The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well¬being and help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. A historic and defining feature of social work is the profession’s focus on individual well¬being in a social context and the well¬being of society. Fundamental to social work is attention to the environmental forces that create, contribute to, and address problems in living. p>
Professional ethics are at the core of social work. The profession has an obligation to articulate its basic values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. The NASW Code of Ethics sets forth these values, principles, and standards to guide social workers’ conduct. The Code is relevant to all social workers and social work students, regardless of their professional functions, the settings in which they work, or the populations they serve.. p>
The NASW Code of Ethics serves six purposes. p>
1. The Code identifies core values on which social work’s mission is based.. p>
2. The Code summarizes broad ethical principles that reflect the profession’s core values and establishes a set of specific ethical standards that should be used to guide social work practice.. p>
3. The Code is designed to help social workers identify relevant considerations when professional obligations conflict or ethical uncertainties arise.. p>
4. The Code provides ethical standards to which the general public can hold the social work profession accountable.. p>
5. The Code socializes practitioners new to the field to social work’s mission, values, ethical principles, and ethical standards. p>
6. The Code articulates standards that the social work professional itself can use to assess whether social workers have engaged in unethical conduct. NASW has formal procedures to adjudicate ethics complaints filed against its members1. In subscribing to this Code, social workers are required to cooperate in its implementation, participate in NASW adjudication proceedings, and abide by any NASW disciplinary rulings for sanctions based on it. p>
Service: Continually strive to increase their professional knowledge and skills and to apply them in practice.
• Yoga originated as a spiritual practice where consumerism was not involved. In today’s modern westernized yoga classes, sometimes the focus can be on an exercise or on refining the physical form. YFP implements service through providing free yoga to community programs without monetary gain. The emphasis in YFP classes is on internal work and community connection. Each person involved in YFP is a volunteer and all donations made to YFP are directly utilized for supporting our community.
Dignity and Worth of the Person: Treat each person in a caring and respectful fashion, mindful of individual differences and cultural and ethnic diversity. Promote clients' socially responsible self-determination. Seek to enhance clients' capacity and opportunity to change and to address their own needs. p>
• By practicing yoga we move our bodies and use mindfulness to practice self-compassion, acceptance, and self-determination that can help free ourselves from past experiences of oppression and historical trauma, and conditions connected to individual suffering.
• Learning breathing techniques, basic body awareness, and experiencing the subtle changes that occur over time increases each person’s sense of control over our own lives and provides the foundational skills for practicing effective self-regulation.
• YFP honors and values the different characteristics and needs of each site and each participant. Before starting a new class, we listen to the needs and desires of each site and help find the teacher that would best fit. We support self-determination of community participants through being aware of the power dynamics between teacher and participants. We hire volunteers that have a strong awareness and understanding that their power from their identity can hold power over participants in the classroom. We guide and support our volunteers in how to level power dynamics in the classroom through encouraging participants to increase awareness of their own physical and mental experience and providing chances for personal decision making. Our classes challenge white supremacy values of perfectionism and competition. We emphasize presence, self-awareness, and self-acceptance of the personal experience in each participant and encourage them not to compare themselves to others or themselves from previous weeks..
Competence: Continually strive to increase their professional knowledge and skills and to apply them in practice.
• YFP members are always looking for ways to improve our skills and knowledge in yoga practices and for learning to be more culturally responsive. We strive to continuously educate ourselves through conversation, participating in community forums, and researching educational resources that support yoga teacher growth. All of our teachers are certified yoga instructors. Prior to placing volunteers with sites, we determine through personal interviews and group training that they possess the fundamental knowledge and skills needed to help support the communities with whom they are involved. Additionally, we support continuous education of our volunteers and ourselves through providing access to educational resources to improve skills and knowledge.
Social Justice: Pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social change efforts are focused on forms of social injustice. Seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity. Strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people
• Yoga practice addresses and supports healing from systemic and individual oppression through self-reflection, self- regulation, and acceptance. Spaces of mindfulness and restorative practices have historically been taken away from communities and cultures. Yoga can address historical / intergenerational Trauma that has been passed down from generation to generation due to systemic oppression and societal discrimination. YFP strives to dismantle disproportionate opportunities and systematic oppression by ensuring access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people. We promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural (abilities, gender, language, SES) and ethnic diversity.
• We support communities impacted by individual and societal traumas through providing brave/safe spaces where all are welcome and our classes allow for personal reflection, acceptance of the present, and self-empowerment for navigating through the future.
• We educate the community on the exclusive nature of westernized yoga during our fundraising events. Within our orientation and providing additional resources to volunteers, we educate all YFP teachers on the impacts of trauma within the yoga classroom, how power, privilege, and oppression are involved within the teacher/student relationship and how we can start to equalize power within our relationships.
Integrity: Act honestly and responsibly and promote ethical practices on the part of the organizations with which they are affiliated.
• YFP adheres to the needs and expectations of community programs and participants through constant collaboration with each person involved. We make every effort to be authentic in our interactions with community members and sincere in our understanding that we are not experts but continuous learners. We strive to honor the ethical standards, values, and mission of yoga and the cultures from which it derives by improving our cultural competence and awareness of our part in the appropriation of yoga practices. Our members listen to, learn from, and communicate with individuals and communities that are aligned in our mission of fighting against oppression within the yoga community. Our partners collaborate with us to create opportunities for training, exposure, and accessibility for everyone in our local community. We support each site’s ethical standards, values, and missions.
Importance of Human Relationships: Understand that relationships between and among people are an important vehicle for change. Engage people as partners in the helping process. Seek to strengthen relationships among people in a purposeful effort to promote, restore, maintain, and enhance the well-being of individuals, families, social groups, organizations, and communities. p>
• As humans, we are not isolated! We strive in making connections with others in our community. Each class is an opportunity and space to make meaningful relationships that can positively impact lives within and outside the classroom. We encourage communication between participants and volunteers before, during, and after each class. Providing a space for community and genuine connection allows the opportunity for individuals to feel worthy of support from others while also slowly increasing self-confidence and self-love from connecting with and being able to support others.
•YFP volunteers and participants both report that the community created within class connects individuals that may have never met each other before, connecting people across differences..
YFP also supports creating a larger community through networking with community programs and volunteers. We provide spaces for site coordinators and volunteers to collaborate on how to best support their participants.