How to be an Ally as a Social Worker
Originally Written for the publisher Wiley’s client: https://www.socialworkdegrees.org/
Social work is a clinical discipline that revolves around empowering people and communities. The job description of a social worker is to help others with social, practical, and health-related problems.
Hence, allyship and advocacy are crucial parts of the job description for social workers.
The oath social workers take applies to everyone equally, regardless of race, class, gender, or disability. How to be an ally as a social worker involves advocating on behalf of all communities and disaffected individuals.
In other words, being an ally and being a social worker go hand-in-hand –social work cannot operate without allyship.
But what does it mean to be an ally? Is there a difference between an ally vs advocate? This article will answer these questions and will teach you how to be an ally as a social worker.
What is an Ally?
Being an ally first requires knowing what it means to be an ally.
"An ally devotes themselves to understanding people from diverse backgrounds and uses this understanding to improve human quality of life through advocacy.”
In a sense, we all come from diverse backgrounds. We can understand this by considering the term "intersectionality," which recognizes that people have complex social identities.
Human social identity, according to intersectionality, is wrapped up in various demographic categories. These include gender expression, gender identity, biological sex, race, ethnicity, and class.
Each category presents a different spectrum of human experience, and our intersectional social identity combines all of them into a cohesive whole.
For example, the experience of being gay and black will differ considerably from the experience of being a trans-woman.
Certain aspects of our social identity might be nearer to our hearts than others. For example, some individuals are more passionate about their sexuality than their gender identity.
It means to be an ally to appreciate and actively seek to understand these subtle complexities of human social identity.
In doing so, what it means to be an ally is to use this understanding on behalf of disaffected others.
How to be an ally
Social workers must be allies for their clients and the community at large. How to be an ally as a social worker is part of the job description.
Part of how to be an ally as a social worker is simply going to school. While engaging in courses and clinicians, social workers learn how to understand people from different backgrounds with radically different experiences.
This is part of why being empathetic is crucial for social work. Empathy is the ability to understand the mental states of other people. Social work is likely to be a good career path for you if you can develop that ability.
Empathy, however, must be guided by understanding the complexities of human social identities.
Traditional notions like the gender binary, monogamy, and religiosity should not be taken for granted by social workers when engaging with their clients. These are ideas that decreasingly play a role in the life of modern people.
Likewise, such presumptions can only serve to alienate clients and communities who those very notions may have disenfranchised.
That is why empathy in social work needs to be guided by a deep understanding of intersectionality.
Applying your understanding of the spectrum of identity categories people fall into in your practice must involve much talking. First, ask your clients and community members who they feel themselves to be.
A principle from the ancient Chinese philosophy and religion of Daoism is beneficial in how to be an ally. It is the reversal of the Confusion or Christian "Golden Rule" –treat others the way you want to be treated.
“For the Daoist, you must treat others how they wish to be treated.”
For example, social workers might work with an autistic client. This client might tell the social worker that having her hand on the arm of the chair was creating sensory discomfort for him and ask her to remove her hand.
The social worker should remove her hand from the arm of the chair because she understands that things can create sensory discomfort for autistic people. That understanding leads the social worker to act in a way that removes suffering from her client. That's what it means to be an ally.
“Hence, how to be an ally involves a lot more listening than asking.”
Asking clients questions about their social identity comes from a good place, but it needs to be carefully done. It is too easy for social workers to clumsily word their questions, potentially leading to insensitively phrased expressions that cause clients to lose trust in them.
If you want to know how others wish to be treated, it is best to let them tell you. And to be an ally is to use what they tell you as a premise for action and thought that works on their behalf to improve their lives.
What is the difference between an ally vs. an advocate?
Allies and advocates can easily get lumped in together. However, both are involved in social justice and are vocal about societal problems.
However, an ally vs. advocate couldn't be more different.
An ally is someone like a social worker. That is, their practical ability distinguishes an ally. In other words, allies are all about action, aid, and support. Allies want to know about the people they are helping so they can take steps to improve their livelihood.
In other words, being an ally is a positive thing for someone. However, it is impossible to be an ally and act in adverse interest on behalf of one's clients and community. That would be a contradiction.
An advocate, on the other hand, is someone who amplifies problems occurring in society on behalf of a cause or movement. This can be either positive or negative, which is the main way advocates differ from allies.
Advocates can amplify problems in society by making them more visible to a more significant number of people, but they can negatively amplify them by taking controversial actions in the service of their advocacy –potentially even risking their lives on behalf of a cause or movement.
Advocacy can occur in person through demonstrations, online fundraising, and resource collecting, among other mediums.
The purpose of advocacy is to take broader action for disaffected groups who cannot act on behalf of themselves without graver consequences.
It is possible to be both an ally and an advocate, but social workers tend to be allies more often than advocates. Being an ally is a far more intense and intimate experience. It is especially well-suited to the environments social workers typically work in.
For example, therapy is a profoundly helpful place for people to go and express themselves about the problems they face every day concerning their complex social identities.
And when social workers genuinely listen to their clients and take actionable steps to help them, they can be allies to disaffected individuals and communities.
Social Work and Allyship
Being trained as a social worker means becoming an ally for the disenfranchised. Social workers are resources to individuals and communities that help improve human quality of life.
One of the central struggles of oppression is being misunderstood. There is anguish that comes from trying to be understood but failing because of certain aspects of your identity.
Suppose a black client conveys to a social worker that police officers harmed them because of his skin color, and the social worker doesn't know what race has to do with such harm. In that case, that social worker isn't acting as an ally.
If a client with lupus meets with a social worker, and the social worker is not wearing a mask to protect their immunocompromised client, the same principle applies.
Allyship, as a general way of being, is developing the ability to understand others from diverse and complex backgrounds truly and to do so in a way that ultimately benefits their well-being.
In other words, if you are a social worker, you must become an ally not just for your clients and the direct communities you serve but in general. Social work can only be done successfully when one’s care for others is genuine, not merely for a paycheck.
Allyship is a commitment beyond occupation –it is a matter of caring about humanity and helping to make humans live more fulfilling and peaceful lives.
Going to school for social work –especially getting a master's degree in social work—is one of the most critical steps to take to a social work career.
A degree in social work will teach you what to expect from a social work career and will prepare you to meet those expectations to benefit the clients and communities you serve.
