Community social workers help communities function. Some work directly with individuals, conducting needs assessments and making referrals to resources in the community. Others assess needs on a larger scale. They may plan and administer programs. A social work degree is not a requirement for community organizing, but does provide a direct path into the field.
Service transcends borders. Social workers may work for international organizations and even travel to distant lands. There is a particular need for social workers when traditional support structures fail in the wake of war or natural disaster. Social workers not only help people with immediate needs, but set up systems that will endure after they leave. The situations they encounter can be heartbreaking: children who have become mute or otherwise regressed because of atrocities they have witnessed, adults who think they are seeing the results of witchcraft… or that there is simply no help to be offered.
