These are difficult times for many families in Tarrant County, and it shows at Northside Inter-Church Agency (NICA), where I am doing my field work for a bachelors degree in social work from UTA.
Over the last few months I have stepped out of my middle-class, suburban life, for 24 hours a week, to be reminded what it is like for families to have empty refrigerators, lose their electricity or phone service, or their homes, because the parents don't make enough money, or due to a health or financial crisis that they were not prepared to weather. I have talked with homeless people who are in dire need of health care, and consider themselves fortunate to receive the most rudimentary treatment.
When I am working with clients, I do my best to refer them to agencies in Tarrant County that can help them help themselves. Many times my I have found myself curious about agencies I read about in the Blue Book. Where are they? Who do they help? Where do they get their money? What problems do they have? What does it feel like to be there? Like many people, I learn best by doing. I think having more solid sensory knowledge of, and social contact with these agencies will help me, and in turn help my clients. In order to fulfill my curiousity, I will periodically visit agencies. I will get tours, and ask questions (which will probably be erratic and odd, if I follow my usual methods of questioning.) I hope my explorations will help you, too. I hope they will at least be enjoyable.
Sunny
About Me
- The Maverick Social Worker
- I am a senior at the University of Texas in Arlington, and as part of my education am doing my internship at a small agency in Fort Worth. I have been finding, during the first semester of my field work, that the other agencies we refer clients to sometimes seem a little abstract to me. I can't remember who does what. I need faces and places to attach the agency names to in my head. I hope that my explorations will help them come to life for others too.