July 1, 2022 • 24 mins
In this episode, we will find out the details of the Athens Tech Social Work Assistant program.
Achieve More with Athens Tech, the official podcast of Athens Technical College.
A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia. Equal Opportunity Institution.
Welcome to achieve more with Athens Tech, the official podcast of Athens Technical College. This is where you'll discover how the programs at Athens Tech can connect you with in-demand and high paying careers. Today, we're going to look at the social work assistant program at Athens Tech.00:00:19S2Literally the day after she passed away. I said, I have to do this for my mom.00:00:23S3But I tell my students when I come into class on the very first day that we all come to social work for our own reasons.00:00:29S4It changes your life. I mean, it really I can honestly say that about that program.00:00:34S1Social work, assistance, work with individuals experiencing natural life transitions or unexpected life crises to assist them in obtaining the help needed while also making certain that they can reach their maximum level of independent functioning. Social Work Assistance have many social service job titles such as Casework, Aide, Clinical, Social Work, Aide, Family Service, Assistant, Addictions Counselor, Assistant and Human Service Worker. The populations with which social work assistance provide services are quite varied. They may work with children and families, people with mental illnesses or disabilities, the elderly, the homeless or the unemployed, to name a few. Social work assistance may work in schools, medical facilities, offices, residential facilities, shelters, or directly in homes and communities. The Social Work Assistance Program at Athens Tech prepares you to take on any of these roles.00:01:32S3Okay. Well, my buddy was the program chair for the Social Work Assistant Program known as OpenStack. And I have a master's in social work and I am a licensed master social worker and I do. My background is mental health and I've done a lot with disaster, mental health and emergency response over the years. And obviously the last 14 years I've been involved in the higher education and also development for social work in the field. So I do a lot of trainin
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Episode Transcript
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S1 (00:02):
Welcome to achieve more with Athens ten, the official podcast
of Athens Technical College. This is where you'll discover how
the programs at Athens Tech can connect you with in-demand
and high paying careers. Today, we're going to look at
the social work assistant program at Athens Tech.
S2 (00:19):
Literally the day after she passed away. I said, I
have to do this for my mom.
S3 (00:23):
But I tell my students when I come into class
on the very first day that we all come to
social work for our own reasons.
S4 (00:29):
It changes your life. I mean, it really I can
honestly say that about that program.
S1 (00:34):
Social work, assistance, work with individuals experiencing natural life transitions
or unexpected life crises to assist them in obtaining the
help needed while also making certain that they can reach
their maximum level of independent functioning. Social Work Assistance have
many social service job titles such as Casework, Aide, Clinical,
(00:54):
Social Work, Aide, Family Service, Assistant, Addictions Counselor, Assistant and
Human Service Worker. The populations with which social work assistance
provide services are quite varied. They may work with children
and families, people with mental illnesses or disabilities, the elderly,
the homeless or the unemployed, to name a few. Social
work assistance may work in schools, medical facilities, offices, residential facilities, shelters,
(01:20):
or directly in homes and communities. The Social Work Assistance
Program at Athens Tech prepares you to take on any
of these roles.
S3 (01:32):
Okay. Well, my buddy was the program chair for the
Social Work Assistant Program known as OpenStack. And I have
a master's in social work and I am a licensed
master social worker and I do. My background is mental
health and I've done a lot with disaster, mental health
and emergency response over the years. And obviously the last
14 years I've been involved in the higher education and
(01:55):
also development for social work in the field. So I
do a lot of training in the field as well.
When you look at social work profession as a whole,
you have different levels of social work. So the social
work assistant would be the first level. It is a
pathway in the social work, so it provides education and
training all the same concepts and theories and all of
(02:16):
that as bachelors level social workers. But the mission and
purpose is really to provide education and training for our
students so that they can go into these agencies and
seamlessly assist and work with the bachelors level, master's level
and licensed social workers. So that's really the entryway to
the profession.
S1 (02:34):
We have an idea of what the program is and
we have an idea of how it can work for you.
But when we're looking at the social work assistant program,
the real question is why?
S3 (02:45):
So I think the person who is a good candidate
is someone who is passionate about either making a change,
maybe within their own lives, but also within the lives
of people that's actually struggling. So what I would say
is the person who comes in and they have this
strong belief in the ability of a person to change.
(03:07):
And what I tell my students when I come into
class on the very first day is that we all
come to social work for our own reasons. Now, some
of it that we may have gone through something really
difficult and we really needed some help and wished that
somebody had been there to help us through that change. And,
you know, or we have walked in on somebody that's
endorsed something pretty difficult and we want to come in
(03:28):
and make a difference in their lives and make sure
that other people don't have to walk that walk alone.
