Week Five (7/5/22-7/8/22)

 

• This week at WV Covenant House revealed more aspects of the social work environment to me. While I didn’t too much, that spoke volumes in and of itself about how this agency and state functions. The main two tasks that I had this week was to reorganize our library in the queer resource room- separating sections based on fiction and non-fiction. I was able to separate everything into broad categories of academic non-fiction, memoir non-fiction, guide book non-fiction, novel fiction, and 18+ fiction. Once I had separated into this broad categories, I was able to go back and comb through each individual section to organize by common themes such as history of the queer community or health commentary by doctors. This project took me approximately three half-days. The other project that I was assigned to, this week, was making pledges to utility companies to pay client bills. Unfortunately, there was some complications with finances and Covenant House needed to make pledges rather than directly paying the bills because it was unknown, at the time, exactly how much was in each checking account. There was a rather large stack of utility companies for me to call and interact with, so that was an interesting experience.

• Throughout this slow, droning week, I learned two important things about social services- specifically within West Virginia. 1) The first of the month is always slow. Since people receive their food stamps, social security, and other government benefits, many were reluctant to visit the food pantry or consult with our other programs. Closer to the end of the week, people started to trickle back into our services. Although, it spoke volumes to how people attempted to be self-sufficient without relying on social services when they received other help. It also revealed to me, through reflective conservations with my co-workers, that many West Virginia laws have the intention to disenfranchise many people in WV. West Virginia, as a state, is considerably poor. Many people here are apart of the class of working poor that struggle to find good paying jobs. Sometimes, even those jobs do not meet all of their needs. There isn’t much support, either, to help individuals in WV to move out of the working class impoverished and start thriving comfortably. For example, the minimum wage in West Virginia is $7.25, despite many people attempting to work full time jobs to provide for themselves and their families. Many people do not make more than $10. Even transitions from poor paying jobs into good paying ones are not supported by the government. When somebody gains more income, all of their support services are immediately revoked and leave them without a way to obtain food or other monetary assistance for a month. This can be especially detrimental when living with kids. Another example, even, is passing legislation during an HIV epidemic that further proliferates that epidemic and immediately discriminates against IV drug users. Policies here are not meant to support the people; they are a great example of how to keep the richest man wealthy, how to prevent the growth of lower middle class families, and how to continue discriminating against individuals experiencing homelessness or near homelessness. West Virginia state policies, innately, are the reason why this state is in such a place of disenfranchisement. The state isn’t poor because of national stereotypes that depict people here as uneducated and aggressive gun-toting mountain men. But because of the very few elite taking advantage of a population that was made to be extremely impoverished after multiple economic crashes (such as the closure of the coal mines). The republican party was able to demonize democrats and mobilize voters, turning them against their own interests with anger and frustration. This mobilization of red hot emotions allowed the republican supermajority to go unnoticed when they could of used their power and resources to funnel coal mine workers into other competitive jobs that dealt with energy sources such as wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear energy, dams and other forms of upcoming, green energy. West Virginia takes advantage of hard working, down-on-their luck, and dedicated people because it is just as much a plutocracy as our national government. This is why their current government, Jim Justice, is the wealthiest person in West Virginia with a net worth of $1.2 billion.