Social Change, Leadership, And Advocacy
Level: Doctoral
Sociology - Human Services
There are three concepts related to the counselling profession and those professions related to human services. These concepts deal with the matters of social change, leadership, and advocacy. Social change is very much to do with addressing the unfairness of living in a society, but is not limited to injustice alone. Leadership is about being the person to facilitate change both in a social as well as professional capacity, whilst advocacy supports and promotes these changes.
As human services professionals, educators and counsellors, it is important to understand these concepts fully and build an awareness of how they are different, but also how they are alike. Leadership is about guiding decision making and creating a supportive environment in which people can discuss social issues in a constructive and managed way[footnoteRef:1]. Discussion should be promoted and given direction so that it remains relevant and purposeful. Discussion should be strategized so that it is geared towards a positive outcome and remains meaningful. Leadership is about support, guidance, and respect. A leader should be considered to be a person...
In this way they will be able to encourage others to think about changes and implement them successfully. [1: http://www.revenuejournal.com/2010/01/top_10_characteristics_of_an_e.php]
A leader should be prepared to listen, to be subservient at times and be seen to take advice[footnoteRef:2]. They must be able to make decisions and to inform others about their decisions. Communication is a key trait for a successful and effective leader in whatever role, but it is especially important in the role of a counsellor. Lots of different issues may be encountered as a counsellor or an educator when trying to lead. Strong characters that have their own agendas may attempt to redirect discussion or inhibit change. Other external constraints can also impact the effectiveness of leadership, such as finances, the imposition of new guidelines and/or a group's resistance to new ideas, changes or developments. Being able to effectively manage all of these is a challenge in itself. [2: http://www.revenuejournal.com/2010/01/top_10_characteristics_of_an_e.php]
Advocacy has a strong role to play in the ability to counsel or lead. Providing a forum where people can…
Social Change, Leadership, And Advocacy Applied The objective of this work is to identify at least one professional or societal problem or issue that concerns you and that would benefit from social change, leadership, and advocacy and explain why it is worthy of such efforts. This work will describe a manageable social change, leadership or advocacy goal related to the issue of domestic violence. This work will explain how and why
Social Justice Improving social justice for women has been identified as one of the building blocks of social change. Population control, education, and the eradication of domestic violence are all interlinked. "UNICEF estimates that worldwide, some 117 million school-aged children do not attend school, 62 million of them girls. Attendance rates are lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, where only 57% of girls are in school, and just 15% of these go on
Social equity is a key issue of public administration and forms the basic theme of the 2013 "Social Equity Leadership Conference," in June. This white paper discusses the key goals of the conference based on the conference issue for social equity as global engagement and local responsibility. These are the issue facing social equity among domestic and global public leaders in public and private agencies in the education, immigration,
Advocacy From the Margins: Identifying Opportunities to Facilitate Social Services Delivery to the Disadvantaged Across North America, women account for slightly more of the population than men, yet their earnings and opportunities for career advancement remain far less than their male counterparts. Certainly, some of these disparities are based on biological reasons involving the need for women to care for young children, but many other gender-based factors that marginalize women are
Social Advocacy in Counseling Social advocacy has been described by some counseling theorists as a "fifth force" paradigm that should be considered to rival if not replace other major counseling psychology paradigms regarding behavior and mental illness (Ratts, 2009). This paper briefly discusses what social justice/advocacy is, the debate regarding its status as a paradigm in counseling psychology, and how social advocacy can enhance both the client's experience and life and
Leadership Theories There are a number of theories of leadership that can be applied to my own personal development plan in counselling. I first look to servant leadership as a unique approach to leadership, wherein it is emphasized that the effect leader is one who facilitates greatness in others. The concept of servant leadership was developed by Robert Greenleaf in the 1970s, and emphasizes the leader doing whatever is needed in