Social workers refocus

NEW YORK

Against the backdrop of the economic meltdown, a movement is building within the ranks of America’s social workers to make their profession more adept at helping clients overcome financial woes.

Since they emerged on the scene in the late 19th century, social workers traditionally have sought to improve the lot of the poor.

But in the contemporary era of rampant foreclosures, credit card debt and ever-evolving scams that prey on the economically vulnerable, few social-work schools offer specialized financial training to their students, leaving them collectively unprepared.

Change is under way, however.

• The University of Maryland’s School of Social Work recently embraced the concept of “financial social work,” offering workshops and mini-courses for students and for people already working in the field. Professor Dick Cook, who runs the school’s outreach service in Baltimore, said a primary goal is to help clients think more broadly about how to build assets.

• In St. Louis, social-work professors have organized a “think tank” to brainstorm on how social-work schools can better prepare their students to assist clients with financial decisions.

• In Asheville, N.C., social worker Reeta Wolfsohn is offering an online certificate course in financial social work that has extended into 20 states. The Social Services Department in North Carolina’s Wilson County last fall hired a “financial coach” who had taken Ms. Wolfsohn’s course.

“Before, we’d do a two-hour training session for clients and pat ourselves on the back,” said Wilson County’s self-sufficiency program manager, Susan Parker. “But we were just giving them information. No one was helping them one-on-one to change behavior.”

The new approach “is not about providing safety nets to families,” she said. “It’s about teaching them to be their own safety net.”

Among the beneficiaries is Sharon Mercer, 41, a single mother of nine children ranging in age from 4 to 17. She was jobless, destitute and reluctant to turn to the county for help out of fear that her children would be taken from her, but the response surprised her.

“It wasn’t about just giving me a check. It was about building my confidence,” she said in a telephone interview. “I said, ‘No, I can’t.’ They said, ‘Yes, you can.’”

Miss Mercer was urged to take a volunteer job at first, embraced it, and subsequently has progressed to a full-time, paid job with Wilson County’s maintenance department.

“The most important thing for her was having someone there on a consistent basis, holding her accountable,” said Frances Hendricks, the recently hired financial coach. “We’re trying to get to the root of people’s behaviors, get them to see why they’re spending the way they’re spending.”

A key part of the new approach is convincing clients to talk candidly about sensitive, embarrassing aspects of their financial problems.

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