Community Practice in Organizations
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Description
In this episode of the Connecting With Care podcast, we chat with Dallas Johnson, an MSW student at Baylor University, about community-centered social work. He shares his journey from Iowa to pursuing dual degrees in ministry and social work, highlighting the integration of faith in his practice. Dallas discusses his role at Movement West Michigan, where he trains church volunteers and emphasizes asset mapping to support vulnerable families. This episode is essential for anyone interested in social work and community engagement, showcasing how you can make a real difference.
Transcript
SPEAKERS: Lillie Walker, Dallas Johnson
Lillie Walker
Welcome to the Connecting with Care podcast. I'm Lillie Walker. What does community-centered social work look like when carried out through nonprofits and organizational leadership? In this episode, we explore the systems level work that strengthens communities from the inside out. Join us as we sit down with Dallas Johnson to discuss community practice. Hello, listeners. my name's Lillie. I'm here with Dallas, and we're going to be talking about community social work. so, Dallas, just to kick us off, I'd love to have you just introduce yourself, tell us about your hometown, what your program is, maybe about your undergrad experience. Just give us a little background.
Dallas Johnson
Yeah, so my name is Dallas Johnson, and I'm zooming in from my townhouse in Holland, Michigan. Though I grew up in a small town called Milford in Iowa, near the Okoboji Lakes – middle of a cornfield. I am an online MSW student in the Garland School of Social Work’s Advanced Standing program with an emphasis in community practice and a concentration in organizational leadership.
Lillie Walker
Wow, that's great. What was your undergrad experience?
Dallas Johnson
Yes, I went to school at a town in the middle of a cornfield called Dordt University, also a Christian institution like Baylor. I had a really positive experience getting a ministry degree and a social work degree together, so double major. And then I guess I should also say that I'm currently a seminary student at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, as well – earning my Master of Divinity alongside a Master of Social Work from Baylor.
Lillie Walker
Oh, wow. Super busy guy. Well, thanks for sharing that. I have just a few fun get to know you questions that we'll just kind of, run through real quick. So, if you had to describe – if you had to use one word to describe where you're living right now, what would you say right now?
Dallas Johnson
Snowy; feels like these past few days, we just keep getting more and more snow on top of the few feet we got immediately after Thanksgiving. And then the trouble is that it gets just warm enough in the day that it melts, and then it snows a little bit more, and then it melts a tiny bit, and then it snows more, and we just can't see the end of it.
Lillie Walker
Wow. I cannot say that I envy Michigan winters. And being in Waco, Texas, it's feeling pretty good. I think it's probably like, 65 right now. All right, next question. I'm going to tweak this a little bit. What would you say is your favorite, maybe, holiday tradition that you have?
Dallas Johnson
I would say, every Christmas, I get with my mom and any of my other family members who are around and we watch that old black and white movie, “It's a Wonderful Life”.
Lillie Walker
Classic.
Dallas Johnson
It's my favorite movie of all time. There's parts of it that perhaps don't age super duper well, but the overall message of it is incredibly encouraging to me as I look at being a helper, either in a pastoral setting or in a social work organizational setting. And it's, it's incredibly encouraging.
Lillie Walker
Isn't that funny? I often find that my favorite movies almost always kind of go down a social work trail. I always kind of end up, back in that. So, that's funny. All right, last question is, what is the last thing that you went down a rabbit hole maybe googling things about?
Dallas Johnson
Can I, can I be truly authentic?
Lillie Walker
Yeah. I’d love nothing more. Please.
Dallas Johnson
I'm a nerd, and when I'm not being studious with either of my degrees, I'm playing video games and I'm watching YouTube videos about technical speedruns of some of my favorite video games, watching streamers, watching how to guides on how to replicate some of the strategies they use to complete a video game in as short amount of time as possible. It's weird, it's very niche, but it's, it's one of my outlets when I'm not thinking about school or work.
Lillie Walker
Okay. And then I have to ask, what's your most played video game?
Dallas Johnson
It probably has to be Minecraft, which is a very 12-year-old answer.
Lillie Walker
It's classic. Well, thanks, for that and thanks for introducing yourself. Really happy that you're here. We're going to get a little bit deeper just about your personal journey into social work and what that has looked like for you. Tell us what brought you to Baylor's online program and then what brought you to social work in general?