S2 (03:33):
Yeah, I'm my name is Todd Waller. I am still
right now a student at Athens Technical College. Guess a
little about me. I currently works social worker at a
place called Fresh Look Recovery, but I also really like
other things like running. And I'm a big runner trying
to run a marathon next year. And I am an
avid reader. I guess I'm kind of a nerd. The
(04:02):
truth is, I kind of had a strange childhood and
I was involved with defects and defects for a while
as a child. And there was one social worker, I
guess I'm pretty sure you have social workers image John
Barksdale And the guy just loved me and really took
care of me and made things happen for me that
(04:22):
no one else was able to do. And he always
stuck in my head and for years I worked in
logistics and it was a good job and I was
doing well, but it was a hard job and I
was talking to my mom and she really wanted me
to graduate from college at some point, and I didn't
think I would ever go back to college simply because
(04:44):
I just didn't think I needed it. She always wanted
it and she she ended up passing away 2020. And
literally the day after she passed away, I said, I
have to do this for my mom. And so I
toured the campus in athletics. All everything is all small classes.
And the people I met, the teachers and I saw
the social work program and I said, that's, that's it.
(05:05):
That's what I want to be doing with my life.
And fortunately I did end up loving it.
S1 (05:10):
Todd Story is unique, but having a connection to social
work in some way driving you to want to be
part of the field is not uncommon.
S3 (05:19):
So my name is Michelle Medlock. I am the program
coordinator at Acceptance Recovery Center in Athens, Georgia. That is
a 12 month long term intensive residential recovery center for
adults seeking recovery from addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders.
(05:41):
I graduated from the Social Work Assistant Program at Athens
Tech last year and I'm currently pursuing my B.S. w.
And really excited to be here. I chose social work
because my passion is addiction recovery. I'm a person in
(06:01):
long term recovery myself, and so it was really important
to me to be able to give back in a
field that fro so freely gave to me. And to
be able to most effectively serve the people that I
work with. So I was I was already working in
the field as a as from a peer support perspective.
(06:24):
And so it was really important for me to to
learn some new skills and to be able to clinically
serve people.
S1 (06:31):
Let me see this. Having a connection to social work
the way that Todd Michel do is not a requirement
for this program. However, having the desire to help people
is a must, and it seems that being in the
social work industry is a very good way to fulfill
that desire.
S2 (06:48):
When I was younger, I was removed from my house
a few times for some familial issues, and when I
met Mr. Barksdale, what the state was basically trying to do,
they didn't I was they didn't have a placement for me.
And so the only option they had was to put
me in what was called a youth detention center, which
was loud to me. And Mr. Barksdale put his foot
(07:09):
down and made it possible for me to be accepted
into another person's. My aunt's home for a few months
while things got sorted out with my family. That was it.
One example, he also did things where he would obviously
do the social work stuff with me and fill out
forms and take care of business. But he got to
(07:30):
know me and build rapport with me on a personal level.
And so for years, I considered Mr. Barksdale a mentor
and a friend more than a social worker, even though
he was doing the social work work itself. But I
trusted him so much that I could talk to him
like a friend. And I think that's a skill that
I had admired in him as a social worker. And
(07:51):
it's one I'd like to have with my clients. I
think the biggest thing that he taught me, he never
said these words, but it's true. He's I think the
biggest thing he taught me is that, you know, in
helping feel all help flows through relationships, right? I can
be the best social worker in the world by, you know,
helping people get funding from the government to do things,
(08:12):
grants and scholarships that do all the paperwork. But if
I can't build a relationship, even on a small level
with the people that I work with, then I can't
accomplish much. And I learned that from John Barksdale, that
most relationships are so important, and I focus on that
with my clients. Now, you know, of course I'm doing
the work with them on helping them, but I need
(08:34):
to know who they are. I need them to trust me,
you know, I need them to want to talk to.
And the truth is, a lot of social workers don't
have that skill or they come in and fill out
the forms and they're gone. And people are left with
that with a thought like, well, he does. He doesn't care.
He's just getting a paycheck. I don't want to get
(08:54):
a paycheck. I like paychecks. But it's not about the paycheck.
It's about I want to serve. And the best way
to do that is through relationships, I find.
S1 (09:02):
So those the skills that you'll learn in Athens tech. Yes,
they are.
S3 (09:07):
We have I think we have the best program. We
have a really incredible group of students. We work really
hard as a as a program, which is our instructor.
They've got incredible instructors that are all our social workers.
So they bring their experience into the classroom every day.
And our student students learn from that, from that, you know,
that experience that they have. So our classes are small
(09:29):
start classes. I've never more than 20 students in number
and we want our students to learn to develop relationships
with their colleagues. So all of our classes are very active,
engaged classes we're doing where you're reading out, you're seeing it,
you're doing it a lot of hands on work in
the classroom. So the classes that students will take, there's
(09:51):
the basic intro classes where you learn about social work
in the practice areas. And we are a very broad profession.
We have, you know, many, many practice areas you can
go into. So the first class really goes into the
practice areas. And we also teach about case management, human behavior,
behavioral health group work. We've got a couple of courses,
(10:14):
one on addictions and one in domestic and family violence.
We have a couple of specialty courses where students will
learn about working with children in their families. Another one
is working with people who are older. That's the area
of gerontology, and that's actually one of the fastest growing
areas of social work. So we've got a really wide
range of 14 social work courses. Of the 1412 we're
(10:37):
required and then we have two internships. So once a
student works their way through the first part of the program,
at the end of their program, they'll do a capstone course,
which is a group work intervention course, and then they'll
do two internships. And a partner agency in the community.
