Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups.
Organizations, and Communities

Social work is more than need identification since it entails initiating real changes in the lives of people. Competency 8 demands that social workers implement interventions at all levels of practice to offer support and advocacy to individuals in all settings. Social workers are expected to use evidence-based practice, cultural competence, and ethical practice in order to initiate good changes in the lives of their clients.

During my field practicum at the ENDependence Center of Northern Virginia (ECNV) and New Hope Housing of VA, I had the privilege of observing the positive impact that effective interventions can have on people’s lives and society. These experiences met the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) 2022 EPAS guidelines and the NASW Code of Ethics, which helped me close the theory-practice gap.

I will explain how my training at George Mason University (GMU) and field practice during my field placements assisted me in developing and applying evidence-based interventions aligned with best practices, research, policy, and social justice. 

Constructing Individual Interventions: Restoring individuals' hopes and self-advocacy.
My clients in ECNV were disabled people and the obstacles these disabilities pose to work, housing, and social services access. My final example case was someone who had been redunded because his workplace was not accessible to him as a consequence of a mobility impairment.

Initially, he was disheartened and had no clue what was going to happen to him, but with the use of a client-centered intervention strategy, I was able to help him:

• Uncover his capabilities and transform his view of his potential.
• Develop a job seeking strategy in accordance with his strengths and needs.
• Reached out to disability employment resources that offered accommodations and legal protections.

In this case, I used motivational interviewing techniques I learned at GMU to ensure the client had control over his career. The experience reinforced the need to engage clients in solving problems and make them empowered to transform their lives.

Sustaining Families: New Hope Housing's Trauma Informed Counseling.
As a professional at New Hope Housing, I helped homeless families survive the severe stress and anxiety that come with homelessness. One client who most clearly stands out in my mind is a mother and her two children who survived domestic violence.

I personally:
• Worked on developing a safety plan to safeguard the client and herself.
• Sought out the mother and referred her with counseling and legal assistance services to help her obtain her life.
• Referred the family to transitional housing with support services.

We needed to have a holistic intervention plan because, rather than providing them with shelter, I wanted them to receive the emotional, legal, and financial assistance they require to remain stable in the long term. From this experience, I realized that social workers must deal with complex issues because they are not constrained to working on one issue alone.

Enabling Group Interventions: Peer support as an effective intervention tool.
Group interventions can also be effective for community building and empowerment. I co-facilitated ECNV's support group for persons with disabilities in order to provide them with a place where they felt safe enough to be themselves and become advocates of disability rights and self-advocacy.
I utilized evidence-based group facilitation practices to ensure that:
• Disability rights and self-advocacy.
• Employment barrier and rational accommodation.
• Mental health support and coping strategy.

This was an experience of learning where it came to realization that peer support is one of the best intervention techniques because individuals acquire knowledge better from their peers and would prefer getting the same.

Also, in New Hope Housing, I helped in the facilitation of life skills groups to shelter residents on:
•  Financial planning and management in order to be independent for the client.
• Tenant rights education and rental assistance programs.
• Mental health education and self-care habits.

It should be noted that group interventions endowed clients with functional skills and a feeling of belonging, an integral aspect of social work practice and an excellent illustration of collaborative practice.

Organizational and Community Interventions: Creating Change in the Larger System.
New Hope Housing made me aware of how organizational interventions were necessary in expanding the services to vulnerable populations. I assisted with
• Conducted a housing insecurity survey for the sake of funding for new interventions.
• Attempted to have housing services for individuals with history of evictions improved.
• Collaborated with other institutions in order to improve the provision of housing support services system.

Similarly, in ECNV, I practiced policy interventions and acted as:
• Increased accessibility in public transport policy: A review of existing policies for public transport and the change that can be introduced so that individuals with disabilities too can utilize the public transport system.
• Disability employment programs with increased funding: Most individuals with disabilities are working, and there is a requirement to make sure that they are treated equally like others and have equal opportunities like other people.
• Enhanced education of the community in disability inclusion and disability rights: This is to help ensure that individuals with disabilities are treated equally and enjoy equal opportunities as other people.

These experiences taught me that Competency 5 (Policy Practice) and Competency 7 (Assessment) fall under the category that actual change can be achieved only by a systemic perspective, not by individual interventions only.

The connection between research, policy, and direct practice.
While studying at GMU, I discovered that interventions have to be evidence-based. The CSWE 2022 EPAS standards emphasize evidence-based practice, which I attained through:

•  Integrating the most current research into practice — for example, the utilization of trauma-informed care when working with homeless families.
• Applying knowledge of policy to enhance housing and disability service delivery systems.
• The author has also revealed that he or she has been involved in professional development to enhance his or her practice.

These experiences taught me that social work interventions are more effective when they are evidence-based, client participatory, and policy-making. 
   
Some of the NASW Code of Ethics: Ethical and Inclusive Interventions implications:
The NASW Code of Ethics requires that interventions are:
• Culturally competent and recognizing that the clients have varying needs.
• Ethically sound and human dignity, autonomy, and justice are being respected.
• Cooperative, the interventions should be empowering and not coercive.

In New Hope Housing and ECNV, I learned that ethical and client-centered interventions that are inclusive were extremely effective. What my experience has taught me is that social workers ought to approach interventions humbly, with a sense of flexibility, and a fervor for justice.

Conclusion: My Commitment to Real Social Work Interventions

Competency 8 has made me understand what a good social worker is. During my fieldwork at ECNV and New Hope Housing, I have learned that interventions at all levels (individual, family, group, organizational, community) must:
• Client-centered, self-determination, and empowerment.
• Evidence-based, where the interventions should be informed by the best current research evidence.
• Policy-focused, in order to remove the barriers that intrude into certain populations.
• Ethical, to ensure the interventions are inclusive and equitable.

The following are the objectives that I have for myself in the practice of social work and which I will be trying to attain in the future:
• Conceptualizing and developing interventions that would address the needs of the people in the short term and change their lives in the long term.
• Linking direct practice to advocacy and systems change.
• To continue learning and growing in order to better serve the communities that I serve.

I was tasked with working with ECNV and New Hope Housing, and this has made me see the importance of social work and that individuals can be transformed by interventions. While working with communities, groups, families, or individuals, I now realize that social work is action, partnership, and advocacy—empowering individuals to help themselves.