SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
As a social work student in the final year of his program at Aurora College Noel Hernandez is used to people thinking that his job is simply to take children out of troubled homes. With National Social Worker's Month nearly half over, Hernandez is hoping that he can help dispel that notion.

Social worker Noel Hernandez, second from left, hangs out on the rocks inside K'alemi Dene School, in Ndilo, where he works one-on-one with students and helps teachers to mark papers as he completes a practicum toward a two-year social work program he'll finish in April. From left, Lora Lee, 7 Hernandez, Dathen Field, 7, at front in red, Natuzo Baton, 6, Jayla Field, 8, Keysha Delorme, 8, Brent Betsina, 18, Frederick Betsina, 15, and Sophia Black, 10. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo

"That is a hard job that needs to be done, but there's so much more to social work than the 'baby snatchers', said the 31-year-old Hernandez, who grew up in Yellowknife, but was born in Cranbrook, B.C. "There's income support and working at the salvation army. I help with the breakfast program, making sure kids are fed every morning and have full bellies. In the North, going further into the communities, you're going to be having to do everything. Say a tragedy happens. You're not only working with the family but you're organizing funerals."

Hernandez is currently completing a practicum at K'alemi Dene School, in Ndilo, where he is expected to work with students one-on-one, mark their assignments and help to bridge the gap between students and adults. Students in the course take human relations classes and learn about the history of the first people of the NWT, he said. Before he decided to embark on his present career path Hernandez thought he a sound understanding of the world. However, becoming the college's social work program has really opened his eyes to inequities all around him, he said.

"We call it the social worker's lens," he said. "It makes you look at everything differently."

"So now when I watch TV or commercials or movies, I see oppression and violence against women, racism and sexism. Sometimes it's a little irritating because you can't go back to what you knew before."

He said he's learned a lot about communicating with youth as a result of his education.

"I wasn't always the best at relating to kids before," he said. "You learn how to talk to kids, how to meet them at their level."

Hernandez said spending so much time with the students has particularly reinforced the importance of being conscious of his body language. Leaning forward to speak to them, not crossing his arms or looking at his watch too frequently and being genuinely warm with them are skills he said he's picked up.

"There's certain tricks with eye contact," he said. "Because that can be intimidating for some students. So maybe looking at their ear instead. That's something you learn about.

Eileen Erasmus, principal at K'alemi Dene School, said she could see social workers becoming permanent fixtures in territorial schools.

"When people think about social work they think of people apprehending kids," she said. "But I think it would be beneficial if they were part of the schools, working with kids to bridge the gap and help build relationships."

Sandy Little, senior instructor of social work at Aurora College, said the program was first delivered at Thebacha Campus in Fort Smith, starting in 1982, before it moved to the Aurora Campus in Inuvik in the 1990s. At the end of the year in 2005, the program was on hiatus for a year to be reworked, she said.

"They moved it to the North Slave campus in 2007," she said. "And that was the original intent of the program that it would serve the whole of the NWT and take place in different campuses."

She said 135 graduates have passed through their doors since the 1982.

People distressed by poverty, oppression or discrimination seem to be drawn to social work, said Little. She said when she was in High School she volunteered in a class for children with learning disabilities. It was at that point that she discovered she had a soft spot for helping others.

"I realized that it was so much more than just working with people," she said. "It was actually working with society and changing social things.

Social workers can be found all across the territory, she said, working at Stanton Territorial Hospital, at mental health and addictions centres, in corrections services, victim services, at nursing homes, the Salvation Army, the YWCA, the Centre for Northern Families and many more.

She said a running joke among those coming through her program is that people going into social work shouldn't be dead-set on getting rich. However there are a handful of lucrative career opportunities with governments and NGOs.

"NGOs work really hard to retain social workers because they're competing against the mines and government positions," she said. "But people come into it because they love it and they're excited about it."

Hernandez said when he finishes in April, he hopes to find a job working with children in schools in Yellowknife.