The world is changing every day, with people from different diversities being forced to achieve particular objectives. Technological advancement has made the world a global village where people from other parts of the world interact. People hold different beliefs, cultures, values and have groups with which they associate themselves where they feel comfortable. Social workers play a critical role in society, including in the corporate world, learning institutions, and government institutions ( Berg-Weger, 2016) . The need for making a living has led to diverse people coming together to achieve goals set by organizations they work in, overlooking their cultures and values. Social workers are tasked with working together and taking care of vulnerable groups of the society, including the elderly, orphaned, drug addicts, domestically violated individuals, child abuse, and the disabled. They help these groups go through their struggles to accept themselves, getting well, legal channels for demotic conflicts, and recovering from substance abuse. The primary pillar in social works is advocacy through championing communal and individual rights. As people hold different values, cultures, and backgrounds, advocacy helps achieve social justice in the community despite an individual's social status, sex, race, or ethnicity. This paper covers how advocacy can be achieved from micro, mezzo, and macro perspectives to the community members, including individuals with discriminatory attitudes and personal biases.
Micro, Mezzo, and Macro level Advocacy Perspectives
Micro-level social works are often regarded as the most traditional forms of social works. It involves working closely together with small groups, individuals, and families to provide one-on-one support and counsel the customers through composite systems and challenges they face (Masterofsocialwork, 2019). The clinical type of social work can be considered as a macro level as it involves therapeutic capacity works that are individualized. It is concerned with clinical work and assisting a client gain access to resources that are essential. Advocacy at this level involves practicing in a person-environment that is more corned with interpersonal relations with individual clients intending to achieve their best outcome. For example, when a social worker in a school counsels students with depression, bullying, and anxiety to better their lives. It focuses on one-on-one assistance basis between the individual and a group. Comparatively, the Mezzo level is almost similar to the macro-level since it directly seeks to support individuals with diverse challenges from physical and emotional or mental issues to cultural, socioeconomic, or familial difficulties. Nevertheless, unlike the macro practicing level, the mezzo is primarily focused on assisting populations vulnerable in organizations, small communities, and at large groups levels. It pays attention to identifying negative factors impacting the constituents of an organization such as medical centers or businesses and small communities' wellbeing.
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Macro is the most extensive level of social works advocacy involving a broad scope of social works. Micro-level operations take a more comprehensive view of possible causes of social injustices in a state, the more extensive community, international and national levels where the social workers develop interventions to address such systematic issues (Masterofsocialwork, 2019) . While mezzo and micro levels focus on assisting groups and individuals at a therapeutic capacity, at the micro-level, social works are founded on helping people in large groups indirectly through political advocacy, programs addressing social problems, and research. The objective at this level is to handle all the challenges alleviating from societal issues to internationally, locally, and nationally improve life quality. Advocacy, at this level, does not involve direct interactions with people; thus, social workers do not need clinical licenses at the macro level. However, they are required to undergo considerable training in administration, theory, policy analysis, and theory to assist them in taking the right actions when dealing with social problems. Advocacy is very vital in attaining the best outcomes for members of society with various challenges.
Macro, Mezzo, and Micro Levels Integration
There are many social injustices at all levels of society needing the social worker's attention in the current world. This calls for advocacy of the injustices at micro, mezzo, and macro levels collaboratively. While the three levels are considered distinct social work sub-discipline, the three can, however, be integrated with a social workers career to effectively achieve the optimal objective of assisting challenged members of the society at all levels, including interpersonally, at organizational, local, and international levels (National Association of Social Workers (NASW), 2017). As a social worker in a school, I am a micro-level practitioner but can as well participate in educational programming at both school and district levels. I can advocate at this level which can be regarded as a mezzo, by introducing seminars for reproductive health, programs for drug prevention, and campaigns against bullying. As a micro-level social worker at a school, I can counsel students and get involved in the entire school programing or district levels where such campaigns are conducted in different educational institutions. This way, advocacy is achieved both at the mezzo and macro levels. Integration of micro and mezzo levels to advocate for social rights and quality of life in a community where there is a blend of people from different races, social classes, and cultures will significantly assist the vulnerable group both at the organizational level and interpersonally.
