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By Donna Douglas and Stoney McCart |
"I want to work with people. To make the world a better place." It's a goal shared by many and jobs to meet the goal are as varied as the people in them. Literally hundreds of different kinds of jobs exist in the "helping people" industry.
In fact, in just about every industry, there is a working-for-people component. Every factory, for instance, has a plant nurse, a personnel department where people and their problems form the focus for work.
Every school has its working-for-people staff, those who counsel, who help direct, who focus their skills on the needs of others.
Telecare workers, teen counselors, social workers in group homes for the mentally handicapped, physically disabled, mentally ill; workers who focus on children through groups like children's aid societies; organizers who work for charities raising money to help the blind, heart and stroke victims, those with arthritis, lung disorders, cancer.
When you stop and think about it, working-for-people is a pretty broad spectrum on which to concentrate. Social workers can be found in government, in recreation centres, privately run counseling businesses, and increasingly in large industries.
Because the field is so broad, we decided to feature some really special jobs, with special people in them. If you have a penchant to help people and you love children, or old people, or the sick or disabled...there's a place for you.
For many in the social work profession, job pressure stems from funding. Provincial and federal health and social services ministries face budget constraints which they pass onto their regional entities, and that affects the job market at the bottom job-entry level. And, while that may seem like bleak news, schools of social work continue to graduate well-trained people who are gobbled up by eager agencies seeking to renew energy and commitment for their programs.
Increasingly too, social workers and counselors are setting up private practices, going into business for themselves. It's a whole new trend in the field.
On the following pages you'll meet four people, with very different educational backgrounds and very different hobs. Fran Le Brocq took training as a nurse at Toronto's Ryerson Polytechnical Institute, launched herself in the family-owned nursing home, and then decided she liked administration work well enough to spend years getting a BA in Psychology and Sociology while working in senior residences. Now she's studying Gerontology through university courses at night. For nine years she's been working all day, and studying at night.
Elizabeth Wood took her university degree in English, achieved a Masters degree, and then became a Primary Specialist, so she could teach kindergarten. Spurred on by a presentation by Unicef that she heard when she was a teenager, Wood involved herself in a third-world project for orphaned children, and today is designing educational material for North American children to close the gap of understanding between the have's and have-not's.
Susan Pigott started her helping career as a nurse, then studied social work, achieving her Masters degree and now works in social policy, an advocate for social programs to help those whom life has dealt an unlucky card.
David Morley spends a good portion of his working year in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Costa Rica, with fluent Spanish winning him many successes. Back in Canada, he runs around the country with his hand out as he raises money to fund the self-help orphan projects for these struggling countries.
Commitment. Ideology. A soul with room for giving. The ability to live on less than others do. They're all character traits of people who've chosen social work as their careers. Nobody gets a lot of money for helping other people. But the people TG interviewed for these sections bring to their lives and the lives of others, a tremendous wealth of spirit.
Training for these kinds of jobs is as varied as the people. Some build their careers strictly on volunteer work...candy stripers in hospitals, peer counselors at school, telephone counselors on talk lines, volunteer hours at crisis centres. Others take more formal education, studying to be: health care, activation coordinator, registered nursing assistant, developmental service worker or mental retardation counselor through community college programs. Others take social work degrees at university and still others take business administration and educational components to equip them to compete for funding and plan strategies for corporate appeals.
There's no one perfect route. You can get involved in social work right now, by canvassing for a charity drive, by working at a local rec. centre, by becoming a Big Brother or Sister, by generally exploring your people skills and checking out the scores of programs available in your region. Volunteer positions are the best entry into paying jobs.
A good place to explore is through local churches, through the information desk at your local library, by checking the phone book for agencies that are of a helping nature, by spending a day with a social worker from your local children's aid. Meals on Wheels volunteers, United Way events, winning programs with other communities, outreach projects through Girl Guides, Scouts, churches, service club exchanges...it's endless. Those who've jumped on board say the ride's terrific!
©1999 TG Magazine/Le Magazine TG
tgmag@tgmag.ca