Since starting my final university social work placement with MCFB, every day has been different; but even at that, to turn up to the office and be told that there’s a bike waiting for you is quite something…

My name is Scott and I’ve been working at MCFB for the past five months on the final placement of my social work degree. In my first week at MCFB, I had the pleasure of meeting a young Asian male who suffers from mental health challenges and was advised that I’d be working with him on a weekly basis to help support him with the challenges he faces.

Starting school can be challenging for many children. This transition can be especially hard for children from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) backgrounds, as often English is not their first language and their parents may be dealing with other issues, such as immigration and living in temporary housing.

This blog is written by Marcela Adamova, a Roma woman working in healthcare in Slovakia. Previously, she worked for the NHS and for Oxfam in the UK. She was a founder member of the first Roma NGO based in Glasgow, Romano Lav. Together with young Roma people, she organised the first public procession and the flashmob celebrating the Roma Nation day in Scotland.

A typical day for me consists of a home visit or school visit and office work and phone calls regarding case work—mostly it consists of juggling various tasks with a to-do list, upholding social work values and ethics in practice, and making sure to always be culturally sensitive in my work due to the diversity of our service users. I will describe part of one particular day from my placement to demonstrate the kind of cross-cultural barriers that might come up in our work.

Since 2017 our ‘Time for Togetherness’ project has hosted a total of 7 multicultural ceilidhs, facilitated a series of 6 music workshops and collaborated with around 4 local musicians and groups. We have brought together around 80 Leith based children and parents from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds at each of our ceilidhs, using music and dance to help create greater community cohesion.