Running head: SRV IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

Social Role Valorization Implementation Plan

Anna Luangkhot

University of Manitoba
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Justin and I started the new 2017-2018 school year as strangers. He was a new student to

the school and I was a brand new teacher. It was not long until I became more familiar with

Justin, than with other students as I was consistently having to pay attention to his physical

behaviours with other students. Justin is a grade 4 student who is in a grade four, five, and six

split classroom. It wasn’t long until I was handed Justin’s file and began to piece together his

past which was full of heartache. He has gone through a lot of trauma in his life, resulting in

being apprehended by Child and Family Services (CFS) multiple times and being placed in foster

care, which is the current situation. I have heard Justin refer to himself as as “foster kid” and he

has acknowledged his lack of control of his feelings, and body. He has also stated numerous

times that he would like to go back to his old school and to his old friends. Justin has become

fairly physical with some of his classmates resulting in consequences such as at-home

suspensions, and not being allowed in physical education class for several weeks. He has also

destroyed school property such as windows, chairs, and desks. Despite these physical outbursts,

Justin is still accepted by his classmates, however, they are now able to recognize when Justin is

about to have an outburst and either remove themselves from his company or try to help diffuse

the situation. Justin states that he feels very lonely, in that he has no contact with his biological

parents and especially misses his mother and he also acknowledges that other students are scared

of him.

Rationale

Justin, and children like Justin, are societally devalued. Even in a low-income, inner-city

elementary school, there are still roles that are valued and devalued. Justin falls into the latter

category. How can we help children like Justin obtain a more socially valued role?

Wolfensberger talks about the bad things that happen to devalued people, in his book A Brief
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Introduction to Social Role Valorization. He states that “people who are devalued also

experience loss of control over their lives. It is other people who gain power over them and make

decisions for them, in both overt and subtle ways.” (p. 18) Justin is a result of this. Justin wants

to be with his family, and he wants to be at his old school with his old friends. However, because

of circumstances out of his control, this is not possible. Helping Justin build positive

relationships with his school classmates can help him gain a valued role as a friend. His

classroom teacher has acknowledged that it is often near the end of the day where Justin starts to

lose patience and can become agitated if he is asked to focus for a longer period of time. She also

indicated that he does little to no learning during this time. I thought that this would be a great

window for us to work with Justin to help establish a more positive relationship with some of his

classmates. Another note of concern for his classroom teacher is that during parent-teacher

meetings, and student led conferences, many of the parents brought up Justin and their concern

for their own child’s safety.

Goal Statement:

Jacob will establish positive relationships with his classmates by playing board and card

games, as well as co-operative, and low-organized games in the gym twice a week from Mid-

April to June 2018.

Materials, Resources, and Personnel

The gym is available for a short period during the end of the day, in which we will also

have access to equipment and space. We will also require various board games which are

plentiful throughout the school. More recently, Justin has also been spending time with Mr.

Smith, a male educational assistant, who Jacob has taken favour with. Mr. Smith is also

available to spend time with Jacob during this time. On days that the group will be playing board
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or card games, the resource teacher has volunteered her room as there is a large table and a large

carpeted area for use.

Sharing Learning

It will be important to share Justin’s success with not only him, but with his classroom teacher,

and caregivers. It is not often that Justin feels success in the avenue of personal relationships but

he must know when he is doing well so he can continue to perform the desired behaviours. I can

also share short videos or photos onto an online portfolio for the entire classroom. This will show

the rest of the class who are not involved in the group, the success, and ‘fun’, that this group is

having. This will help his classmates to see Justin around valued individuals and to help them

associate him with positive characteristics.

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Reference:

Wolfensberger, Wolf. (1998). A brief introduction to Social Role Valorization: A higher-order

concept for addressing the plight of societally devalued people, and for structuring human
services (3rd edition). Syracuse, NY: Training Institute for Human Service Planning, Leadership
& Change Agentry (Syracuse University)