The Organization’s Mandate
Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society (VAFCS) is a charitable firm that is mandated to help people of urban aboriginal people with a mandate to provide programs such as health, social services, human rights, and equality for all genders, among other aspects of Aboriginal people (“Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society,” 2021). For example, VAFCS has an Urban Aboriginal Navigation Team (UANT) that is mandated to provide housing and assistance services for the Canadian indigenous people who may be in crisis, the threat of being homeless, and experiencing challenges during pandemics such as COVID-19. Additionally, there is a project known as Tenant-Landlord-Community (TLC) that seeks to bring together any gap in regard to safe and affordable housing for Aboriginal people.
The Core Cultural Practice
The core cultural practice for VAFCS comprises indigenous spirituality as the forefront aspect of all services and programs for the organization. The firm is known for promoting the practical elements that accomplish their visionary perspectives by utilization of socio-economic programs that motivate self-reliance, responsibility, success, and progress for aboriginal individuals (Greig et al., 2016). In this case, there is Cultural Outreach Worker (COW) that provides customer care to the urban aboriginal people who may experience problems such as chronic homelessness. Therefore, the support lies under personal development comprising services that aid in healing people and the entire aboriginal community. The friendship center insists on the philosophies and values that may vary in terms of aboriginal culture and norms. The organization has provided essential services to the urban community, such as youths, adults, elders, and all the cultural ties and values that are associated with the Aboriginals (Greig et al., 2016). VAFCS operates a low-barrier shelter for all genders, and the guests are provided with bag lunch and dinner.
How The Organization’s Cultural Approach and Values are Symbolized with the Logo
The symbol in the VAFCS represents the connection and diversified aboriginal culture in Canada. The arm in the logo is a symbol that shows the culture of friendship and welcome. In what appears to be a statue with open hands visible, the cultural aspect depicted the ideology of social interaction filled with a heartfelt vision to help people in need (Goodman et al., 2018). The expression of the face in the statues is a jovial one which means that the organization is responsible for providing happiness to people who may be vulnerable tissues such as homelessness and disease (“Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society,” 2021). Thus, VAFCS is an organization that cherishes humanitarian aspects in society, not only in the aboriginal community.
The Mainstream Social Work Approach Used and Challenges in Using the Approaches
VAFCS uses a holistic, culturally relevant, and strength-based approach to empower the community members. By putting holistic approach is used, it means that VAFCS allows understanding of indigenous culture in a manner that the values, norms, and spirituality cannot be directly separated from human social lifestyles or the organization’s coverages in other parts of the world (Iriaji, 2017). For example, if the Aboriginal people of Canada have issues to do with health, the organization may tackle the problem from the perspective of the entire body and mind rather than concentrating on the affected parts of the body. Similarly, if people have a challenge of homelessness, the organization may provide shelter but also have a concern on how the victims can be assisted permanently to avoid such risks of homelessness in the future.
The culturally relevant perspective means that VAFCS allows the indigenous people to have the liberty of getting services that are in line with what they believe. For example, any issue to do with land, language, and family is taken in satisfactory ways when aiding in such issues (Lee, 2019). For example, when people are at risk of being homeless, the organization can be in the frontline to defend the group based on the importance and value of their land in conducting issues to do with farming and so forth.
Challenges that are involved with this approach are that it may limit the indigenous people in terms of aspects of self-development since the promotion services are targeted to the entire community rather than an individual (Greig et al., 2016). Thus, it means the resources required may not be sufficient and some people may not cooperate. The aspect of making the entire process a safe approach towards safeguarding the lives of Aboriginal people.
Cultural Protocols for the Organization
VAFCS has adopted cultural programs into their service delivery model. The protocols used may steam from various cultural alienations. The first important cultural protocol that the organization mostly uses is understanding, respecting, and representing the aboriginal people’s views. In this case, cultural appropriation is encouraged to make sure that diversity is achieved and given the importance of the matter (“Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society”, 2021). For instance, the communication may be in line with courtesy and politeness when addressing various matters.
