Honoree Social Workers Talk of Job Satisfaction
A woman who traveled to Peru to work at a shelter for victims of domestic violence, a Bronx native who is an advocate for special-needs children in her neighborhood, and a woman whose immigrant father inspired her to help the elderly Asian population in New York are among the eight young women in social work who will be recognized tonight at a Chinatown restaurant by the National Association of Social Workers.
"We want to make sure that professional social workers are ready to enter into leadership positions," the director of group, Robert Schachter, said.
Several of tonight's award recipients who were unsatisfied with jobs in banking, accounting, and publishing, and social work is a second career. A frustrated accountant turned family health care advocate, Lisa White, said she wanted a job where she could help people discover new things. She said she is proud to have helped an illiterate single mother from West Africa learn English. Ms. White said that while her duties involve budgeting work, social work provides satisfaction she couldn't get as an accountant. "When people ask me what I do, it's important for me to say 'I'm a social worker.' Being a social worker reflects who I am, and because of that I'm not unhappy when I come to work, " she said. A former editor of Parents Magazine, Aminda Jacobs, said she enjoyed volunteer work more than her day job. "People think they can't do social work, that it's too hard, but I think this job makes you stronger," she said. Ms. Jacobs said the memory of a young patient who died of an asthma attack when an ambulance failed to get into his housing project motivates her to work with patients with mental health problems.
Another award recipient, the founder of a Washington Heights needle exchange program, Jamie Favaro, said she doesn't mind having difficult conversations with clients because interactions with people recharge her batteries. She said she gets upset only on days when no one comes for help. "We work with a fatalistic population and some people use dirty needles thinking 'I probably have HIV anyway,'" Ms. Favaro said.
The chief operating officer of the Institute of Community Living in Brooklyn, Stella Pappas, said she is passionate about working with mental health patients even when she faces disappointment. A boy Ms. Pappas once counseled for rage problems was recently imprisoned for murder. "It was difficult work" she said, "but I affect more people with what I'm doing now as an administrator."
The creator of a social work intern program, Willing Chin-Ma, is dedicated to educating new generations of social workers and helping them design community projects in Chinatown. One of Ms. Chin Ma's students used music and dance to help Asian and Hispanic seniors communicate with one another.
The other awards recipients are Isabel Ching, Raysa Rodriguez, and Kimberly Steinhagen.
