Jason Valdez is a 14 year old Hispanic male in a small Central Texas college town. He is the son of third generation Mexican American parents who divorced when Jason was 8.
SOWK 6347: Vignette Mr. Leonard, Social Worker
Jason Valdez, Client
1 Vignette: Evaluation of Social Work Practice with Hispanic Children and Families Client Description: Jason Valdez is a 14 year old Hispanic male in a small Central Texas
college town. He is the son of third generation Mexican American parents who divorced when Jason was 8. He lives with his mother (Sara Martinez), his step-father (Roberto Martinez), his sister Maria Valdez (16) and his younger brother Joseph Martinez (3). He sees his father sporadically; his father is a truck driver and tries to come through the town on a regular basis, but in reality only comes in about once every three months. Jason is in 9th grade at the local high school where he makes average grades.
The family lives in subsidized housing where Jason shares a small bedroom with his younger brother. He often stays out late or sleeps at friends’ homes because he dislikes having to share with the 3 year old. He also resents that he often is asked to babysit for Joey while Mom is at work, running errands, or out with his step-father. Jason has recently been suspended from school for fighting during lunch. He hit another student after a yelling match escalated in the cafeteria. He is angry that the other student didn’t get suspended and resents that charges are being pressed. The African-American student, Darren (15) who Jason hit, had been making fun of Jason’s friends, according to Jason, and he felt like the hit was justified. Jason has many friends at school. He frequently brings his friends to his home after school where his mother is concerned they will be a bad influence on Jason’s younger brother. Several of them smoke cigarettes, and she is concerned that they smoke other substances when she is at work in the afternoons.
Recently Jason has said he isn’t sure he wants to continue in school and
asked about taking the GED. His mother is concerned that he will just drop out, hanging out daily with some of his friends who have done the same.
Presenting Problem: Since Jason was suspended, his mother has been looking for a place for
Jason to spend supervised time during the afternoon hours between school ending and the end of her work day. She wants to prevent him from spending time with some of the teenagers he has been hanging out with, as well as making sure that an adult presence is assured. She feels very strongly that Jason could easily be influenced by a strong role model and hopes to find a place where he can also get some help with his homework, which she doesn’t feel qualified to provide.
With charges being pressed against Jason, Mrs.Martinez feels that if she is proactive and gets Jason some afternoon supervision, maybe the sentencing will be lighter. She is concerned about Jason’s potential for drinking alcohol since his father drinks a lot and she is also concerned
SOWK 6347: Vignette Mr. Leonard, Social Worker
Jason Valdez, Client
2 that some of the behaviors she has seen amongst Jason’s friends are gang related. Recently she discovered Jason trying to sneak out of the house at about 2:00 am on a Tuesday night. When she asked him why, he simply said he “needed to be someplace,” and wouldn’t give her any more information. This behavior concerns her and she is debating if she should enforce more rigid consequences for him. She is uncertain about her parenting style and the reaction Jason might have if she tries to add structure to his life on her own.
Afterschool Program Provider: Mr. Leonard works at the Youth Service Bureau (YSB) in this
community. The small agency employees three social workers, two activity specialists, and has many interns from the local university who assist in various aspects of their programming. Currently YSB provides afterschool services to 30 youth ages 12 – 16 who are “at risk” for delinquency or drug and alcohol related issues. The program operates four days a week from 3:30 pm until 7:00 pm, feeding a snack and dinner to the youth, spending time on homework, community service and running several psycho-educational groups during the week. On Fridays, the program runs from 3:30 pm – 11:00 pm, providing standard programming through 7:00 pm and then a “Friday Night Activity” for those youth who have earned this privilege. Often this is dinner at a restaurant and a movie or dance, sponsored by community businesses or organizations at the university. The agency is funded through local, regional and federal funds, grants which are written on an annual or biannual basis. The facility they are housed in is rented from the county for $1.00 per year with the assumption that there will always be some sort of programming for the youth of the barrio where the building is located.
Mr. Leonard is the social worker at the agency who works specifically with the young men served through the afterschool program. When a male youth is referred to the program, Mr. Leonard meets with the youth, the parent(s), and other interested parties to develop goals for the youth, a plan of intervention, and to help facilitate the youth coming into the program. He meets with each youth once per week for 45 minutes, discussing how the program is going, if the goals they developed are being met, and if anything on the intervention plan needs to be adjusted. He also meets regularly with the parent(s) and sometimes visits the youth at school to see how they do in that environment. As another part of his position, Mr. Leonard supervises and oversees several social work and psychology interns who are doing field placements in the agency.
Social/Political Context: This Central Texas community is very focused right now on the drug and
alcohol use of the youth population. The local university recently applied for and received a 5 year grant to help local agencies collaborate more effectively in addressing these concerns. Many of the local agencies resent the fact that the university received the funds rather than the money going to those entities providing direct services.
SOWK 6347: Vignette Mr. Leonard, Social Worker
Jason Valdez, Client
3 YSB is one of the few local agencies working closely with the university in these efforts. Because of this alliance, they have received additional monies for their program, mainly to provide alternative programming on the weekend for youth who might use alcohol and drugs if not participating in organized activities. They have also been approached by the university to have several of their youth clients train to be Peer Facilitators, learning about and organizing a youth led drug and alcohol prevention effort in the schools. Many local and regional organizations are interested in having this program be successful, and so are observing YSB very closely to see how the implementation is carried out.
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