Lecture 10: Expanding Opportunities

1. Lecture 10: Expanding Opportunities

2. Expanding opportunities for our clients In empowerment-based practice, the social worker’s role is “to open up options, to help clients expand their choices, or to help them become free to consider multiple paths”.

3. Expanding opportunities through Collective action Awareness of social impact Consciousness of the right Recognition of their own competence Use of different sources of power

4. Community Work A set of practices social workers conducted in a community (geographically based and/or people with common interest but not living adjacent to each other) with the hope of developing the community in terms of participation, mutual support, resource and organizing them to solve community problems in a collective manner.

5. Community Development: Efforts made by professionals and community residents to enhance the social bonds among members of the community, motivate citizens for self-help, develop responsible local leadership, and create or revitalize local institutions

6. Community Organizing A method social workers use “to help individuals, groups, and collectives of people with common interests or from the same geographic areas to deal with social problems and to enhance social well-being through planned collective actions.

7. General Models in community work Locality development Social Action Social Planning Community care

8. Locality development building up community organizations, mobilizing community resources, maintaining positive working relationship with community associations/ institutions to promote community being.

9. Social action Building up mass power base to pressurize institution/business (those with resources) to change policy, provide resources), heavy involvement of collective actions and use of mass media/ other allies..

10. Social Planning Planning of service to fulfill community needs (Systematic assessment of community needs and deployment of funds and manpower to deliver services that meet the needs of the community. Needs assessment, service planning, grant applications, recruitment, training and deployment of staff members and resources, program evaluations)

11. Community care Mobilizing community resources to providing care to vulnerable groups so that they can stay in the community instead of moving them into isolated institutions. It usually involves case management, mobilization of volunteers, advocacy for better community resources

13. Common activities of community worker

14. Street exhibitions/encounters, homevisits, community action survey Purpose: knowing the residents, involving residents in the process of identifying their needs

15. Community liaison Liaising with government officials, community leaders, elected councilors Purpose: building rapport, let people knowing you, learning about community resources

16. Resident meetings, mass meetings Purpose: Providing information, discussing community concern, building up consensus, boosting up morale for actions, planning to solve community problems

17. Lobbying/Negotiation/Actions Purpose: persuasion, giving pressure

18. Development of community groups/organizations Purpose: building platform for resident participation and for making decisions, building up power base for future actions

19. Training of residents Providing various forms of training to leaders, volunteers Purpose: developing leadership, volunteers in terms of knowledge, skills and values

20. Community newsletter Purpose: Circulating information, building up community identity

21. Community activities Purpose: enhancing interaction, mutual support and sense of belongings

22. Generalist practice with communities Forming partnerships with community residents, local government officials, and other community leaders Articulating situations that interfere with the competence of the community Defining the purpose and direction of the community change strategies Identifying relevant community strengths Assessing community resource capabilities

23. Framing solutions to address community challenges and unmet needs by planning strategies to change Activating and mobilizing existing community resources – people, services, support base Creating alliances among and between formal and informal community structures Expanding opportunities in community institutions through advocacy, policy changes, and resource development.

24. Class Discussion & Assignment What are SoCo’s objectives of working with the new immigrants What are the strengths of the clients? What are the actions taken by the social worker and the clients What are new opportunities they tried to create?