What is social work?Social work is a profession that focuses on the assistance provided to individuals, families, groups, and communities in the hopes of helping them to improve their well-being. A social worker is committed to helping individuals develop their abilities and capacities to use their own resources and those of the community to solve their problems. Social work looks at individual and personal problems, but also at broader social issues such as poverty, unemployment, and domestic violence.
What does a social worker do (SW)?Social workers have a university education that focuses on the relationship between people and their environment. The work of a social worker (SW) consists of acting on the social causes of a problem, intervening at the family level and/or mobilizing community resources to help a person in a difficult situation. The objective pursued is to promote and strengthen a person's power to act in his or her interpersonal relationships, the performance of his or her social roles and to exercise his or her individual and social rights. In other words, the goal of a SW is to attain a balance between the needs of a person or a collective and the capacity of the environment to respond to those needs. In New Brunswick there is a professional association of social workers called the New Brunswick Association of Social Workers.
Professional social work practice may intervene to:
- Enhance developmental, problem solving and coping abilities of people and systems;
- Promote effective and respectful access to/and delivery of services and resources to people;
- Link people to needed resources, services and opportunities;
- Contribute to development and improvement of social policies.
Meet our social workers