And we tried to make sure that we connect with
(10:57):
our partners in our 11 counties in this area. And
our goal is to prepare our students again, to get
out into the workforce and be workforce ready so they
go out ready to work. That said, many, if not
most of our students plan to go on to earn
their bachelors in social work and even amounts in social work.
So they're getting out and they're working, but they're also
(11:17):
going on to their four year degree and beyond. The
classes were amazing, really hands on. The instructors were I'll
never forget, especially Miss Watts. Rather than really abstract concepts,
I felt like it was directly the things that are
(11:38):
need to know in the field. What I found in
my bachelor's program is there's a lot of kind of
there's a lot of concepts which of course, we learned
at Athens Tech. But I think starting at Athens Tech,
we it was starting out with just the foundation, like
(11:59):
what you need to know to really get into the field,
the basics without adding in all this, this extra stuff
that you learn in a bachelor's program. And so it
was a really the best way for me to to
get my foot in the door. From a social work perspective.
S2 (12:18):
I'll literally be sitting in my favorite teachers class, Dr.
Bernard Hill. He'll talk about things like we had this
one class is called Interviewing Techniques, Fantastic class. And basically
the whole idea of the classes, when you're in a
therapeutic session, how do you behave and stuff like that.
And he will talk a lot of a lot about
things like even simple things like posture, how are you sitting?
(12:39):
And I look back and I think of Mr. Barksdale
and he was always sitting, attentive. He was into what
I was saying, even if I was talking about a
baseball game, you know what I mean? And then other
things I've learned, this is a strange one, but like
when you're in a therapeutic session, how emotionally involved are
like do I reach out and touch the client on
the shoulder with the crying? What feedback to do I
(13:00):
give in a tough situation and that's a tough thing
to navigate. You know, a lot of people aren't good
at dealing with people who are very emotional in the moment.
It's a skill I'm still developing. But Mr. Barksdale was
very good at that. He kind of navigated that well.
He was able to change the subject to a more
positive subject when he needed to, but he was also
able to stay in the moment and process the emotions
(13:22):
that were actually happening. Now, interviewing techniques really helps me
focus on how do I process these emotions with the client.
It's just I practice it in my job every day.
I mean, I, I work with men in recovery. So
I'm constantly, you know, discussing really personal emotional details in
my natural instinct is to go, oh, you know, I
(13:45):
want to talk. That's uncomfortable. But the therapeutic techniques at
your school, Mr. Barksdale, is you kind of feel you
go into that uncomfortableness and become comfortable with it. I mean,
that's a skill. Like I said, I'm still developing, but
it's one I'm focused on in a way. I'm glad
to have SEC focuses on it too. It's an important
part of what I do, so do it at the set.
S1 (14:05):
Let's talk to a real life employer that hires graduates
from the Social Work Assistant Program at Athens Tech.
S3 (14:11):
So I'm Grace Arthur. I am one of the clinical
supervisors with bright paths. And Bright Paths has had several
names over the years. We've actually been around for 30 years,
but we were formerly called Prevent Child Abuse Athens, and
that name is a little bit off of pudding. So
we have in the last couple of years changed the
(14:33):
name of our organization to Bright Paths. But with whatever
name we have had, we've been involved with Athens Tech
for probably over, I'd say close to 15 years now.
We've worked with the social work program, specifically the social
work assistant students have to do an internship or a practicum.
(14:54):
And so we have had multiple students from that program
come through our site as interns. And we've hired I
want to say, we've hired four of those students that
have come through full time.
S1 (15:08):
What skills or traits do people need to be successful
in the field.
S3 (15:12):
To be good at? In the field of social work,
you have to be interested in people and you have
to you need a thick skin because people come in
all kinds of situations and with all different needs, and
that can be anybody. There's not one group that can
benefit from a social worker. So you kind of have
(15:35):
to be interested in people and you have to be
willing to get to know people and meet people where
they're at. And I think most people do not go
into social work for the money. They go into it
because they care about people. They're helpers, naturally so. Earnout
is it's a big issue and it really does depend,
(15:56):
I think, on where you're working and on the support
that you get within your workplace. And but it's also
very rewarding and it's not rewarding in the financial sense.
It's rewarding in the sense that you actually have a
job where you impact people's lives and you get to have,
I don't know, a small place in making the world
a little bit better. So to me that the the
(16:20):
draw to the field is just knowing that you're literally
doing something for a living that improves the world. But
I think you have to be drawn to the field
because you like people and you're interested in people and
you like working with them. Something that was pretty common
for people in the program where people who who's who
started out doing something else, especially nurses, something like that.
(16:45):
And what they found was they got a lot more
out of helping the helping the person and learning about
their life and helping them solve life's problems and reach
goals than they did, you know, about the medical aspect
or the body. And so I just think that if
if you're someone who wants to work with people and
(17:09):
you're not sure how to go about doing it, then
starting their Athens tech and figuring out that the program
really gives you an opportunity to figure out which specialty
or which area you'd like to go into.
S2 (17:24):
You know, a few of my classmates are in recovery
themselves to have met, you know, an addiction counselor or
something like that that have just changed their way of thinking.
And some have had trauma in the past that they
didn't get help with, but they dealt with the different ways.
