Using Creativity to Enhance Human Rights with Clients

Overview: This workshop will invite participants to discuss creativity in social work practice and how it can be used to enhance human rights with clients. Examples of experiential activities will demonstrate how the inclusion of creativity using a cultural humility framework can enhance human rights.Proposal text: Social work is often described as both an art and a science. With the advancement of evidence based practices and the focus on outcomes, the art portion of social work is often forgotten. This presentation proposes that social workers must develop their own creativity in order to effectively practice social work and address human rights issues. A more expansive definition of creativity will be provided beyond traditional art modalities that were used to help MSW students understand and create interactive, client focused projects that addressed an area of human rights of their choosing. By expanding the definition of creativity and encouraging its inclusion in the classroom, social work students are able to draw upon their own experiences, beliefs, values, knowledge, and skills in unique and innovative ways to approach client and societal situations, including enhancing human rights.
According to the National Association of Social Work’s Code of Ethics (NASW), the main mission of the social work profession is our responsibility “to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic human needs of all people” (NASW, 2017, para 1). In order to do this, social workers must be prepared to make difficult decisions to advance & advocate for change. Often, social workers are called upon to challenge themselves to be creative in unique ways to best serve their clients. Social workers utilize creativity in problem solving, communication, and are often motivated by working to improve the lives and conditions of diverse populations and challenges in innovative ways. Much of the creativity of the social worker is directed to understanding and resolving or mediating the complex social problems that arise in unique, difficult, and challenging circumstances. To be successful, social workers must have patience, determination, emotional resiliency, and rely upon their own knowledge, skills, and attitudes, as well as be willing to try new approaches and creative ways of engagement. One way social workers do this is through the inclusion of creativity which allows for individuality, self-awareness exploration, and is a way of living life and practicing social work that embraces originality and makes unique connections between seemingly disparate ideas for a diverse population of clients.
When creativity is utilized within a cultural humility framework, students are provided with opportunities for enhancing their own professional identity, increasing self-awareness, recognizing privilege and oppression, and enhancing the capacity for in innovation in the ever-changing social milieu and social work practice settings. Cultural humility differs from previous multicultural competency approaches in that it recognizes that knowledge of different cultural backgrounds is not sufficient to develop effective interventions. It shifts the focus from knowledge to social worker self-understanding and a professional stance that is characterized by openness to learning and a lack of superiority (Hook, Davis, Owen, Worthington & Utsey, 2013). This workshop will invite participants to discuss and reflect on creativity in social work practice and how it can be used to enhance human rights with clients using a cultural humility framework. Examples of experiential activities, teaching resources, and student projects will be provided.