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Community involvement and activism were two main themes of the second annual “Back to Our Roots: Social Work and Economic Justice” forum on Tuesday. Both fell under the larger aim of achieving social justice for poverty-level workers.

“I’m just a worker,” said Dolores Sanchez to the translator and audience. “But my children and I don’t go to the park, we go to picket lines.”

Dolores Sanchez is not just a worker; she is one of the head organizers for the Justice for Janitors union, which helps women like herself get the pay and benefits they deserve.

As a featured panelist at the forum, Sanchez pleaded to the audience of over 200 social welfare students and professors to involve themselves in their communities.

The goal of social and economic justice is to make sure people’s basic needs are met, said event organizer Mary Brent Wehrli, a field liaison and professor of social welfare at UCLA. Some ways to meet basic needs include providing workers with a higher living wage, affordable housing and health care, Wehrli said.

Unions aimed at helping poverty-level community members placed four students in field positions after last year’s forum, which Wehrli says will be repeated this year.

Keynote speaker Nancy Berlin, a staff member of the Los Angeles Coalition to End Hunger and Homelessness, suggested helping low-wage workers by looking at their individual problems from a broader perspective.

“Look at the person in their environment,” Berlin said. “Maybe the reason they can’t pay their rent isn’t their fault.”

Berlin also stressed that social workers can’t solve problems by just giving out money. Instead, she suggested placating clients’ feelings of isolation and helplessness by getting them involved in events such as rallies and protests related to their cause. “We have a tendency to victimize our clients, but nobody wants to be a victim,” Berlin said.

Organizers hope students will realize the importance of remaining optimistic about changing the current treatment of these workers.

“Cynicism is a cop out,” said Anneka Scranton, an event organizer and clinical professor at the University of Southern California School of Social Work.

“We want students to come out of this event with a sense that they can participate and make a change,” Scranton said.

A variety of grassroots organizations set up resource tables with representatives to help students get involved.

“It’s really important that young adults advocate and educate themselves because if we don’t, nothing will ever change,” said Children’s Defense Fund representative Gabriel Tovar. “The odds are stacked against us, but that just makes us more creative and passionate,” she added.

The event also included a dinner to promote discussion among students and faculty, and to provide networking opportunities for placement in field jobs.

“These events are really important to get everyone involved with the economic justice movement,” said fifth-year social welfare doctoral student Kate Cooney.