And now they now that they're whole, they want to
help other people. They want to be the social worker
(17:44):
that touches other people. And I think that's incredible. You know,
that every single classmate I work with is in the
social work program because they want to help. You know,
it's not about the degree, it's not about the paychecks,
it's not about the job. They're there because they love
people and they want to serve their community. And I
respect that so much. You know, Miss, what's my other
(18:06):
favorite teacher? She says, know social workers what they really
are agents of change. So I think if you're interested
in a social work program, you need to sit back
and say, you know, do I want to help change
the community? Do I want to help change individuals lives
for the better? What am I doing this for? Because
if you're doing it just to go work an agency
or fill out forms, you're not going to have fun.
(18:27):
You're not going to enjoy it. But if you're interested
in changing lives and the community around you, oh my gosh,
it's the most rewarding for the job, the social work job.
I got it right now. It's the most rewarding experience
I've ever had. And I got it through Athens Tech,
which is amazing.
S1 (18:42):
Tell me about that.
S2 (18:43):
Sure. Yeah. So, Dr. Barner, I had a class called
the Community Service Class. Dr. Barnard, fantastic class. And we
had a final project. As I'm doing all of our classes,
it's kind of big. It was a huge paper, but
in that class I had to interview or meet with
12 nonprofit agencies in the community. So I met with
the program called Fresh Wind Recovery here in Athens. And
(19:05):
what they do is they're a residential treatment center for
men and women with addiction issues. And I met with
the director and I talked to him and interviewed him.
The interview was great. We got along really well. His
name is Reverend Jerry Kaiser. It after the day after
the interview, he called because I spoke to him a
little bit about how I enjoyed teaching people that goal,
setting in call. And he said, Hey, Todd, do you
(19:25):
want to come lead a group like a process group
about goal setting? And I thought, yes, I do. You know,
it was a would be a volunteer gig, I guess
I do. So I started teaching that class and then
I started teaching other classes on career building and resume
building and basic skills. Within four weeks he asked me
if I'd like to come on full time as the
(19:47):
case manager, and this is one semester into the social
work program. I completed one semester of social work, so
I was into it. I just didn't have all the
knowledge yet and I accepted the job and it has
changed my life. I am going to work here for
a while probably, but I've made so many connections in
the community at different agencies. I'm not. Can you? I
(20:07):
get calls in. I'm good at what I do. I
get calls all the time. People wanted me to come
work there and I'm committed to work here, but it's
just my life has opened up. I mean, I go
through my phone, I probably have 100 contacts in Athens
in the mental health field, you know. So working here
has been a great thing and it's due to that class.
I got this job because of that class, so it's incredible.
S4 (20:30):
So my name is Michelle McSwain. I started in my
forties for the first time attending college ever in my life.
I stepped foot in a classroom at Athens Tech and
graduated from there program. This was all around 2009, started here,
started here at Athens Tech just taking some core classes and.
(20:51):
And ended up in the social work program and really
loved that program and enjoyed my time here very much
at Athens Tech. I tell people this all the time when,
you know, so now I work in the. Now I'm
the associate director of undergraduate admissions at Piedmont University. And
I'll have students come to me sometimes and they're like,
I just don't know what I want to do. I'm
(21:12):
not sure, you know, I'll ask them a couple of questions.
And and when they just don't know what they want
to do and they're, you know, they just they just
sound like a fit for this social work program. To me.
It changes your life. I mean, it really I can
honestly say that about that program. It changed my life.
It gave me confidence. It gave me an awareness for
(21:34):
people around me. And I thought that I had that awareness.
But when you're in classes learning about aging and respecting
how people feel, just learning about how people feel as
they get older and the challenges that they have in
life and being mindful and respectful of that because you
have an understanding of it instead of judging it and
(21:55):
being impatient with it, people from other cultures, people from
other walks of life. And I thought that I knew
that and I thought that I had that. But when
I went through the social work program and took an
entire class on those topics, then it really gave me
an understanding of things and opened my eyes in ways
that I appreciate so much, because it's it is good
(22:18):
knowledge for anyone to have spending the time to go
through that program and learn about people and respecting other
people and learning about what they may be going through is,
I would say, never a waste of time.
S1 (22:31):
Can you achieve more with Athens Tech in the Social
Work Assistant Program?
S2 (22:36):
If you're interested in it, do you think you can
serve from the very first class forward? You know, if
you're going to be at the Athens campus with Miss Watson, Dr.
Barnett from the very first class, you're going to sit
there and go, Oh, yeah, this is it. Because it's
an interesting class, right? You're going to learn about things
that are new and fascinating and exciting. You're going to
learn about things that you can not only apply at work,
(22:57):
but in your day to day relationships. You know, a
lot of the stuff I learned in school actually is
with my friends, not in a therapeutic way, but just
in a relational with so immediately you'll be engaged, you know,
you'll get to a point where you'll you'll be reading
your textbook. And I remember reading textbooks in high school
and I'd be super bored. But now I read my textbooks.
I'm like, This is so cool, so I want to
(23:20):
use it in this chapter. I bought all my textbooks
so I could save them and look at them later. Like,
it's a fascinating book. The teachers Ms.. Watts and Dr.
Barter are engaging. They're not. They don't sit there and lecture.
