Contribution
“When you are making a success of something, it’s not work. It’s a way of life. You enjoy yourself because you are making your contribution to the world.”
Andrew Grantelli
We are investigating the aspect of contribution this week, contributing to the community or society in which we work and live.
From a young age, I observed significant people in my life (and not necessarily my parents) make a difference in the world that was important to them. Through their faith, their neighbourhood and society.
This has influenced me and helped me to contribute to my family’s involvement – whether at school, sports or the performing arts.
This also expands to my work, at times I volunteer myself within the community, whether on a board of directors or speaking to a group on a topic.
This week, my professional body came to my town, and I was asked to sit on a panel with other social workers from the community. Whilst public speaking is not my comfort zone, I decided to take the challenge and participate with three other locals. We were all a little nervous, however answered the questions provided to us along with the CEO of the Australian Association of Social Workers (AASW) – Cindy Smith. The panel discussion was around “Social Work in the Mallee Region” and was facilitated by another social worker in which he asked questions for us all to answer from our own perspective. It is always interesting to bring a diverse range of people to attempt to solve common problems within the diverse fields of social work. It was also great to have the opportunity to have university staff, social work students, local social workers and the AASW CEO and staff in the same space and have open and transparent conversations about issues impacting on our profession and those wishing to join us.
Thank you to all the participants and audience members for the event and also to the presenters of the one-day supervision training held the next day. It is always lovely to have events at a local level and hope this is the start of many more.