00:05:00
Dallas Johnson
Yeah, well, I feel like if I answer the social work question first, that bleeds into Baylor. So, can I answer them flip flop?
Lillie Walker
Absolutely.
Dallas Johnson
I originally went to college just for ministry, actually for youth ministry, because I thought that's where I felt the Lord's calling. But I had enough room in my academic schedule to double major in something. And so, I went to my very wise academic advisors in the theology department and asked what would be the best major to pair with a ministry degree. And he said, if you have the room in your schedule for it, social work would give you so many skills – whether it's with systems theory or interpersonal skills or, just, trauma informed care for congregations. So, I took a few introductory classes and decided that this is something that, though I don't know a whole lot about social work, it's something that I could become passionate about. I officially double majored in ministry and social work. And I came to become very passionate and actually find a calling in organizational social work that partners with churches. In that journey of deciding what to do after college, I decided to pursue a Master of Divinity, but also alongside a Master of Social Work. And so, when the time came to finally pick a Master of Social Work program, I'm a very pragmatic person. So, I went to the National Association of Social Workers directory website with the list of all MSW programs in the country, and I sorted them according to the different criteria I needed. I wanted advanced standing, I wanted it to be an online program, and I wanted a community emphasis. Forty schools came up, and I looked at every single one of their webpages and decided, yeah, this looks attractive; no, this actually isn't the kind of school I want. And Baylor was in the top three. And then eventually it was in the top one, and the rest is history.
Lillie Walker
Wow. So, it sounds like you did your research and Baylor is what you ultimately ended up with. What were some of the things that drew you to Baylor?
Dallas Johnson:
I really appreciate the healthy integration of faith with professional practice. So it was actually the wording specifically of the 10th Competency at the Garland School of Social Work that was really attractive to me, acknowledging not only what should we consider about faith and religion in our social work practice, but also acknowledging the harm that that can do too, and walking alongside people who have been harmed by religious institutions or religiously abused, which is also a passion of mine.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, yeah, that little nuance in there, I think is really important, and I'm glad you pointed that out. All right, to go to the next question is how have you grown personally and professionally during your time here at the Garland School?
Dallas Johnson
Well, I mean, I have so many more hard professional skills in the area of community practice. I feel like my Bachelor of Social Work did a great job at giving me all those generalist skills, all of those for a social worker, those skills that sort of embody giving dignity to people, understanding the importance of human relationships and those social work values. The Garland School of Social Work has really done a fabulous job of giving me hard skills informed by those values, whether that's learning how to write a grant application and define an MOU, whether that's learning how to run a meeting of diverse people. For me, I'm always looking at how social work practice can be integrated or partnered with a congregation. And the Garland School of Social Work has given me lots of opportunities to try out some of those; also, case studies, also lots of articles and discussions on how do we integrate social work perspectives while in a congregational, clerical, traditionally non-social worky setting. I've really been blessed by those professional experiences.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, sure. That's great. Well said. Okay. How's your time here shaped the way you see yourself and your career as a futur social worker?
00:10:00
Dallas Johnson
It's a big question. I think one way it's shaped me is in community practice. You often do the things of a social worker without actually wearing the hat of a social worker. You might be a director of this outreach or in the role of a case manager, even though you're not formally a case manager, or a broker of resources. And one thing that the community practice courses at Baylor have taught me is all of the different ways that these social work skills that I've acquired that shape the perspectives and the theories that shape how I operate as a human inside and outside of the professional career, and letting those things inform what I do, who I am, whether I'm in a social agency or a collective impact organization that partners with churches. Does that answer your question?
Lillie Walker
Sure. Yeah, I think that's great. I'm thinking maybe our listeners would like to hear maybe what was your favorite course and kind of what specifically did you learn from that that made it so valuable to you?