You like crazy, right? It's a discussion. Every class is
a discussion. So I get to participate and ask questions.
And I love that, you know, if I have a
problem or an issue, I walk down the hall and
(23:43):
I literally go to Mrs. Watts and Dr. Boehner's office,
knock on the door, and they welcome me in. And
I talk to them about whatever at any time during
their office hours, I guess. But they are just amazing,
incredible teachers that legitimately care not just about my life,
but my career. They want me to be successful.
S1 (24:02):
Thanks for listening. To achieve more with Athens Tech, the
official podcast of Athens Technical College. For more information on
the Social Work Assistant Program, be sure to visit Athens
Tech Dot Edu.
S5 (24:17):
This podcast is a production of BG Ad Group. Darren
Sutherland Executive Producer. Jeremy Powell Creative Director. Jacob Sutherland Director Producers.
Jason Controller and Matt Golden and Ketchum Copywriter. All rights reserved.
Welcome to achieve more with Athens ten, the official podcast
of Athens Technical College. This is where you'll discover how
the programs at Athens Tech can connect you with in-demand
and high paying careers. Today, we're going to look at
the social work assistant program at Athens Tech.
S2 (00:19):
Literally the day after she passed away. I said, I
have to do this for my mom.
S3 (00:23):
But I tell my students when I come into class
on the very first day that we all come to
social work for our own reasons.
S4 (00:29):
It changes your life. I mean, it really I can
honestly say that about that program.
S1 (00:34):
Social work, assistance, work with individuals experiencing natural life transitions
or unexpected life crises to assist them in obtaining the
help needed while also making certain that they can reach
their maximum level of independent functioning. Social Work Assistance have
many social service job titles such as Casework, Aide, Clinical,
(00:54):
Social Work, Aide, Family Service, Assistant, Addictions Counselor, Assistant and
Human Service Worker. The populations with which social work assistance
provide services are quite varied. They may work with children
and families, people with mental illnesses or disabilities, the elderly,
the homeless or the unemployed, to name a few. Social
work assistance may work in schools, medical facilities, offices, residential facilities, shelters,
(01:20):
or directly in homes and communities. The Social Work Assistance
Program at Athens Tech prepares you to take on any
of these roles.
S3 (01:32):
Okay. Well, my buddy was the program chair for the
Social Work Assistant Program known as OpenStack. And I have
a master's in social work and I am a licensed
master social worker and I do. My background is mental
health and I've done a lot with disaster, mental health
and emergency response over the years. And obviously the last
14 years I've been involved in the higher education and
(01:55):
also development for social work in the field. So I
do a lot of training in the field as well.
When you look at social work profession as a whole,
you have different levels of social work. So the social
work assistant would be the first level. It is a
pathway in the social work, so it provides education and
training all the same concepts and theories and all of
(02:16):
that as bachelors level social workers. But the mission and
purpose is really to provide education and training for our
students so that they can go into these agencies and
seamlessly assist and work with the bachelors level, master's level
and licensed social workers. So that's really the entryway to
the profession.
S1 (02:34):
We have an idea of what the program is and
we have an idea of how it can work for you.
But when we're looking at the social work assistant program,
the real question is why?
S3 (02:45):
So I think the person who is a good candidate
is someone who is passionate about either making a change,
maybe within their own lives, but also within the lives
of people that's actually struggling. So what I would say
is the person who comes in and they have this
strong belief in the ability of a person to change.
(03:07):
And what I tell my students when I come into
class on the very first day is that we all
come to social work for our own reasons. Now, some
of it that we may have gone through something really
difficult and we really needed some help and wished that
somebody had been there to help us through that change. And,
you know, or we have walked in on somebody that's
endorsed something pretty difficult and we want to come in
(03:28):
and make a difference in their lives and make sure
that other people don't have to walk that walk alone.
S2 (03:33):
Yeah, I'm my name is Todd Waller. I am still
right now a student at Athens Technical College. Guess a
little about me. I currently works social worker at a
place called Fresh Look Recovery, but I also really like
other things like running. And I'm a big runner trying
to run a marathon next year. And I am an
avid reader. I guess I'm kind of a nerd. The
(04:02):
truth is, I kind of had a strange childhood and
I was involved with defects and defects for a while
as a child. And there was one social worker, I
guess I'm pretty sure you have social workers image John
Barksdale And the guy just loved me and really took
care of me and made things happen for me that
(04:22):
no one else was able to do. And he always
stuck in my head and for years I worked in
logistics and it was a good job and I was
doing well, but it was a hard job and I
was talking to my mom and she really wanted me
to graduate from college at some point, and I didn't
think I would ever go back to college simply because
(04:44):
I just didn't think I needed it. She always wanted
it and she she ended up passing away 2020. And
literally the day after she passed away, I said, I
have to do this for my mom. And so I
toured the campus in athletics. All everything is all small classes.
And the people I met, the teachers and I saw
the social work program and I said, that's, that's it.
(05:05):
That's what I want to be doing with my life.
And fortunately I did end up loving it.
S1 (05:10):
Todd Story is unique, but having a connection to social
work in some way driving you to want to be
part of the field is not uncommon.
