What is social justice?
Social justice counseling seeks to promote human development and common good through addressing systems of oppression and external/environmental barriers to wellness. Social justice counseling involves empowering the individual as well as actively confronting injustice and inequality in society through dialogue, reflection, and direct action. Overall, working from a social justice perspective seeks to promote equity, access, participation, and harmony.
Mission of CSJ-UF:
To promote a social justice identity within the counselor ed community by fostering critical consciousness, multiculturalism, and true dialogue through an ongoing cycle of reflection and action. Social justice can be fostered in counseling through the client-counselor relationship, culture-centered interventions, case conceptualization, advocacy efforts, and strengths-based, culture-centered research. There are no dues associated with membership for CSJ-UF.
Is it my role as a counselor to be an advocate?
Counselors have worked as advocates and change agents since the profession began, but this role has only recently been acknowledged as being at the core of a counselor’s professional identity (Toporek, Lewis, & Crethar, 2009). Advocacycompetencies for professional counselors are included in current ACA, CACREP, ASCA, and NBCC standards and models.
What does CSJ-UF do?
- volunteering at NAMI walks
- video screenings and discussions
- school supply drive for SWAG (Southwest Advocacy Group) Family Resource Center
- collaborative art for the Center for Leadership and Service’s Human Rights Art Show
- classroom presentations
Interested?
For more information about CSJ-UF, please contact Brittany Rivers (brivers@ufl.edu) or visit us online at the CSJ-UF Gator Connect website or on Facebook
