Recently in homelessness Category

Social workers are understandably wary of talking to journalists. And rightly so, given a lot of the press pack too often portrays the profession as nothing more than a group of monstrous child snatchers, with tales of 'care failings' drowning out any positive social work stories.

Image via Flickr (Infrogmation)

But there are exceptions, and today I came across an interesting piece from a local paper in the American town of Reading (which bizarrely is also in a county named Berkshire) that shows how, sometimes, social workers and journalists can join forces to ensure people get the help they need.

In the short article, titled 'Social worker goes the extra mile' Reading Eagle reporter Mike Urban (a suitably American name that sounds like he has jumped straight out of a cop show) tells of how he received a call from a teenage domestic violence victim who was in distress. She had been searching for help on the web and came across a story Urban had written on teenage mums so had called him for help. 

Urban writes:

'I called Amariles Rivera, director of the Baby University of the YMCA of Reading & Berks County, who offered me a lot of good advice and resources to pass along to the girl. But Rivera went beyond that. She told me to give the girl not just her office number but her personal cellphone number in case the girl needed advice on the weekend or after-hours.'

'Rivera could have directed me elsewhere, explaining that the girl wasn't a client, or even local, but instead did what social workers often do. She helped someone who needed it.'

The story isn't remarkable because of the social worker's intervention - as Urban notes going the extra mile is what a lot of 'social workers do' every day - but all credit to him for publicising it.

The fact that a service user in need of help eventually found someone they could call thanks to a local paper publicising work with teenage mothers, also shows the value in local services promoting their work and suggests that, just sometimes, when a journalist rings, it can be good to talk.

Just finished editing Community Care's latest podcast in which we discuss the idea of housing homeless people before dealing with associated substance misuse problems, charing parents who put their children into care and news that social work assistant are taking on the responsibilities of qualified social workers.

You can listen to the programme using the player below, or you can subscribe via RSS on the new Community Care podcast page or via our FeedBurner page.

Here at Community Care we are keen to do our bit to support Woolly Hat Day 2011.

On November 4, people across the country will be putting on woolly hats and raising money for homelessness charity St Mungo's.

Community Care editor Bronagh Miskelly (top right) is one of a select band of knitters who have created one of 30 promotional orange hats for the campaign.

But before sending the fashionable hat off to St Mungo's we couldn't help but try it on. Orange is very much the colour of the season and I think you'll agree that the photograph above proves conclusively that you can both be stylish and charitable.