Workshop helps social workers to hone skills

Social workers within the Ministry of Human Development have been participating in a three day workshop at the Belize Institute of Management in Belize City. Facilitator Dr. Peta Anne Baker, Coordinator of the Social Work Program at the University of West Indies Mona Campus, says that the workshop will strengthen the community mobilization and advocacy skills of the participants.

Dr. Peta Anne Baker, Coord., Social Work Program, U.W.I.
“We have members of staff mainly from the Ministry of Human Development and Social Transformation. We have some people from the Ministry of Labour as well, from the rural development section. And all of these people work with grass roots people, people from the community, some of them actually work in villages or in Belize City in different neighbourhoods. So what we’re doing is that we are strengthening their skills by introducing them to techniques of working ore effectively with groups and with communities, looking at participatory ways of helping to identify problems and also to analyze those problems and those issues and to find strategies for addressing that. What we want to do is to promote discussion and help people to analyze and understand issues. At first, it may look too complicated, but actually there are ways in which you can simplify and get them involved by looking at those things.”