Creighton’s Social Work department promoted preventative health and energy saving supplies at its “Winterize Your Baby” event on Saturday at the Heart Ministries Center.
The event lasted about two hours while donations were both brought in and given out.
“Many people don’t have access to healthcare until it things get so bad they absolutely have to go to the emergency room,” said Dr. Barbara Harris, field practicum coordinator of the Department of Social Work.
Harris also said that one of the energy saving devices handed out was a draft stopper that people can put underneath their doors to prevent heat from escaping and cold from entering a room.
According to Harris, accessing services in the tough economy makes things even more difficult for disadvantaged people. Last year, social work students gave away around 1,100 coats.
Due to prioritization, social work was merged with the Department of Sociology & Anthropology. Harris said that it’s often misunderstood that the social work program doesn’t exist anymore since the prioritization — but in reality, social work plays a huge role in Creighton’s service and justice advocation.
“Part of the social work curriculum is that students have to put in about 500 hours of practicum work by the time they graduate,” Harris said. “It’s not an elective, but students get to choose the agency — and it provides a lot of service learning that they can’t possibly learn in the classroom.”
“Being part of the practicum seminar helps us to reflect on what we do within our individual practica,” Arts & Sciences senior Kim Utecht said. “We discuss what we’ve done and whether we do the right thing in the certain situations that come up in our practica.”
According to Harris, social work is something that is unique specifically to Creighton because it focuses so much on the service. Harris also said the students in her social work department truly are men and women for and with others.
“We adopted the Heart Ministry Center because of its philanthropy,” Arts & Sciences senior McKenzie Hunter said. “They involve a lot of things like the food drives, clothing drives, and self-sufficiency and mentoring programs for boys.”
Hunter also said that she enjoys working with the Heart Ministry because they never say no. Hunter takes that motto to heart when it comes to school and working toward a career in social work.
Besides a coat drive and clothing giveaways, the social work seniors have worked with freshmen to put on a social services event which included giving advice on putting together a list of medical records, advice on nutrition, how to access Nebraska Social Services and information on payday lending.