CANDIDACY FEATURE

Inspiring a Learning Community

Leading with mentorship in social work

BY NICOLE BROOKS DE GIER

Winnifred Grant (left) received the Ronald Stratford Memorial Award from NSCSW in 2016

Photo by Michelle Doucette

The Nova Scotia College of Social Workers requires all new and returning members to complete the Candidacy Mentorship Program. This process grounds candidates in the principles that guide their profession – the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice – with the support of an experienced mentor. One of those mentors is Winnifred (Winnie) Grant.

This year, Winnie will celebrate her thirtieth year working in social work – a vocation that she fell into as a second career in 1989. Winnie had been exploring public relations and received an assignment that led her to interview a social worker at the former Grace Maternity Hospital in Halifax.

“It wasn’t a positive experience – she was very cruel,” said Winnie, not elaborating, but then added, “I thought, ‘I would be a better, more caring social worker.’”

After graduating from Dalhousie’s School of Social Work in 1992, Winnie worked as an employment support worker, before taking a two-year leave of absence to work for a community organization. She then transitioned into the field of child welfare, beginning in a term position in the post adoption division.

Services in senior management. In addition to her role in the public service, Winne also teaches in both the graduate and undergraduate program in the School of Social Work program at Dalhousie University

Yolande Grant and Katrina Jarvis are new social workers, both graduating in 2019. Despite being more recent to the field, like Winnie, they were both mature program students.

Yolande’s first career was as an accountant.

“I’ve always value education and worked to instill that value into my four children,” Yolande explained. “I tutored children and started to realize I wanted to work more directly with the community to make an impact.”

Katrina’s origin story is a bit different; growing up, she encountered the support of social workers.

“Ironically, I had no intention of working in child welfare,” Winnie recalled, chuckling. “It was actually a friend who encouraged me to apply, repeatedly, and I finally did in 2000 – and I loved it!”

After her term position in post adoptions, she moved to a position in the foster care unit, before becoming a frontline child protection social worker. Winnie then spent more than 10 years in the recruitment and assessment unit, and now works with the Nova Scotia Department of Community

“My home was difficult. My father suffered with addiction, there was domestic violence. Later, my mom struggled as a working, single mother,” Katrina shared. “I had my son when I was 15. When I went to school, university wasn’t a thought. I needed to get my diploma and get a job.”

Admittedly, also like Winnie, she didn’t intend to become a social worker – not initially. She completed a diploma program at Nova Scotia Community College and then enrolled in Dalhousie University’s Transition Year Program.

“I wanted to provide a better life for my son,” Katrina explained, a modest shrug apparent in her voice.

Through exploring mental health and psychology, Katrina kept bumping into the prospect that a career in social work may tick the right boxes.

There are more similarities than differences when discussing the careers of Winnie, Yolande, and Katrina. Greater than beginning their social work careers in their thirties, leaving their previous vocations behind, the three are members of the African Nova Scotian community. And Winnie served as a candidacy mentor to both.

According to Valerie Shapiro, the College’s regulatory and candidacy manager, the program is intended to protect the public by supporting new social workers to be grounded in the values, ethics, and principles of the social work profession.

“Through the Candidacy Mentorship Program mentors provide candidates with opportunities to further enhance their skills, competence, and approach to social work practice,” said Valerie.

Having both had Winnie as an instructor, combined with her lived experience as an African Nova Scotian woman and an African Nova Scotian social worker, Yolande and Katrina were eager for Winnie to accept them as her candidates.

“I had to wait for her,” said Yolande. “The number of candidates a mentor can take on is limited.”

Katrina also waited for Winnie, “To start the candidacy process, you need to have a job in social work. It took me a few months to find the best fit.”

From her perspective, Winnie believes she’s mentored at least 10 candidates but admits she’s lost track of the official number.

“I support two or three mentees at a time,” she explained. “Over the years, they’ve mainly been from the African Nova Scotian community, but not limited to it.”

Each candidate gets an individualized experience based on their effort and what they hope to achieve. Speaking specifically of Katrina and Yolande, Winnie explains that she didn’t provide either with direct answers to their questions, or the challenges they encountered, but would reframe their asks to prompt critical thinking.

“I consider it my role to teach the skills that are required to be successful in the field, to teach them to fish,” she said. “To build their confidence and develop their own approach based on the profession’s shared ethics.”

As a result of their regular meetings, Yolande and Katrina attribute unique takeaways from Winnie’s mentorship.

Katrina says it is because of Winnie that she has found her footing in social work, but more importantly, she has found her voice.

“She told me, ‘You have a voice, and you can choose to use it.’ She gave me permission to stand up for myself and speak up.”

Yolande attributes Winnie’s mentorship to challenging her thought process.

“Initially, I would ask myself, “Why do I see what other people don’t?” She remembered. “Winnie didn’t give me the answer to that question but pushed me to explore until I determined my ‘why’ on my own.”

Winnie elaborates that she teaches all African Nova Scotian candidates how to prepare emotionally to work in the community. Her approach to coaching is rooted in critical race and an Afro-centric, anti-Black racism perspective.

“In our working roles, we’re African Nova Scotian social workers, and in our community, we’re their African Nova Scotian social workers,” Winnie explained. “There is no separation when we leave the office at 5 p.m. – we take it all on and, as a result, this provides credibility and responsibility with our communities.”

“I want to help my candidates understand that we are both members of the community and work on behalf of the community. There is a weight that we carry, and we can see it as a calling or a consequence.”

To Winnie, it’s a calling.

Katrina underscores Winnie’s point by adding, “The number of times a client has said, ‘I know your family…’”

This is one of the reasons the Candidacy Mentorship Program is critical, says Valerie. She explains that “the experience gained through the candidacy process supports new social workers to develop the skills necessary to navigate the complexities and dichotomies inherent in social work practice.”

For Katrina, without the support and mentorship of Winnie,she’s not sure if she’d be able to successfully work in the field.

“My first year was tough,” she shared. “I did lots of questioning of what I was taught and what I represented. I remember telling Winnie, ‘I’m not sure if I can do this.’”

“The job needs passion and connection, and you need to save your energy to do the work.” Katrina continued. “You need that mentor support and having [Winnie’s] support helped me support others.”

Yolande has taken what she’s learned from Winnie’s mentorship and applies it by supporting her colleagues and other social work students.

“Being older, colleagues and students often look to me for advice. I would love to formally support an upcoming candidate. What Winnie did for me was excellent.”

Winnie quickly identifies how she’s fostered the growth of Katrina and Yolande.

“With Yolande, we worked together to find theconfidence to trust her instincts,” she said. “Katrina and I worked together to allow her to truly step into the role of a social worker.”

Winnie continues, “I have expectations with the candidates: we need to have honest conversations, they need to be courageous, they need to be willing to grow and learn to reach their full potential.”

As for whether her approach was successful with Katrina and Yolande, Winnie says, “they’ve accepted the challenge, and both continue to be successful.”

Ultimately, the program is about communicating, collaborating, and engaging in lifelong learning. Through this process, social workers like Winnie and her candidates are able to support each other, stay grounded in the guiding documents and principles of the profession, and sustain long, healthy careers.

Photo contributed by Winnie Grant

NICOLE BROOKS DE GIER is a communications consultant, business owner, and freelance writer living in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. She’s also the very proud mother of Audrey and Cameron. Nicole has provided strategic communications and public relations advice to several governments, government agencies, and businesses for the past 12 years. Nicole is a feminist and a member of the African Nova Scotian community. Her website is EmptyScribblerPR.com.