What are some of the most common challenges facing the young men you work
with? You know there's a lack of support out there in terms of services and
interventions that these men can go to to talk about their problems. You know
the stereotypical image of a man or a boy is that they don't talk about these
things. So if there's no services, they don't like talking about it, it's a bit
of a problem. Being a care leaver I think what I found hard growing up was the
fact that there wasn't many male role models within social work. Not to say
that you can't connect with female social workers. Young men in my
position don't have fathers, have absent father figures in our
lives, so definitely a positive move to get more male figures into social work, just to
be that positive role model. People who look like me are normally painted in
a negative light. If there could be some kind of push to get more
men into social work to be there to inspire young boys like me to lead a successful
and positive life. Why do you guys think that more men don't play for a job
in social work? It frustrates me because I don't actually understand why
there aren't and I think money often plays a big factor in it, but the wage is
lower compared to city jobs but in fact, what do you want from a job?
And for me it was something I would want to enjoy, something I would get fulfilled,
something that I could actually see change. It's one of the greatest
professions if I'm honest. There are so many different kind of avenues and areas
that you can actually do. There's community development,
there's international social work, there's forensic social work, there's children,
there's mental health. It's ridiculous the amount of stuff, yet you only know
about like maybe child protection. Have you had a particular close relationship with
a male social worker? I actually have never had a male social worker. I've had a youth worker
he was my only male role model within the
social work realm. I was 15/16 at the time, bearing in mind I have been in foster care
since I was nine months old, so to only have that
male figure that late on was, I guess, quite frustrating because of how well the
relationship worked. So why do you think it's vitally important that we have more
men in social work? Social work is one of the gatekeepers of our
society and for that reason it should be representative of the society we live in.
There's quite an even split in terms of children and even adults who are
cases within social work and so they are able to engage with people who look
like them or have shared experiences with them. We're not saying that
women are not able to make that relationship and do, we're not saying
that at all, but it's a situation of it might help. I mean it's like any
workforce, any company, any team. The more diverse it is the better. Some men
will want to speak to women, but its about having the option there. We learn from
the differences in people so it's a situation of we can maybe have a
care plan for society that might be a lot better. You know the work that guys
like you are doing is putting people like me in better positions. I look around
and there aren't many men and I think hearing from someone who's experienced having a
social worker, understanding that it would have been valuable for you to have
had a man, I think is really powerful and reassuring for us to hear that we are
really required and we are wanted and we need more men to to become social
workers.