Some of the tips that help the organization when following such protocols include the adoption of interactive sessions to air the view of each member who has issues of health, safety, education, and other important aspects of life. The aboriginal people have a strong belief in the power of teamwork when doing their tasks (Goodman et al., 2018). For example, you may find an individual assisting another when it comes to matters of economic and social well-being. Thus, VAFCS must ensure they coordinate their services based on what the majority can do together and the elements represented by the organization are concurred before having the course of action.
Addressing Socio-Economic and Structural Risks within the Organization
As depicted in the introductory segment, VAFCS is tasked with improving the lives of aboriginal people by assisting them on matters to do with human rights, education, recreation, and equality. For example, the gender disparity issues have been condemned by the activists by pushing on equal opportunities for all genders, ages, and other social orientations. The organization does not despise people based on their social background or race (Goodman et al., 2018). For example, the organization has addressed education issues by ensuring that the aboriginals get quality education from the schools that have the required curriculum, facilities, and resources. In terms of economics, the firm ensures that people have been educated on how to prevent poverty by engaging in outfits that generate money for the indigenous people. For example, boosting businesses is a key agenda that the directors have pleaded people of charitable heart to offer to the aboriginals (Goodman et al., 2018). That means the people can manage income-centric enterprises in most of the ventures.
The organization works from a strength-based perspective such as persistence, optimism, and patience when dealing with humanitarian matters and other related issues. Therefore, the strength-based approach focuses on the positive attributes of the results rather than dwelling on what pushes the organization back. For example, when having projects such as caring for the homeless, there is always the optimism that the people in need shall get a solution through charity from other willing organizations (Greig et al., 2016). The organization does not have negativity on the possibility of an agenda from succeeding rather they make the matter to be addressed in the most possible way to gain the results.
Incorporation of Intergenerational and Historical Trauma-Informed Awareness
The organization first meets the people who have needs by applying the safe, collaborative and compassionate approach. After that, the organization prevents trauma by practicing re-traumatization of people with histories of trauma who may seek help. Under this, VAFCS builds on the strengths and resilience with the consideration of the environment and communal cultural perspectives. Additionally, empowering people through motivational talks is also applied to ensure that the indigenous people have been assured of physical and emotional safety. Most of the time, the people who have to seek support from VAFCS are less privileged due to the social stratification system in place. The trauma-informed care is provided with the depiction of recovering from whatever situation that may be baffling the group in terms of basic needs and safety.
Lessons from the Assignment
From the assignment, I have learned that the organization deals with a raft of matters that affect human contemporary life. For example, I have learned that VAFC uses various portfolio-oriented services such as projects that help them segment their services. (Lee, 2019). The programs such as Elders Wisdom Program, Friendship Catering Services, and Employment Program help me to realize that Aboriginal people can be supported from various perspectives depending on the nature of the issue. Also, during my social work, I know the importance of using indigenous people as VAFCS used 90% of this group who are conversant with the running issues in the community (Greig et al., 2016). As a social worker, I know that supporting people may not only involve monetary incentives rather many factions such as resources and knowledge to improve the social, economic, and political wellbeing.
References
Goodman, A., Morgan, R., Kuehlke, R., Kastor, S., Fleming, K., Boyd, J., & Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, W. (2018). “We’ve been researched to death”: Exploring the research experiences of urban indigenous peoples in Vancouver, Canada. International Indigenous Policy Journal, 9(2), 33-36. Web.
Greig, Z., Henderson, T., Wiebe, J., & Taylor, M. (2016). Towards an urban aboriginal housing and wellness strategy for Metro Vancouver, 2015-2020. Aboriginal Policy Studies, 6(1), 5-12. Web.
Iriaji, S. (2017). Implementing holistic criticism model based on the multicultural approach in art appreciation subject. Kne Social Sciences, 1(3), 129. Web.
Lee, J. (2019). Integration of spirituality into the strengths-based social work practice: A transpersonal approach to the strength’s perspective. Journal of Sociology and Social Work, 7(2), 44-45. Web.
Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society. Metro Vancouver aboriginal executive council. (2021). Web.