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Reflection
My SRV implementation project was the outcome of my learning experience from SRV

theory through this course. …. people too become evaluated positively or negatively by their

perceivers. When a person is evaluated negatively by a perceiver, we call that devaluation.

(Wolfensberger, 2013, p. 21) I had several experiences of devaluation by myself since my

childhood and also have witnessed few with others. But I never realized that I am being devalued

or it is called devaluation. My dad tried to add more valued roles in my life to support me, but

that was only because of his experiences from this world. We never knew what SRV theory is. I

had not known anything about SRV since the beginning of this course.

Learnings from SRV Theory

When I read about SRV in detail it not only helped me in realizing about my past

experiences form India to Canada as an immigrant but also enabled me to understand the concept

of SRV in detail with the potential solutions. In our society, wealth and material prosperity and

possessions are highly valued…Those who have very few skills, or whose skills are not wanted

or useful to the society…those who are illiterate, …those who are unemployed…those who are

unassimilated into the culture, …members of racial and ethnic minority groups, …religious

minorities, …. migrant- laborers…are apt to be, or to become, the objects of devaluation….

(Wolfensberger, 2013) The above description of devaluation made me deeply understand the

different reasons and situation for the risk of devaluation of a person or a party.

The second assignment Personal Response to Devaluation helped me in the

understanding of the concept. Even though I had experienced the devaluation but I could only

realize it when I tried to think of the matter for my assignment. I could understand the meaning

and various reasons of devaluation. With the help of SRV theory I could realize that the
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newcomers to a country can be easily the target of devaluation because they are from a different

culture, different language, may be different religion, different education which can lead them to

devaluation and slowly can add more devalued roles to their lives due to poverty.

Third assignment Social Imagery Analysis brought up the understanding how images are

conveyed to us. Image refers to the mental picture that others hold in their minds about an

individual or group. These mental representations are created by such things as the observer’s

previous expectations and experiences with such a person or group; how the observed person

looks and acts (Wolfensberger, 2013, p. 86). Social imagery analysis was the step to make me

aware of the fact how we trust our preconceived notions about different people or groups. We

don’t keep high expectations from devalued groups or people. The preconceived notion about

newcomers to Canada is that those people are not competent enough to live, work or study with

the native people because of the lack of language and the information they missed because of not

belonging to the new country since their birth. Sometimes, I felt like people don’t expect great

answers from me during my University classes, it must be the experience of other immigrants

too. It also made me to think about an incident with a client in my previous salon job, who was

surprised and almost passed a sarcastic comment when she came to know that I was a teacher

back home and I more qualified than she was (she was also a teacher). It showed how people

don’t have high expectations from new immigrants. When we see an image placed next to a

person or a place, a transfer effect takes place. That image conveys a message, whatever is

placed next to that image, will be associated to that message. My salon settings made her think

that my qualification is just enough for that job and her surprise showed how juxtaposition with

another images affects the real image. The salon was not a negative image but still when it was

put with my teaching qualification, it changed my actual worth.

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By the time of fourth assignment SRV Implementation Plan, I was able to understand the

concept of SRV theory with the help of previous assignments. I knew the needs of immigrants,

because I had the personal experience. I was not working in a School, so making a plan to help

newcomers to Canada was a relevant option for me. I had several incidents where I always felt as

a new immigrant, the need for help from someone who knows what I need to know.

Wofensberger’s five steps to consider before the implantation of SRV theory;

1. Becoming familiar with a party’s wounds due to devaluation in order to help in the

healing process. Which I am already familiar because of being an immigrant by myself

and I also faced these difficulties in my initial settlement period.

2. To know party’s risk factors by knowing that the people whom we are trying to help can

face other problems like segregation from the society or getting other devalued roles in

their life etc. The party at risk is newcomer immigrants to Canada.

3. Finding the present social roles of party is the third step by Wolfensberger. What kind of

roles the party is playing, like; if the people are employed or unemployed, educated or

less educated, they know English or not, do they sufficient financial support or not. All

these positive and negative roles need to be analysed before we take any step to help

these people or party at risk.

4. Explicating a party’s current societal standing which we should assess fourthly. We

should assess the impact of party’s roles on their lives and their image in society. The

roles either valued or devalued decide the image of people in society. It will give you an

idea how much people like or dislike, value or devalue, the party at risk.

5. Fifth and final step is to identify the roles which will help the parties at risk in order to

make a valuable place in the society by adding more valued roles and taking devalued
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roles away, enhancing image and competency, giving more opportunities to grow in a

good way. It can be done by showing newcomers to Canada the way to enhance their

image and competencies, by helping in enabling them to grow in this new country.

My plan was to help new comers to Canada, I assessed that need from my own personal

experience of struggle and my conversation with a lot of new immigrants in the place where I

live. The focus of my plan was to help newcomers to Canada by providing them information of

various services and places offered to help in the settlement in Canada. There are so many

resources but it is hard to go through so many resources and narrow down which one you need. I

tried to take the information from all these various resources and compile those in the form of a

flyer to ease the struggle to find the information.

Hence, the assignment of SRV implementation plan made me to think and plan for whom

should I make an attempt to save from devaluation, Why I should help them, What I should do

for that, and How should I implement this plan.

Assignment 5 was Annotated Bibliography which cemented our beliefs and learnings from the

previous assignment by providing the research- based proofs from the literature. The research

about the problems faced by immigrants gave a solid base to my knowledge and experiences.

The studies I had chosen for this assignment were about social support availability, health care

access barriers due to lack of language proficiency, determinants of poverty and role of intra and

interethnic relationship for immigrants, self reported health problems, stress, isolation,

unfamiliarity, communication challenges in maternity period, social conflict and mental health

and post migration education.

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These studies revealed the settlement challenges faced by new immigrants in various

ways. Most of the problems arise from language barriers, social support, lack of information

about various services and places which are important for them to know in-order to eliminate

stress, isolation and poverty. Hence, with this assignment I became aware of the challenges faced

by newcomers to Canada with the references from research studies in the literature.

Conclusion

All these assignments paved my way to the help the newcomers to Canada and showed

me the different ways to achieve success in that. Overall all these assignments are weaved

together to play a significant role, which they did play. While working on the implementation of

my plan I met some people who I thought would be interested in supporting this plan. Some of

them appreciated the idea and agreed to me that this idea will be really helpful for their positive

growth in Canada. Some gave me suggestions to edit or add few more things, they thought from

different perspective with the same motive of saving newcomers from devaluation. Some of

those people like the Fort Gary church was already working to support newcomers, hence with

the proposal to support newcomers with my information flyer made them aware of the fact that

how we can support with this information to help newcomers in being competent by increasing

their English language proficiency, employment, financial support, education and medical

services etc.

On the other hand, the newcomer people to whom I am trying to support with this

information, some of them contacted me through email and also in person. The person who

asked for the links for further education and loan through email shows the spark of motivation

created by the information flyer, his urge for study after seeing the information is the evidence of

his motivated self. The people’s response showed that they are trying to take guidance from my
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attempt, in their steps towards enhancing their image and competencies, by adding more valued

roles in their lives.

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References

Race, D. G. (1999). Social Role Valorization and the English experience. London, England:

Whiting & Birch.

Wolfensberger, W. (2013). A brief introduction to Social Role Valorization: A high-order

concept for addressing the plight of societally devalued people, and for structuring

human services (4th ed.). Plantagenet, ON: Valor Press.