interact with people, share ideas, and also get the relevant information from them (Zastrow 2016). For instance, I realized that there was a lot of discrimination among the people depending on their races. Some of the whites believed that the people of color were inferior and did not have the required knowledge in most of their undertakings like the whites.

Significant Experiences

One of my best experiences during the internship is the way we collaborated with other staffs in spreading the knowledge on the importance of togetherness in Austin. There were more than 100 local government jurisdictions, and we interacted with everyone to ensure that people understand the importance of avoiding racism in our societies (Zastrow 2016). Different people either political leaders, industrial leaders and religious leaders came together, and it made me realize that ensuring there is equity among the people in a critical practice in the society since that is what brings togetherness and working towards the objectives of the community. As such, I learned that it is not

Generalist Approach: Integrating Functions

Presenting Problems

Austin is a city made up of different races and people with different social and political status. Racism was not a prevalent undertaking, but there were complaints of people that there was racial discrimination in various sectors in the city (Zastrow 2016). Even though some people believed that there was no need for addressing the issue, I think that it was essential to ensure that people were taught the importance of being together.

Pre-engagement

When we went to the city, we realized that there were many problems which needed to be addressed and people never thought that there were such problems in the city. For instance, some people believed that some groups were inferior, and they needed to be discriminated (Zastrow 2016). However, we ensured that all people realized their worth and thought that they were essential and equal to each other.

Engagement

We brought people together regardless of the colors and differences and made them believe that they are equal, and they have similar opportunities in society. In most instances, the city was inhabited by whites and a few blacks who thought that they did not enjoy the autonomy of the town (Zastrow 2016). As such, they needed to be informed that they are all equal, and no one should despise the other one.

Assessment

We accessed different people in the city to identify their beliefs concerning different races. The few adults who had stayed in the town for a short period indicated that they believed that racism is a common malpractice that cannot end among the people (Zastrow 2016). People have divided themselves, and there is a class which believes that it is better than the other.

Evaluation

The City of Austin's Equity Office is working significantly to ensure that people understand that they do not have any differences even though they are different in colors. The governmental and nongovernmental organizations have tried all their best to ensure that people understand these vices, and they try their best to eradicate them in society (Zastrow 2016). I believe that if other people like me also try their best in educating people, it can bring a lot of impact on their lives and their perceptions concerning other people.

Termination

After working on an internship at The City of Austin's Equity Office, I believe that people have changed over the period since they have acquired all the relevant knowledge concerning racism and discrimination of people in the society (Zastrow 2016). Lately, I heard people say that changes are inevitable since people seemed to understand everything that was taught and implement it in their daily practices.

General System Theory

Austin city indicates that we should castigate racism in the world. Bringing people together was another aspect that I learned during the internship. People may come from different backgrounds that may bring differences, but when leaders and other influential individuals talk to them, it becomes easy for them to come together and avoid the racism malpractice. I also realized that even though I did not have all the needed experience, I still could bring a lot of influence on society (Zastrow 2016). Therefore, any person has a lot of impact in the community regardless of the role he or she plays. People can listen to him or her as long as he or she wants to bring something positive for society. In essence, I learned that the vice of racism could be eradicated in society if all people and leaders come together and ensure that they establish objectives that critical for the abolishment of such practice.

Social Work Functions

The people of color on the other side believed that the whites were inferior and they did not have to share most of the aspects they shared since they thought that they were not people of the same class. However, with my group, we ensured that we brought all the people together and told them that they are all the same and race does not determine the intelligent quotient of an individual or how a person behaves (Zastrow 2016). Therefore, all of them need to stay in harmony and support one another in all their undertakings.

Problem Solving Step

The people of Austin did not live the best of their lives due to the differences they exhibited. All these were brought by the fallacy where people believed that there were differences among the people and it was brought by color. During the internship, the equity office had partnered with the national networks such as the Government Alliance on Race and Equity to ensure that all people understand the importance of togetherness and why they should avoid any discrimination since it interferes with their daily undertakings (Zastrow 2016). As such, the dominant strategy to bring people together would be to enlighten them the importance of staying in harmony in society.

Reference

Zastrow, Charles H. (2016). Generalist Social Work Practice: A Worktext. (Sixth Ed.). Chicago, IL: Lyceum Books, Inc.