S3 (05:19):
So my name is Michelle Medlock. I am the program
coordinator at Acceptance Recovery Center in Athens, Georgia. That is
a 12 month long term intensive residential recovery center for
adults seeking recovery from addiction and co-occurring mental health disorders.
(05:41):
I graduated from the Social Work Assistant Program at Athens
Tech last year and I'm currently pursuing my B.S. w.
And really excited to be here. I chose social work
because my passion is addiction recovery. I'm a person in
(06:01):
long term recovery myself, and so it was really important
to me to be able to give back in a
field that fro so freely gave to me. And to
be able to most effectively serve the people that I
work with. So I was I was already working in
the field as a as from a peer support perspective.
(06:24):
And so it was really important for me to to
learn some new skills and to be able to clinically
serve people.
S1 (06:31):
Let me see this. Having a connection to social work
the way that Todd Michel do is not a requirement
for this program. However, having the desire to help people
is a must, and it seems that being in the
social work industry is a very good way to fulfill
that desire.
S2 (06:48):
When I was younger, I was removed from my house
a few times for some familial issues, and when I
met Mr. Barksdale, what the state was basically trying to do,
they didn't I was they didn't have a placement for me.
And so the only option they had was to put
me in what was called a youth detention center, which
was loud to me. And Mr. Barksdale put his foot
(07:09):
down and made it possible for me to be accepted
into another person's. My aunt's home for a few months
while things got sorted out with my family. That was it.
One example, he also did things where he would obviously
do the social work stuff with me and fill out
forms and take care of business. But he got to
(07:30):
know me and build rapport with me on a personal level.
And so for years, I considered Mr. Barksdale a mentor
and a friend more than a social worker, even though
he was doing the social work work itself. But I
trusted him so much that I could talk to him
like a friend. And I think that's a skill that
I had admired in him as a social worker. And
(07:51):
it's one I'd like to have with my clients. I
think the biggest thing that he taught me, he never
said these words, but it's true. He's I think the
biggest thing he taught me is that, you know, in
helping feel all help flows through relationships, right? I can
be the best social worker in the world by, you know,
helping people get funding from the government to do things,
(08:12):
grants and scholarships that do all the paperwork. But if
I can't build a relationship, even on a small level
with the people that I work with, then I can't
accomplish much. And I learned that from John Barksdale, that
most relationships are so important, and I focus on that
with my clients. Now, you know, of course I'm doing
the work with them on helping them, but I need
(08:34):
to know who they are. I need them to trust me,
you know, I need them to want to talk to.
And the truth is, a lot of social workers don't
have that skill or they come in and fill out
the forms and they're gone. And people are left with
that with a thought like, well, he does. He doesn't care.
He's just getting a paycheck. I don't want to get
(08:54):
a paycheck. I like paychecks. But it's not about the paycheck.
It's about I want to serve. And the best way
to do that is through relationships, I find.
S1 (09:02):
So those the skills that you'll learn in Athens tech. Yes,
they are.
S3 (09:07):
We have I think we have the best program. We
have a really incredible group of students. We work really
hard as a as a program, which is our instructor.
They've got incredible instructors that are all our social workers.
So they bring their experience into the classroom every day.
And our student students learn from that, from that, you know,
that experience that they have. So our classes are small
(09:29):
start classes. I've never more than 20 students in number
and we want our students to learn to develop relationships
with their colleagues. So all of our classes are very active,
engaged classes we're doing where you're reading out, you're seeing it,
you're doing it a lot of hands on work in
the classroom. So the classes that students will take, there's
(09:51):
the basic intro classes where you learn about social work
in the practice areas. And we are a very broad profession.
We have, you know, many, many practice areas you can
go into. So the first class really goes into the
practice areas. And we also teach about case management, human behavior,
behavioral health group work. We've got a couple of courses,
(10:14):
one on addictions and one in domestic and family violence.
We have a couple of specialty courses where students will
learn about working with children in their families. Another one
is working with people who are older. That's the area
of gerontology, and that's actually one of the fastest growing
areas of social work. So we've got a really wide
range of 14 social work courses. Of the 1412 we're
(10:37):
required and then we have two internships. So once a
student works their way through the first part of the program,
at the end of their program, they'll do a capstone course,
which is a group work intervention course, and then they'll
do two internships. And a partner agency in the community.
And we tried to make sure that we connect with
(10:57):
our partners in our 11 counties in this area. And
our goal is to prepare our students again, to get
out into the workforce and be workforce ready so they
go out ready to work. That said, many, if not
most of our students plan to go on to earn
their bachelors in social work and even amounts in social work.
So they're getting out and they're working, but they're also
(11:17):
going on to their four year degree and beyond. The
classes were amazing, really hands on. The instructors were I'll
never forget, especially Miss Watts. Rather than really abstract concepts,
I felt like it was directly the things that are
(11:38):
need to know in the field. What I found in
my bachelor's program is there's a lot of kind of
there's a lot of concepts which of course, we learned
at Athens Tech. But I think starting at Athens Tech,
we it was starting out with just the foundation, like
(11:59):
what you need to know to really get into the field,
the basics without adding in all this, this extra stuff
that you learn in a bachelor's program. And so it
was a really the best way for me to to
get my foot in the door. From a social work perspective.
