SW 28B Social Work Theory

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SW 28BSocial Work Theory Practice

• COMMUNITY WORK SEQUENCE

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What is Social Work?

• A professional activity of helping individuals,
  groups or communities to
• enhance or restore their capacity for social
  functioning
• Create societal conditions favourable to their
  goals

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What is Social Work?

• It includes the application of social work
  values, principles and techniques to achieve
• Helping people to obtain tangible resources
• Providing counselling or psychotherapy for
  individuals, families and groups
• Helping communities or groups to provide or
  improve social services
• Participating in relevant legislative process
  (ZASTROW)

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Social Work

• A professional activity of helping individuals,
  groups or communities to enhance or restore their
  capacity for social functioning
• And
• To create societal conditions favourable to their
  goals

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Social Work

• Micro Practice includes counselling and or
  therapeutic work with individuals and /or group
• Macro Practice includes developmental work with
  communities and groups and the arena of social
  planning and social policy

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What is Social Functioning?

• What has this got to do with Social Work?

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Social Functioning

• People influence their environment and the
  environment itself influences the behaviour of
  people
• Social workers interact with people to promote
  healthy social functioning ie coping with the
  demands of the environment and creating an
  environment to benefit unmet needs

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Community Work

• Understanding
• Community Building
• Social Capacity
• Capacity Building
• Social Capital

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Community Building

• Community building is a process. Tasks and goals
  are not the outcomes of a community building
  process
• The outcomes of community building include
• Improved capacity to accomplish tasks and goals
• A heightened sense of community
• A strengthening of social and psychological ties
  to the place and to other residents (Mattesich)

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Social Capacity

• Focuses on social networks and the extent to
  which members of a community can work together
  effectively ie collaborating to identify and
  solve community problems

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Capacity Building

• Capacity building describes activities to build
  social capacity. These activities include those
  undertaken to enhance leadership skills and group
  problem solving

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Social Capital

• Social Capital speaks to the resources embedded
  in social relations among persons and
  organisations that facilitate cooperation and
  collaboration in communities
• Social Capital exists un three forms
• Information sharing to convey valuable
  information
• Trust to establish reciprocity and shared
  expectations
• Norms and values that maintain the social order
  for example delaying childbearing or investing in
  education
• Like physical and human capital, social capital
  is seen as a productive resource as it enhances
  the productivity of other resources

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Social Capital

• Social Capital is said to have both cognitive and
  structural components
• Examine
• The nature of the relationship trust,
  tolerance, reciprocity, respect and acceptance
• The level of interconnectivity between different
  groups
• The importance of relationship between formal and
  informal organizations
• The access to and quality of participation by
  individuals in organizations, networks and
  associations

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Understanding the community as a social system

• Important in assessing strengths and resources to
  promote growth change
• Examine
• Structure what are the component parts or units
• Communication patterns/transactions between
  groups
• Boundary geographic is the community an open or
  closed one?
• State balanced/steady or unbalanced?
• Functions how it maintains itself, does it
  perform locally relevant functions
• Development the continuous process of change as
  a community progresses through its development in
  response to meeting its needs

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Modes of Community Intervention

• Locality Development
• Social Planning
• Social Action

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Locality Development

• Theoretical Grounding found in Durkeims theory
  on the organic vs the mechanistic communities

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Locality Development

• Process goals to create solidarity and social
  integration

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Social Planning

• Task goals in the application of knowledge to
  effectively manage social problems

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An examination of the terms Planning Social

• Planning involves
• Making decisions
• Deciding how to best use available resources
• A continuous process
• A complex and continuous process of decision
  making to achieve social, economic, environmental
  and political change

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An examination of the terms Planning Social

• Social
• Social associated with social life or leisure
  activities
• Social associated with a group of people
• Social as in social capital
• Social as in social development

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Social Planning

• Social Planning is concerned with
• The planning of social services
• Giving consideration to social priorities in
  development planning
• Promoting people participation

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Social Action
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Community Profile A tool for community
development

• Community Profile a term coined in the 1970s
• Other terms appeared in the 1980s 90s needs
  assessment, social audits, community
  consultations
• Stages of community profiling
• Planning or preparing the groundwork/goals/objecti
  ves/methods
• Implementation fieldwork/data collection
• Reporting/data analysis/action plan
  goals/objectives/actions/monitoring/evaluation

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Fieldwork PreparationEntry the cognitive
element

• The right attitude is The
  right behaviour is to
• - openness
  - share and support
• - humility
  - establish rapport
• - curiousity
  - show respect for local
• 
  opinion
• - acceptance
  - observe and listen not
• 
  lecture
• - sensitivity
  - embrace error and learn
• 
  from it
• - neutrality
  - allow the community to
• 
  analyse and create
• - flexibility
  answers
• - genuineness
• Team preparation QUESTIONS TO ASK MYSELF?

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Fieldwork PreparationEntry the cognitive
element

• 1) Learning about the community
• Gathering Secondary Data
• Making contacts
• 2) Building relationships with existing leaders
• 3) Preparing the community - introductions
• 4) Selling the idea of participation gaining
  commitment
• To the community
• To your organization
• To the power- holders

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Fieldwork PreparationEntry the physical
element

• Arranging venues
• Accommodation
• Community resources
• Transportation
• Materials
• Un expected occurrences

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Other Fieldwork Preparation

• Find out which days are suitable for the research
  activities
• How long will the visit last
• Arrange for the larger community to know of the
  visit
• Plan exactly what will take place
• Explain the purpose of the visit
• The goal or what you intend to accomplish
• The actvities involved
• The roles you will play
• The resources needed-venue, transportation,
  refreshments, materials

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Understanding Barriers/obstacles to participation

• Powerlessness

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Benefits of Participation

• Have class list these

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Institutional goals

• Professional goals What is the
  organisation/worker trying to accomplish?
• What do the institutional goals refer to?
• Goals include
• Integrative goals
• Socio-therapeutic goals
• Environmental change goals

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Stages of the Community Work Process

• Understanding method
• Understanding process
• Stages include
• Socialisation
• Primary Group development
• Organisation development
• Development of Instituional Relations
  Organisation

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Stages of Community Organisation

• At each stage the worker carries out two types of
  tasks
• Interactional Tasks
• Technical Tasks

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Community Development

• Potentials
• Limitations
• History of community development in the Caribbean