Hello, guys! I wonder why “empowerment” is so important in social work practice.

Welcome.

Thank you for the clarification.

It is a good start to understanding value principles in social work. An important normative principle of social work is the principle of service user self-determination. This principle involves a fundamental commitment to the idea that people are their own agents, meaning that they have the right and the capacity to exercise choice and make decisions about their own lives. The principle and practice of advocacy is closely connected with this value position, although advocacy is a defined occupational role rather than an aspect of general practice. Advocacy involves the assumption that some people may need support in managing their relationships with the organizations, institutions, and personnel they encounter in their dealings with welfare, health, or legal services. This recognition is tied to analyzing the inevitability of unequal power relationships in service user encounters with welfare organizations. For this reason, empowerment principles have become an important part of how many practitioners think and behave.