S2 (12:18):
I'll literally be sitting in my favorite teachers class, Dr.
Bernard Hill. He'll talk about things like we had this
one class is called Interviewing Techniques, Fantastic class. And basically
the whole idea of the classes, when you're in a
therapeutic session, how do you behave and stuff like that.
And he will talk a lot of a lot about
things like even simple things like posture, how are you sitting?
(12:39):
And I look back and I think of Mr. Barksdale
and he was always sitting, attentive. He was into what
I was saying, even if I was talking about a
baseball game, you know what I mean? And then other
things I've learned, this is a strange one, but like
when you're in a therapeutic session, how emotionally involved are
like do I reach out and touch the client on
the shoulder with the crying? What feedback to do I
(13:00):
give in a tough situation and that's a tough thing
to navigate. You know, a lot of people aren't good
at dealing with people who are very emotional in the moment.
It's a skill I'm still developing. But Mr. Barksdale was
very good at that. He kind of navigated that well.
He was able to change the subject to a more
positive subject when he needed to, but he was also
able to stay in the moment and process the emotions
(13:22):
that were actually happening. Now, interviewing techniques really helps me
focus on how do I process these emotions with the client.
It's just I practice it in my job every day.
I mean, I, I work with men in recovery. So
I'm constantly, you know, discussing really personal emotional details in
my natural instinct is to go, oh, you know, I
(13:45):
want to talk. That's uncomfortable. But the therapeutic techniques at
your school, Mr. Barksdale, is you kind of feel you
go into that uncomfortableness and become comfortable with it. I mean,
that's a skill. Like I said, I'm still developing, but
it's one I'm focused on in a way. I'm glad
to have SEC focuses on it too. It's an important
part of what I do, so do it at the set.
S1 (14:05):
Let's talk to a real life employer that hires graduates
from the Social Work Assistant Program at Athens Tech.
S3 (14:11):
So I'm Grace Arthur. I am one of the clinical
supervisors with bright paths. And Bright Paths has had several
names over the years. We've actually been around for 30 years,
but we were formerly called Prevent Child Abuse Athens, and
that name is a little bit off of pudding. So
we have in the last couple of years changed the
(14:33):
name of our organization to Bright Paths. But with whatever
name we have had, we've been involved with Athens Tech
for probably over, I'd say close to 15 years now.
We've worked with the social work program, specifically the social
work assistant students have to do an internship or a practicum.
(14:54):
And so we have had multiple students from that program
come through our site as interns. And we've hired I
want to say, we've hired four of those students that
have come through full time.
S1 (15:08):
What skills or traits do people need to be successful
in the field.
S3 (15:12):
To be good at? In the field of social work,
you have to be interested in people and you have
to you need a thick skin because people come in
all kinds of situations and with all different needs, and
that can be anybody. There's not one group that can
benefit from a social worker. So you kind of have
(15:35):
to be interested in people and you have to be
willing to get to know people and meet people where
they're at. And I think most people do not go
into social work for the money. They go into it
because they care about people. They're helpers, naturally so. Earnout
is it's a big issue and it really does depend,
(15:56):
I think, on where you're working and on the support
that you get within your workplace. And but it's also
very rewarding and it's not rewarding in the financial sense.
It's rewarding in the sense that you actually have a
job where you impact people's lives and you get to have,
I don't know, a small place in making the world
a little bit better. So to me that the the
(16:20):
draw to the field is just knowing that you're literally
doing something for a living that improves the world. But
I think you have to be drawn to the field
because you like people and you're interested in people and
you like working with them. Something that was pretty common
for people in the program where people who who's who
started out doing something else, especially nurses, something like that.
(16:45):
And what they found was they got a lot more
out of helping the helping the person and learning about
their life and helping them solve life's problems and reach
goals than they did, you know, about the medical aspect
or the body. And so I just think that if
if you're someone who wants to work with people and
(17:09):
you're not sure how to go about doing it, then
starting their Athens tech and figuring out that the program
really gives you an opportunity to figure out which specialty
or which area you'd like to go into.
S2 (17:24):
You know, a few of my classmates are in recovery
themselves to have met, you know, an addiction counselor or
something like that that have just changed their way of thinking.
And some have had trauma in the past that they
didn't get help with, but they dealt with the different ways.
And now they now that they're whole, they want to
help other people. They want to be the social worker
(17:44):
that touches other people. And I think that's incredible. You know,
that every single classmate I work with is in the
social work program because they want to help. You know,
it's not about the degree, it's not about the paychecks,
it's not about the job. They're there because they love
people and they want to serve their community. And I
respect that so much. You know, Miss, what's my other
(18:06):
favorite teacher? She says, know social workers what they really
are agents of change. So I think if you're interested
in a social work program, you need to sit back
and say, you know, do I want to help change
the community? Do I want to help change individuals lives
for the better? What am I doing this for? Because
if you're doing it just to go work an agency
or fill out forms, you're not going to have fun.
(18:27):
You're not going to enjoy it. But if you're interested
in changing lives and the community around you, oh my gosh,
it's the most rewarding for the job, the social work job.
I got it right now. It's the most rewarding experience
I've ever had. And I got it through Athens Tech,
which is amazing.
S1 (18:42):
Tell me about that.
