Despite the pioneering efforts of African Americans in social work, their contributions to the profession and social welfare continue to be overlooked. Little is documented about their endeavors and the significant changes they have made over time. Rhonda Wells-Wilbon highlights the racial injustice by exploring the imminent contributions of Ophelia Settle Egypt. The thorough analysis reveals her pioneering efforts as a social worker, researcher, and educator. The author also illustrates potential ways of reaching out to low-income households using social work. In particular, Rhonda’s article pays attention to Egypt’s family planning endeavor amongst low-income African American households. This paper examines the primary ideas presented by Rhonda Wells-Wilbon in her article.
Wells-Wilbon (2015) starts by mentioning just but a few of the African Americans who made fundamental contributions to the field of social work. They include Bertha Capen, Franklin Frazier, Mary Richmond, Inabel Lindsay, George Haynes, Jane Addams, amongst others. The author’s article strives to eliminate the ignorance of professionals and scholars regarding the social welfare efforts of African Americans. Wells-Wilbon (2015) develops a biography of the little-known social worker, Ophelia Egypt, who operated within the grassroots of social welfare to work with low-income African American households.
Most contributions of social workers depict a sense of commitment and love to a particular mission or set of persons regardless of whether they are recognized or not. However, the selflessness of the individuals should not be overlooked in the field of social work. More so, their efforts should not be overlooked in a diverse country such as the United States. Acknowledging the contributions of African Americans integrates the black experience in the history of social welfare. The little-known social worker, Egypt, focused on a contentious topic within the community: reproduction rights (Wells-Wilbon, 2015).
The politics of women’s reproductive health have been at the center of the social work profession for many decades. The directive of social welfare is to give frontline assistance and services to the persons who need them the most. Hence, for years on end, females have been striving to obtain the right to make choices involving their bodies and reproductive systems. Much of the efforts involved and targeted the middle-class women leaving out the low-income females who desperately require the help. Ophelia thus chose to address the concern of family planning amongst the low-income households in her community (Wells-Wilbon, 2015).
Wells-Wilbon’s (2015) analysis is essential in identifying two essential challenges. First, it highlights the failure to recognize the contributions of African American social workers and professionals. Secondly, it brings to light the challenges of low-income households regarding adequate access to social welfare (Griggs, Casper & Eby, 2013). Evidently, low-income households just like African Americans are overlooked when it comes to social work contributions to the community. Low-income families like the ones in Ophelia’s story often receive the short end of the stick defying the realm of social work which is to offer assistance to those who need it the most (Wells-Wilbon, 2015).
The article provides ways that social workers can reach out to the low-income families in the community such as making social welfare information accessible to them, presenting media announcements via different avenues, formulating self-help groups, educating low-income individuals, empowering them to participate in the social welfare efforts, assisting leaders to schedule meetings, etc. By doing so, social work resources and services will become readily available and accessible to low-income families. Additionally, the empowerment and enablement will allow the low-income households to have a say in matters involving their lives and livelihoods (Griggs, Casper & Eby, 2013). From Egypt’s example, social work should be about meeting people where they are and demonstrating a sense of commitment to the mission. Social workers should thus learn how to understand and apply the concepts they learn practically on a special population (Wells-Wilbon, 2015).
References
Griggs, T. L., Casper, W. J., & Eby, L. T. (2013). Work, family and community support as predictors of work–family conflict: A study of low-income workers. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 82(1), 59-68.
Wells-Wilbon R. (2015). Family Planning for Low-Income African American Families: Contributions of Social Work Pioneer Ophelia Settle Egypt. National Association of Social Workers.
