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Meet Grace Kozak, Alliance Summer MSW Intern

Grace Kozak is a Master of Social Work student at the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA, studying community organizing and community social services with a certificate in global social work. She has spent the last three months working with the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance in fulfillment of her internationally-focused internship.

International Internship Placement

During her time with the Alliance, Kozak has participated in a wide spectrum of activities. She was able to attend and participate in the Alliance’s in-person Steering Committee meeting, the second annual Global Social Service Workforce Annual Symposium, and the National Association of Child Care Workers biennial conference in Cape Town, South Africa. While in South Africa, Kozak also visited the Isibindi project, learning first-hand about South Africa’s response to the AIDs crisis in the context of child care.

She has also focused much of her time on developing an evidence matrix for the Alliance’s Building Evidence Interest Group. The interest group was created to build a body of evidence to support workforce strengthening and monitor the impact of workforce strengthening efforts. The matrix is designed to be a systematic literature review to highlight gaps in research of the social service workforce, with these gaps revealing where more analysis is needed to better plan, develop, and support the workforce. This was Kozak’s first experience with a literature review and she found it to be a good challenge, “I was able to learn new skills while working on the matrix,” she said. “I worked with the University of Michigan social work librarian to make a research plan. I learned more about how to conduct comprehensive searches and how to filter through a lot of information to find what is needed.”

Kozak has also found ways to incorporate her other interests into this field placement. “I’m interested in human trafficking and social work, and so I was able to write a short post about these topics for World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.” Kozak is also passionate about social policy and advocacy, and she met with Dina Kastner, senior field organizer for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) to discuss NASW’s current advocacy efforts.

Interest in Global Social Work

Kozak, who will graduate in December 2015, also has her Bachelor of Social Work degree from Ball State University in Indiana. There, she had the opportunity to undertake three social work internships. The first was with Enslavement Prevention Alliance- West Africa (EPAWA), an anti-trafficking organization where she spent a semester while studying abroad in Accra, Ghana. She cites this experience as the catalyst that got her thinking about her role within global social work.

“When I was at EPAWA, I realized that I wasn’t interested in direct service provision for my career. Global social work was still appealing to me, but I was becoming more interested in community-level work and cross cultural collaboration to help solve social problems.”

Kozak’s interest in global social work brought her to the University of Michigan School of Social Work’s Global Activities Scholar Program, which is an opportunity for students who want to work with communities and organizations in a global context. In addition to globally-focused courses, students complete one international field placement. “I wanted a placement that would give me exposure to global social work in a way that emphasized cross-national and cultural collaboration. The Alliance was a perfect fit for me.”

While Kozak is still interested in global social work, her interest in policy advocacy and political organizing has grown. She hopes one day to merge these two passions.

Future Plans

“I’ll be graduating in December, and having this internship has made me more confident in the direction I want to go with my career. I’m still passionate about the potential social work has to make a global impact, and seeing the way the Alliance helps to facilitate this impact has made me hopeful about the future of global social work.”

Ms. Kozak will be leaving the Alliance on August 10 to return to Michigan for her final semester. After graduation, she hopes to work in community-level organizing in East Lansing, Michigan.

 “My dream has always been to work with children,” said Siphiwe Sikhasa, between playing at the soccer field at the Safe Park in Grabouw, South Africa. Just 45 minutes outside of cosmopolitan Cape Town, the small town with dirt roads looks like a world away.

Sikhasa is a coordinator of the Safe Park, a space where children of all ages can safely play, receive homework help, discuss issues burdening young minds, learn valuable skills and oftentimes receive a hot meal. His passion for helping children is apparent as he runs the field and freely gives hugs and high fives. On this particular overcast, drizzling June winter day, there are approximately 20 children playing soccer and 110 children at the Safe Park. Most days there are nearly 200 children.

The Safe Parks are a component of the 309 Isibindi programs established in 161 communities throughout South Africa by the National Association of Child Care Workers (NACCW). Meaning “courage” in IsiZulu, Isibindi is serving more than 200,000 vulnerable children nationwide, including those who are living in grandparent-headed households; child-headed households; have a disability, HIV/AIDS or other disease; are caring for ailing family members; are victims of abuse; face struggles at school or home; or are affected by a number of other factors that could lead to unsafe situations.

In addition to working at the Safe Park, Sikhasa and other trained and supervised Child and Youth Care Workers (CYCWs) continue to help families in their immediate communities by going door-to-door to assess needs and offer support to those who need it. Each worker aids up to 48 children, monitoring a child’s progress, acting as their confidant and providing support in various areas as needed in a child’s life. CYCWs build relationships with children through interaction in typical daily routines- cooking together, reading, household chores and life skills.