The two levels can also be integrated for advocacy in big organizations, such as researching what is having a negative impact on the firm's components wellbeing and assisting individual components either is the challenge or affected by the obstacles caused such as racism (Mattocks, 2018) . Most social workers integrate the levels unknowingly in the quest of attaining the goal of social justice. As a researcher who is a social worker, I can conduct research and publish them for advocacy, lecture at a university, and provide therapeutic sessions for clients. I will have integrated the three levels in practice. My research can be accessed globally, taught in local institutions, and provide private sessions, thus achieving advocacy at the three levels. Through the research, different people's perceptions on issues such as sexuality can be changed. As my urge to assist a more significant number of vulnerable people such as LGBTQ grows, I have to shift levels of advocacy to the other. For example, a social worker who's been dealing with gender-based violence in a system of criminal justice can change to a non-profit organization seeking to eliminate gender-based violence. In advocacy, integration of the three levels can be critical as it exposes a practitioner to diverse situations and allows them to help a large group of people.
Advocacy for Oppressed Groups
As indicated by Butler (2004), each individual was brought up with a particular set of beliefs, values, and culture. In the future, this affects how an individual views things or a group of people. Taking an example of a white female brought up in a Christian-based wealthy family, they will have different opinions towards each with a black female brought up in a middle-class family. I was brought up in a Christian-based white family with a high social status which created a negative perception of the poor and bi-sexual community. As I grew up, I became a social worker who is a lesbian and a member of the Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, and queer community. I regarded the poor, especially African-Americans, as filthy and unwilling to be associated with them in my earlier life. As I grew up and integrated with them in school and social fairs, I realized that it wasn't their fault they were in such situations, and many people globally were going through similar challenges. Interactions with these abused groups motivated my dream of becoming a social worker, which would give me a platform to advocate for their rights. Since Im now a social worker, I plan to get engaged in non-profit organizations advocating for the rights of the LGBTQ community. This way, I can influence the community's legal framework and launch campaigns educating society about accepting LGBTQ community members. I also plan on initiating feeding programs for the poor, impoverished children in schools. I also hope to launch campaigns in schools within my community against bullying and discrimination against poor children.
Personal and Professional Growth
Professional and personal growth, in my opinion, is based on the ability of a social worker to integrate the three levels of advocacy. The world has tones of vulnerable people needing the assistance of social workers. Due to my current professional level, I'm working in a non-profit organization based in my community, with most of the programs I plan on initiating being within my community. I'm planning to have an integrated career where I serve both my community and the world. I plan to open an office both in my community and online to assist individuals from the oppressed groups of my interest directly. I will also do extensive research regarding eliminating poverty globally and how the challenges facing LGBTQ can be mitigated. The research will be published and distributed globally, either electronically or as hard copies, where I can change the people's perception about the groups and what can be done to change those situations. Finally will join an international organization rendering services to such vulnerable groups, which will help me render my services to millions of disadvantaged people globally indirectly. This way, I'll have developed my profession and achieved advocacy for social works locally and internationally.
Conclusion
The changing world where people can now live anywhere in the world call for the need to advocate for social justice amongst members of society, including in organizations, governments, schools, and globally. Social workers are mandated to ensure the disadvantaged groups are assisted accordingly and developing preventive measures of such occasions through advocacy. There are three levels of social work practice, including micro, mezzo, and macro-level social works. Social workers can advocate for the vulnerable members of the community in terms of drug addictions, sexuality, poverty, gender, and domestic violence, among others. People's values, culture, and background lead to the development of negative perceptions towards certain vulnerable groups, which needs to be changed by social works through advocacy. Integration of the three levels of practice for advocacy will help reach both local communities and the world. I will engage in different advocacy programs to educate and inform members of my society and the world through research on changing their perception toward the poor and LGBTQ.
References
Berg-Weger, M. (2016). Social work and social welfare: An invitation . Routledge.
Butler, S. S. (2004). Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) elders: The challenges and resilience of this marginalized group. Journal of human behavior in the social environment , 9 (4), 25-44.
Mattocks, N. O. (2018). Social action among social work practitioners: Examining the micro-macro divide. Social Work , 63 (1), 7-16.
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