If You Want to Make a Difference in Your Community

Social Worker

2/25/25

Cassie Pustilnik is the executive director of Youth Research Inc. YRI is "a responsive research, program, and policy organization that supports the New York Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) 

Cassie comes from a background in social work, having worked for other human social service programs for the past 20 years. In this episode, she talks with Mirav about the challenges and rewards of working in the field of social work–which is a wide array of services that include support for children and families but other areas too like mental health crisis intervention, facilitating access to public resources, and working in hospitals. Are you driven by compassion and empathy with a desire to pursue social and economic justice? Social work may be your opportunity to have a direct positive impact on those experiencing hardship in your community. Tune in to find out more.

Topics
00:40 Introduction, getting started in Social Work
01:47 What really is social work?
02:57 Necessary qualifications
03:41 Cassie's role and the kind of work she does
07:32 Social work is about relationships
07:50 Managing the emotional investment in the work
08:48 How to see if social work might be right for you
10:00 Compensation and potential for growth
12:12 Who is the right fit for social work?
13:32 A day in the life as executive director at YRI
17:12 Misconceptions about the field
21:04 Biggest challenges
21:32 Rewards of doing the work
22:21 How do you keep your passion?

Resources
National Association of Social Workers - New York State Chapter
New York State Society for Clinical Social Work
Adelphi University - How to Become a Social Worker in New York

Music credit: Kate Pierson & Monica Nation