Like most social workers, Lauren Shay's interest and passion for helping people set the stage for her social work career. Her early
experiences of growing up with a mother who specialized in labour and
employment law inspired her to believe that her own work should involve helping
others.
For several years Lauren volunteered at the Psy-crisis
centre at the Shambhala Music Festival in the Kootenay region of B.C. This work
included supporting people who were experiencing psychological and medical
crisis and distress. This work came to be known as “psychedelic crisis intervention,” which
included supporting people as they experienced the effects of substances they
may have taken. After being a support worker in the program, she later became
involved in the administration of the centre. In this role she collaborated with others in providing
training, supervising volunteers, running the program, and responding to the
most challenging crisis situations. Lauren stated she learned a great deal from this work,
including how to stay calm and provide help in a variety of crisis situations, how to support people in distress, and how to lead and work
effectively with teams.
Lauren has also volunteered extensively in the
anti-violence community in Vancouver. As
a member of Women Against Violence Against Women (WAVAW) she loved working on
the crisis line, supporting and assisting women who had experienced violence
and were calling for help.
She next volunteered with Battered Women’s Support Services (BWSS), facilitating support groups, and a drop-in group for women who
were dealing with the impacts of violence. This work involved providing crisis work with women
who were seeking immediate safety and support as a result of experiencing violence.
She also facilitated a 10 week support group which was more focused on trauma
care. She wrote and developed materials for BWSS and co-developed a group on
reclaiming sexuality that was offered in the fall of 2013.
Early on, Lauren realized that she had a calling to help people and decided that this was also her career path. She felt that the profession of social work was interesting to her and “in line with my values and politics.” Social work was also a type of work that was a good fit with her knowledge, skills and abilities and she felt she could make a meaningful contribution to the field. As a result of these factors, she chose to pursue her Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree at the School of Social Work at the University of B.C.
In her first practicum placement, Lauren worked in
the YES -Youth Education Support program at Princess Margaret Secondary in
Surrey, B.C. In this setting she had own
caseload, working with and developing supportive relationships with at-risk youth. She
ran a discussion group for at-risk teen girls where they discussed sexuality
and sexual health. She also designed an anti-bullying program, which was
delivered to all Grade 8 students at the school. Later the program was adapted
and shared with other schools.
In her second field placement Lauren worked in the Priority
Placement program with BC Housing, helping marginalized women who have
experienced intimate partner violence move more quickly up the waitlist for affordable housing. This
work involved a lot of advocacy to address barriers to housing that vulnerable women
experience within the larger institutional organization of the housing system. She worked directly with women, managing a caseload, as well as
being involved in program development. Lauren also developed and delivered
an educational workshop to BC Housing workers about working with women who had experienced intimate partner violence.
In 2012, after completing her BSW from UBC, Lauren began
to work as a Harm Reduction Coordinator for Lookout Emergency Aid Society. She
described her work there as very diverse, involving having broad oversight and
service coordination of harm reduction programming across 18 programs, including
homeless shelters, community programs and drop-in sites. The role included
ensuring that harm reduction strategies were running smoothly and consistently
across sites. She collaborated, and took leadership, in chairing a committee with
people from different program areas. She was also involved in policy development and consolidating
information on harm reduction practices, policies and offering guidance and
implementation to the various sites.
Currently Lauren has a busy year ahead for 2014. She
is involved in various professional development and community activities,
including completing an intensive sex therapy training program at the
University of Guelph, in Ontario and yoga teaching training.
In June 2014, Lauren will be making a presentation
at the Guelph Sexuality Conference for health providers across Canada, focusing
on sexual health issues. This is one of the areas she is most interested in
clinically, particularly supporting and assisting women in reclaiming sexuality
after experiencing abuse and violence.
In September 2014 Lauren is starting her Masters of
Social Worker MSW @ UBC School of Social Work.
Although her studies will keep her busy over the next year, Lauren will continue to be involved in a variety of activities that will be of benefit to many.
I want to thank Lauren for participating in this interview to celebrate Social Workers in BC and the work we are doing in our communities.
If you are interested, or know of a social worker who would make a great person to profile, contact me @ catalystbc7@gmail.com
Tracey Young, BA (CYC), MSW, RSW
Editor & Publisher, BC Social Workers
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