Dallas Johnson
Oh, I really appreciated my Community Practice courses, Community Practice One, Community Practice Two, mainly because the culmination of both of those classes offered back-to-back is a two-semester long asset map project where you pick a community, usually the one that you're living or working in, interning in, and finding where's a strength of that community or multiple strengths in that community that you want to outline and make accessible for your organization, for your community. The project that I got to do was in partnership with my church, actually, because they care about meeting food insecure families with resources. I mapped every food pantry, every food club, every soup kitchen, in the reasonable geographic area around the church, and now that's getting printed on flyers to hand out to families who come knocking on our doors so that our pastors aren't expected to know how to make every referral to every other food pantry. So, the class not only gave me a professional outlet to serve and empower the staff at my own church but also help empower the people that are looking to my church for help.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, and what a, like, great, contribution you've made to that. And, and you also got academic credit for it, so that's awesome. All right, to kind of move on to our next section where we get a little bit more practical. Would you describe, you got into it a little bit, but would you describe your practicum site and your role there?
Dallas Johnson
Yes. I work at a small collective impact organization in Zeeland, Michigan called Movement West Michigan. And they do a lot of things, but at a bird's eye view, they're a network of Christian leaders encouraging collaboration between local churches, businesses and nonprofits. A lot of what we do is working with churches to mobilize them to meet the needs in the community. One way we do that is through a tool called CarePortal. CarePortal is an online portal that local social service agencies use, like the public schools, like the community health organizations like Bethany Christian Services – they who are working with families as caseworkers uncover needs that the family has, whether that be for rental assistance or winter clothing. Right now, the need gets posted onto this online CarePortal and then blasted specifically to local churches to meet those needs. What a cool system for West Michigan, which is especially nonprofit-rich and church-dense. But my role I get to play in that is training the church volunteers to know how to meet a vulnerable family in midst of a crisis through empowerment, dignity, not making assumptions, et cetera, et cetera. Basically, giving social work skills to congregations.
Lillie Walker
Oh, wow, that's really interesting. How has that experience been for you? Like, kind playing the middleman between these populations that are in need and you're like, part of getting them their needs met. But also, how do we make this as dignifying to the person and as great of an experience as it should be? How has that experience been for you?
00:15:00
Dallas Johnson
Incredibly positive. Also incredibly nuanced, because every church is a little different, right? Every church has different assumptions about families living in poverty, which I have to navigate carefully because I'm an outsider, right? Sometimes that's an advantage because people see me as a sort of third-party expert, let's say, but at the same time they don't know me. Any rapport I'm building with this congregation, I'm building in real time as I'm trying to train them, which can be a huge challenge knowing how to speak the social work language in a way that congregations can understand. Code switching almost in a way, or rather, translating the social work terms and tech into church-y terminology is incredibly useful and a skill that I'm still developing.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, that's a really unique kind of job. I haven't heard of a placement like that, but that sounds like really great work. Okay, and how have you seen kind of your classroom learning connect to what you're doing in that internship site?
Dallas Johnson
Yeah, well, among CarePortal, I also do a handful of project management, some project development, building other partnerships between churches and schools, churches, and immigrant families. A lot of what my classroom learning has prepared for me, prepared me for, rather, is to enter those spaces with the social work mindset and wonder how does systems theory apply to working with immigrants? How are the different identities of a new American family intersecting with each other to create this family's unique set of needs that we ideally want a team of church volunteers to meet? Well, community practice is super interesting because of how big picture and collaboration focused it can be. And a lot of times, that means getting people just in the same room together, which is really at the heart of what Movement West Michigan tries to do.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, I think that's a great answer. So, if you were to just kind of broadly give a definition to community practice for someone that's like, ‘I'm trying to get into social work, I don't know if I want to go the clinical route. I don't know if I want to go the community route.’ What would be like a good working definition that they could kind of use as they're trying to make that decision?
Dallas Johnson
Well, let's imagine what most people think of when they think of social work, which is a social worker at a school or working for CPS who's meeting with individual children or families, maybe groups of people. And let's just zoom out to social workers are providing skills to empower the individual family or group practice does that. At an even bigger level, where we're looking at the policies that influence the challenges of immigrant families in my community, we're looking at what are communities and schools doing to try and supply winter clothes to children in need. And we're not only understanding why there's a pressing need but connecting with other organizational partners to try and meet these needs. The community level bleeds into the organizational level. And you can even zoom out to the national level because national policies are influencing my community in a ton of ways.
Lillie Walker
Yeah, that's a great definition. What is something that you wish more people understood about the field of social work as it relates to community organizations and nonprofit work?