S2 (18:43):
Sure. Yeah. So, Dr. Barner, I had a class called
the Community Service Class. Dr. Barnard, fantastic class. And we
had a final project. As I'm doing all of our classes,
it's kind of big. It was a huge paper, but
in that class I had to interview or meet with
12 nonprofit agencies in the community. So I met with
the program called Fresh Wind Recovery here in Athens. And
(19:05):
what they do is they're a residential treatment center for
men and women with addiction issues. And I met with
the director and I talked to him and interviewed him.
The interview was great. We got along really well. His
name is Reverend Jerry Kaiser. It after the day after
the interview, he called because I spoke to him a
little bit about how I enjoyed teaching people that goal,
setting in call. And he said, Hey, Todd, do you
(19:25):
want to come lead a group like a process group
about goal setting? And I thought, yes, I do. You know,
it was a would be a volunteer gig, I guess
I do. So I started teaching that class and then
I started teaching other classes on career building and resume
building and basic skills. Within four weeks he asked me
if I'd like to come on full time as the
(19:47):
case manager, and this is one semester into the social
work program. I completed one semester of social work, so
I was into it. I just didn't have all the
knowledge yet and I accepted the job and it has
changed my life. I am going to work here for
a while probably, but I've made so many connections in
the community at different agencies. I'm not. Can you? I
(20:07):
get calls in. I'm good at what I do. I
get calls all the time. People wanted me to come
work there and I'm committed to work here, but it's
just my life has opened up. I mean, I go
through my phone, I probably have 100 contacts in Athens
in the mental health field, you know. So working here
has been a great thing and it's due to that class.
I got this job because of that class, so it's incredible.
S4 (20:30):
So my name is Michelle McSwain. I started in my
forties for the first time attending college ever in my life.
I stepped foot in a classroom at Athens Tech and
graduated from there program. This was all around 2009, started here,
started here at Athens Tech just taking some core classes and.
(20:51):
And ended up in the social work program and really
loved that program and enjoyed my time here very much
at Athens Tech. I tell people this all the time when,
you know, so now I work in the. Now I'm
the associate director of undergraduate admissions at Piedmont University. And
I'll have students come to me sometimes and they're like,
I just don't know what I want to do. I'm
(21:12):
not sure, you know, I'll ask them a couple of questions.
And and when they just don't know what they want
to do and they're, you know, they just they just
sound like a fit for this social work program. To me.
It changes your life. I mean, it really I can
honestly say that about that program. It changed my life.
It gave me confidence. It gave me an awareness for
(21:34):
people around me. And I thought that I had that awareness.
But when you're in classes learning about aging and respecting
how people feel, just learning about how people feel as
they get older and the challenges that they have in
life and being mindful and respectful of that because you
have an understanding of it instead of judging it and
(21:55):
being impatient with it, people from other cultures, people from
other walks of life. And I thought that I knew
that and I thought that I had that. But when
I went through the social work program and took an
entire class on those topics, then it really gave me
an understanding of things and opened my eyes in ways
that I appreciate so much, because it's it is good
(22:18):
knowledge for anyone to have spending the time to go
through that program and learn about people and respecting other
people and learning about what they may be going through is,
I would say, never a waste of time.
S1 (22:31):
Can you achieve more with Athens Tech in the Social
Work Assistant Program?
S2 (22:36):
If you're interested in it, do you think you can
serve from the very first class forward? You know, if
you're going to be at the Athens campus with Miss Watson, Dr.
Barnett from the very first class, you're going to sit
there and go, Oh, yeah, this is it. Because it's
an interesting class, right? You're going to learn about things
that are new and fascinating and exciting. You're going to
learn about things that you can not only apply at work,
(22:57):
but in your day to day relationships. You know, a
lot of the stuff I learned in school actually is
with my friends, not in a therapeutic way, but just
in a relational with so immediately you'll be engaged, you know,
you'll get to a point where you'll you'll be reading
your textbook. And I remember reading textbooks in high school
and I'd be super bored. But now I read my textbooks.
I'm like, This is so cool, so I want to
(23:20):
use it in this chapter. I bought all my textbooks
so I could save them and look at them later. Like,
it's a fascinating book. The teachers Ms.. Watts and Dr.
Barter are engaging. They're not. They don't sit there and lecture.
You like crazy, right? It's a discussion. Every class is
a discussion. So I get to participate and ask questions.
And I love that, you know, if I have a
problem or an issue, I walk down the hall and
(23:43):
I literally go to Mrs. Watts and Dr. Boehner's office,
knock on the door, and they welcome me in. And
I talk to them about whatever at any time during
their office hours, I guess. But they are just amazing,
incredible teachers that legitimately care not just about my life,
but my career. They want me to be successful.
S1 (24:02):
Thanks for listening. To achieve more with Athens Tech, the
official podcast of Athens Technical College. For more information on
the Social Work Assistant Program, be sure to visit Athens
Tech Dot Edu.
S5 (24:17):
This podcast is a production of BG Ad Group. Darren
Sutherland Executive Producer. Jeremy Powell Creative Director. Jacob Sutherland Director Producers.
Jason Controller and Matt Golden and Ketchum Copywriter. All rights reserved.
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