The Nghonyama* family is one of the thousands visited an average of 3-5 times a week by a CYCW. Since 2011, Edwina is the CYCW who has been working with the family’s five children, currently ages 5-17, and the grandmother caring for the children. Three of the children lost both parents to AIDS, one child was abused by his step-father and one was abandoned by her parents. In all cases, Granny Nghonyama stepped in. Some are her biological grandchildren, some she calls her grandchildren. “It doesn’t matter whose child it is, I just have a deep love for children.” Budgeting, homework and overcoming the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS haven’t been easy for this blended family, but have been made easier with the help of Edwina. She has helped to link the family with additional services, including a social worker and government subsidies.

Isibindi is in the second year of a five-year scale up and is being funded by PEPFAR through USAID. With a goal of training 10,000 CYCWs, to date 4,402 CYCWs have been trained.

The Isibindi model has helped formalize child and youth care work as a profession. The program trains unemployed people selected by their communities in a child and youth care accredited training program. Two universities in South Africa now offer a CYCW degree and more than 6,000 workers have been formally registered with the South African Council for Social Service Professions under a new statutory regulation championed by the NACCW.

The Para Professional Interest Group of the Global Social Service Workforce Alliance has drawn from the expertise of NACCW and many others to develop a competency framework for para professionals that includes a section on functions and competencies specific to auxiliary child and youth care workers. The framework is being tested and a first edition will be released later this year. The competencies build upon the Alliance’s global efforts to help plan, develop and support all levels of workers who make up the social service workforce.

In South Africa, the program has been embraced by the government as a best-practice model. Several other countries have recently expressed interest in developing new cadres of CYCWs and are receiving support from NACCW to do so. Ministers from the county government of Kisumu, one of 47 county governments in Kenya, recently visited the Grabouw Safe Park and met families benefiting from the support of CYCWs. “We have engaged the South African network to advise us and help us launch the Safe Park model. I want to…learn how to implement this program,” said Jennipher Atieno Kere, Executive Member for Education, Youth, Culture, Gender and Sports. The Safe Park model is also being replicated within South Africa by more than 20 other organizations and in Zambia.

“While the NACCW developed this program, we’re happy to share it with the world. These child and youth care workers are impacting one life, one family and one community at time, leading to real change here in South Africa, and eventually around the world,” said Zenuella Thumbadoo, Deputy Director, NACCW.

As Sikhasa continues to develop his skills as a CYCW, he prides himself on being a positive male role model to the young lives he influences. “I have younger siblings who have always looked up to me, and I want to continue to be a model for them, and all kids.”

(*names changed to protect the identity of the family)

“The social service workforce plays a critical role in our [UNAIDS] mission of zero new HIV infections, zero AIDS-related deaths and zero AIDS-related stigma and discrimination,” said David Chipanta, Senior Advisor Social Protection, UNAIDS, during his opening remarks of the “World Social Work Day Webinar: Celebrating Success in Social Service Workforce Strengthening.

The Global Social Service Workforce Alliance hosted the webinar with PEPFAR, USAID and UNAIDs, and it’s the 19^th webinar in a series in collaboration with IntraHealth International and the 4Children Project. Presenters from USAID Ethiopia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe shared key factors and best practices from their experiences of strengthening the social service workforce and improving outcomes of HIV-affected children and families. The three presenters shared their approaches for increasing training, building collaboration with the government and other organizations, and improving HIV treatment access and adherence through development of the social service workforce. Participants of the webinar were from a range of organizations around the world. A recording and summary of the webinar is available on the Alliance’s website.

The webinar was one of many activities taking place globally in celebration of the 2015 World Social Work Day on March 17. Participants from around the world attended conferences, joined webinars, shared messages via social media and held advocacy events with local governments. The day was an occasion to share the 2015 theme: ‘Promoting the Dignity and Worth of Peoples,’ which relates to the second pillar of the Global Agenda for Social Work and Social Development. The theme focuses on the joint work of The International Federation of Social Workers, The International Association of Schools of Social Work and The International Council on Social Welfare.

In Geneva, UNAIDS hosted a conference to join UNAIDS with social work organizations in an effort to achieve the goal zero AIDS by 2030. “Ending AIDS, Promoting Dignity and Respect for All” celebrated the achievements thus far and further explored methods for collaborating on inclusion of vulnerable, marginalized and excluded populations.

“People living with HIV and people most affected by HIV have multiple and often intractable needs that no one sector can provide effectively. The social work profession and social protection programmes connect people to services and make services work for people,” said Mariângela Simão, Director, Rights, Gender, Prevention and Community Mobilization, UNAIDS.

More than 110 attendees gathered in Geneva and participated via the live webcast. A summary of the event is available on UNAIDs website. PEPFAR has also launched a webpage about the social service workforce.

In Washington, D.C., students, academia, organizations and social workers came together for an event titled "Engaging Congress in the Pursuit of Social Justice." Sponsored by the National Association of Social Work (U.S.) and the U.S. Social Work Congressional Caucus and the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy, the event was held to advocate to the U.S. government in support of a current proposed law in support of social workers.