Dallas Johnson
One thing that I would love more people to understand is community social work is such a broad term that describes so many things. I feel like the clinical definition of social work has pretty neat boundaries of this is clinical social work, and this is not, right? You're working in behavioral health with a classroom, or you're not. Community social work can mean so many different things. It can mean building bridges like my organization does. It can mean advocating at governmental institutions. It can mean doing research in a community to learn where the assets are, or where the asset deficits are that are influencing the vulnerable families in our communities. Community social work, what makes it so strong and unique and interesting to me is there's so much room to do so many things. You could be organizing volunteers for a food pantry. You could be starting an initiative for churches to love on school staff members. You could be showing up to a city planning commissioners meeting to try and let the city give the okay for this soup kitchen to expand their services into hygiene. It looks different every single day, even at my organization. And I love that.
00:20:00
Lillie Walker
It sounds super interdisciplinary – like, you're working with church leaders, you're working with maybe school administration, you're working with just like such a broad. – and so that does make you kind of have to have an understanding of like, so many different roles and what they play. And I also feel like it kind of sets you up to be able to go and apply for jobs that aren't necessarily social worker in the title. There are jobs that are like, I don't know, I guess, obviously more community focused. And so it's not quite so, I feel like someone that gets a community, or a clinical specialization is going to go for jobs that are like clinical social worker, case manager, those sorts of things. Whereas a community is going to be – they're going to be entering more of a broad field, a more interdisciplinary field.
Dallas Johnson
100%. Because if you're working in a community, you have to know who the community leaders are, who the stakeholders are. And that necessitates some level of knowledge about the community and other organizations and collaboration. And that you might wear your hat of family advocate or director of amplify or goodness, any sort of director or minister title, it feels like in my field.
Lillie Walker
Yeah. And I do want to put a plug that it's just it's so important for people that have these social work skills to be at the community level. Because ultimately, what you guys are setting up is trickling down into what maybe a clinical social worker is operate, the system that they're operating under. So, as you're kind of like setting up this stuff and setting the framework for where these clinical social workers will work in, they're the ones that are kind of like, okay, I have the system in place and now I can do good work. Because from the very, very top, someone is up there that, is really respecting the dignity of these people that they're serving. They're thinking really big picture, and that sets everyone up for success. So, I think it's important to have both.
Dallas Johnson
My hope is always that the clinical micro level social workers will reap the benefits of anything us community social workers do. That's the goal.
Lillie Walker
Yeah. Yeah, that's great.
Lillie Walker
All right, Dallas, well, I've appreciated so much hearing your perspective. Just to kind of close us up, I'd love to hear what advice you would give to someone that's considering Baylor, considering the Garland School, and considering the field of social work.
Dallas Johnson
Well, with regards to Baylor specifically, I'd really encourage online and residential students to take advantage of all the opportunities that Baylor offers to you, whether that's for a group mentorship with a faculty member, whether that's serving on some sort of council or committee to get experience in task groups, or saying yes to a podcast interview. I mean, all of these are learning experiences that Baylor offers, which is not always the case at a lot of educational institutions. For someone going into the field of social work, I'd say be encouraged, be curious, be ready to learn, but also know your limits, because we're all finite human beings who can't do everything. So don't pretend that you can care for yourself, set boundaries while also doing good, meaningful work.
00:25:00
Lillie Walker
Yeah, that's such great advice. All right. And then finally, I would love to hear Dallas, where you see yourself ending up in the social work profession. I know you mentioned that you love to work with church congregations. So, what kind of – where do you see that going?
Dallas Johnson
I mean, in the short term, I really see that in a continuation of my work in community nonprofits that partner with churches, particularly in Midwest America, where there's a lot of overlap between these nonprofits and churches. But also getting to be the one who challenges both of these institutions a little bit to know, well, what can a church offer uniquely, and okay, churches – how can we do this with a little bit better perspective on who the poor are and what empowerment means?
Lillie Walker
Yeah, that's great. And I think, you have obviously some really great skills to bring to that field in that area and, I've been really encouraged to hear your perspective. Thank you listeners for tuning in. And Sic ‘Em Bears! Dallas reminds us that social work is not only person centered, it's community driven. Join us again for more conversations about the intersection of service, advocacy and leadership.
00:26:29