Our papers are all Open Access. This means you can read\/download\/share for free. Click the link to be taken straight to the paper. We will add more as\/when they are published. Please contact the team if you’d like any more information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A poem written by Jude Emmanuel Ukato<\/strong>. Jude shared this poem with the project team at the June 2024 workshop. It was incredibly powerful and he has given permission for it to be shared here. (Posted 25-7-2024) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Gatekeepers or enablers? Our papers are all Open Access. This means you can read\/download\/share for free. Click the link to be taken straight to the paper. We will add more as\/when they are published. Please contact the team if you’d like any more information. A poem written by Jude Emmanuel Ukato. Jude shared this poem with the project<\/p>\n
OR
Gatekeepers and enablers?
Which one are we?
We will have to pick.
\u00a0
How many times have you heard, \u201cthere is no money\u201d \u201cthere is no money\u201d when a family is in crisis from the mouthpieces of government foot soldiers, otherwise known as social workers?
How many times?
But when the government spends on war, we become mute.
And send you to food banks.
Hard times.
\u00a0
People fleeing war-torn zones and violence are refugees and should not be treated as scums of the earth.
But social workers as the main assessors
exclude through their assessments
What on earth have we become?
\u00a0
We have become enablers and gatekeepers
Of endless hallways but never an open door within sight
\u00a0
Under the endless burden of economic and housing poverty
Social workers have become the unwilling gatekeepers of resources and enablers of tall dreams.
\u00a0
They open locked doors
But not fully please be kind
Helping to navigate those endless hallways of resources but never an open door in sight
As all are crumbling under their noses
They become the echoing voices of no, no, nos\u2026.
\u00a0
You hear murmurs \u2013 hush, silence in the halls of panels says the director
Social workers echoing the government\u2019s slogan, \u201cthere is no money, there is no money, ANYWHERE.\u201d
The dilemma of being a gatekeeper who stands tall like guardians deciding who gets what and who doesn\u2019t
And at the same time hidden enablers of lighted paths.
\u00a0
As a gatekeepers and an enablers
We dance together in a graceful waltz, balancing power
While as enablers, we direct but not define, as gatekeepers we safeguard and sometimes constrain
\u00a0
But as the story goes in this complex world of complexities, and of gatekeepers and enablers\u2026..
These languages are somewhat familiar.
\u00a0
The gates are either widely opened or firmly closed
This depends on what hat is on the head on the day
Gatekeepers or enablers what have we become?
I leave you with this\u2026.
\u201cBut unless you care (in the words of Dr. Seus) no one else will, no one else will.\u201d<\/p>(copyright Jude Emmanuel Ukato. 2024)<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"