In Bujumbura, Burundi, students from across the country gathered for a conference hosted by the Social Work and Community Department of Hope Africa University.

Additional news from the 2015 World Social Work Day can be found at #socialworkday.

By Amy Bess, Global Social Service Workforce Alliance, and Alex Collins, IntraHealth International

Social Impacts of Ebola on West Africa becoming more evident

The number of confirmed cases of Ebola is quickly climbing past 6,200. On September 20, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon launched the historic U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER), underscoring how a comprehensive, multisectoral response will be ever more critical as Ebola’s far-reaching health, security, political, economic, and social impacts on West Africa become more evident.

For every person infected, many others are affected—family members lose loved ones, children lose their parents, students lose teachers, employers lose key staff and scores of responders have witnessed extreme suffering and work in exceedingly stressful environments.

Who is addressing the social impacts of Ebola?

Fortunately, skilled social service workers are helping prevent the spread of the disease and addressing its wide-ranging social impacts.

Social service workers are those who contribute to the care, support, promotion of rights, and empowerment of vulnerable populations. All functional levels of this workforce have vital roles to play in West Africa’s Ebola response, including:

•  Those who provide direct care and services to children and families, such as social workers, para-social workers, community caregivers, child and youth care workers, and child protection committee members
• Those who mobilize communities, organizations, or groups, and facilitate connections between government systems of care and community-based systems of care, such as community development officers, child protection officers, and district social welfare workers
• Those who engage at a more macro level, setting policies, standards, and guidelines and carrying out research and evaluation. This includes positions such as directors of children’s affairs, ministers of social welfare, professional association leaders and university staff.

Importance of the social service workforce in awareness raising and child protection

Social service workers are trained community mobilizers and trusted community members. They help to build awareness and combat myths about Ebola in an intense environment of fear and stigma. They recognize that stigma further isolates people and blocks access to care and support, which in turn contributes to the continued spread of the disease.

For example, social workers from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare and nongovernmental organization staff in Liberia have been trained by the International Committee of the Red Crossand are carrying out awareness-raising and sensitization campaigns in communities, marketplaces, and homes. Others are organizing educational dramas, carrying out home visits, and staffing hotlines with responders trained in psychosocial support.

In Sierra Leone, Social Workers Sierra Leone is working among homeless youth in Freetown, a population not included in the government’s home-to-home Ebola education campaign during the country’s three-day lockdown. They also visited other marginalized communities that would otherwise not receive basic care and information.

And in neighboring Guinea, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is working with the Red Cross Society of Guinea, the Ministry of Health, World Health Organization, and Medecins Sans Frontiers to manage the epidemic, raise community awareness, and provide psychosocial support to affected families.

Social service workers also help to ensure that children made vulnerable by Ebola are protected from further harm. According to UNICEF, when parents die of Ebola, their children are sometimes found roaming the streets without parental care, proper shelter, health care, or nutrition. This can be a result of stigma and rejection, as the children are seen in their communities as sources of infection. Typical systems of care are interrupted and those who would typically take children in refuse to care for them due to fear of contamination.

Social service workers are part of a rapid child protection response including identification of and care for separated and unaccompanied children, family tracing and reunification. UNICEF is also supporting alternative forms of care such as safe or half-way homes staffed by social service workers. Community mobilization and sensitization campaigns also serve an important role in preventing family separation.

Social service workers charged with addressing mental health and psychosocial support

Ebola brings with it not only physical suffering for those infected, but also feelings of panic, shock, loss, grief, shame, suspicion, and anger to both victims and survivors. Increased challenges and stressors faced during such an emergency--such as food insecurity, loss of family income, interruptions in schooling and access to health care—make matters worse.

Mental health and psychosocial support have long been key components of coordinated emergency response. For example, the Inter Agency Standing Committee Guidelines on Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) in Emergency Settings, were developed in 2007 to establish a set of minimum multisectoral responses to protect, support, and improve mental health and psychosocial wellbeing in the midst of emergencies.

To assist social service workers responding to the Ebola crisis, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ briefing note on Psychosocial support during an outbreak of Ebola virus disease provides targeted information on psychosocial issues related to Ebola, key messages, and recommendations for providing psychosocial support. And the World Health Organization has adapted a handbook on psychosocial first aid to focus on the Ebola crisis.

In Liberia, UNICEF is sending mental health specialists to Ebola treatment units and holding centers to provide psychosocial support to patients and their families.

Specially trained social service workers help Ebola responders—including health workers, body removal teams, volunteers, and government and NGO staff—manage stress, self-care, grief, and loss.

The unsung heroes of the Ebola epidemic

Social service workers are some of the unsung heroes of the Ebola epidemic. They work around the clock to help prevent the spread of the disease and address its widespread social consequences. As more and more countries commit the support of their trained health professionals to treat an increasing number of patients, so too must we recognize the importance of social service workers and the many roles they are playing—from raising community awareness to providing social support to patients and survivors—in the midst of this epidemic.