Use of the Internet for Community Practice

ABSTRACT

The Internet is a relatively new community practice tool with immense potential for more effective and efficient delivery of services. The lack of research about Internet community practice is an obstacle to the effective and efficient use of Internet tools. This research used the Delphi technique to elicit the opinions of experts on how the Internet tools of email, newsgroups, text, listservs, search engines, and chat are used by the four primary models of community practice found on the Internet (information dissemination, organization building, mobilization, and community planning). Findings show that a substantial number of people use community practice sites. The most useful Internet tools for the four Internet community practice models studied were text presentation and email. The least useful tools were newsgroups and chat. Barriers to Internet community practice include quality and currency of information, bandwidth, staff time, agency support, rapid technological change, marketing, browser consistency, user skills, and the lack of Internet access by potential users. The study concluded that Internet community practice is effective and will continue to grow as society enters the information age. The findings are particularly relevant for community practice agencies interested in setting up or enhancing an agency Web site to help provide services.     

Measuring the adoption of innovation. A typology of EU countries based on the Innovation Survey

Based on the Community Innovation Survey, this paper suggests new indicators of innovation adoption. The magnitude of innovation adoption is assessed for 22 EU countries and different industries. The most striking feature is the correlation between the innovation activities and the adoption rate. Countries with strong R&D and human resources and high innovation output exhibit the highest adoption rates. This supports the idea that innovation adoption requires an absorption capability. In addition, the specificities of each country regarding the prevailing types of innovation and adoption (product or process, cooperation-based adoption or internal adoption) allow us to draw up a typology of the EU countries, for which a specific geographical pattern is observed.     

Using a participatory evaluation design to create an online data collection and monitoring system for New Mexico's Community Health Councils

We present the collaborative development of a web-based data collection and monitoring plan for thirty-two county councils within New Mexico's health council system. The monitoring plan, a key component in our multiyear participatory statewide evaluation process, was co-developed with the end users: representatives of the health councils. Guided by the Institute of Medicine's Community, Health Improvement Process framework, we first developed a logic model that delineated processes and intermediate systems-level outcomes in council development, planning, and community action. Through the online system, health councils reported data on intermediate outcomes, including policy changes and funds leveraged. The system captured data that were common across the health council system, yet was also flexible so that councils could report their unique accomplishments at the county level. A main benefit of the online system was that it provided the ability to assess intermediate, outcomes across the health council system. Developing the system was not without challenges, including creating processes to ensure participation across a large rural state; creating shared understanding of intermediate outcomes and indicators; and overcoming technological issues. Even through the challenges, however, the benefits of committing to using participatory processes far outweighed the challenges.     

Empowerment in Coalitions Targeting Underage Drinking: Differential Effects of Organizational Characteristics for Volunteers and Staff

Social work has adopted the Grand Challenge to reduce and prevent alcohol misuse and related consequences. This study extends previous research through a macro examination of distinct roles within coalitions implementing prevention strategies targeting underage alcohol use. The purpose was to determine whether hypothesized relationships among organizational characteristics, empowerment variables, and perceived effectiveness differed for 2 subgroups (i.e., volunteers and paid staff). The sample was comprised of 357 survey participants affiliated with a statewide substance abuse initiative. Structural equation modeling was used to examine hypothesized relationships between study variables and found differences among subgroups. Results can inform organizational processes within coalitions that focus on engaging different groups to have a stronger impact on community issues, such as substance use consequences.     

Opportunities for Community Organizing in the Realm of Economic Justice and Low Wage Worker Struggles

ABSTRACT

The new upsurge in labor organizing among low-wage workers provides community organizing with opportunities to engage in economic justice struggles. Low-wage workers are organizing in many sectors of the workforce that are difficult to organize. Their issues are part of the larger discourse concerning inequality in the United States. New forms of community organizing are developing in some areas that embrace economic justice issues. However, many of the national networks have yet to become involved in issues of community members in the capacities as workers. Macro social work needs to revisit its origins and forge a new tradition that incorporates the problems that inspired Jane Addams and her contemporaries, the issues of workers and immigrants.     

创新社会管理背景下的上海社区建设研究

当前上海社会管理面临的主要问题在于:快速城市化和大规模人口流动使社会管理与公共服务的空间布局出现失衡;城市产业升级和转型发展使社会管理与服务的多样化供给压力增大;利益格局急剧变革导致维护社会稳定的压力长期存在;社会急剧分化和人口高度异质性使社会再组织化和社会体制创新的任务更加繁重。上海社区建设必须立足城市发展全局,有效回应城市人口重新分布和复杂社会结构中蕴含的多重矛盾和问题,顺应健全社会管理新格局的基本要求。在承继上海社区建设传统和借鉴国内外经验基础上,从破解城郊社区建设难题、满足多样化社区需求、适应差异性社区类型等方面提升能力,寻求体制创新和活力激发的新突破。     

Code choice and code-switching in Swiss-German Internet Relay Chat rooms

In the German-speaking regions of Switzerland, dialect is spoken by all social groups in most communicative situations, Standard German being used only when prescribed. Swiss dialects rarely appeared in written form before the 1980s, apart from the genre of dialect literature. Due to the growing acceptance of informal writing styles in many European languages, dialect is increasingly employed for written personal communication, in particular in computer-mediated communication (CMC). In Swiss Internet Relay Chat (IRC) rooms, varieties of German are used side by side as all chatters have a command of both standard and dialectal varieties. Depending on the channel, the proportion of dialectal contributions can be as high as 90 percent. The choice of a particular variety depends on both individual preference and on the predominant variety used within a specific thread. In this paper I take a quantitative approach to language variation in IRC and demonstrate how such an approach can help embed qualitative research on code-switching in CMC.     

Community development--action research in community settings

This paper considers the concept of resilience and how the natural qualities supportive of resilience in children and families can best be nurtured. It argues that there is an emerging crisis in bureaucratised child protection systems that alienates and undermines both social workers and clients, and that runs counter to the spirit of resilience‐led practice. Responding to this crisis requires a new emphasis on relationships, strengths and the clients' social context in child and family social work. It also requires practitioners and students to reflect carefully on the nature of helping. The paper explores some of the implications of these ideas for social work practice, education and policy.     

Chapter 16. Community Caregiving Partnerships in Aging

SUMMARY

Although greater numbers of families are providing support to older adults, a lack of comprehensive programming in resource allocation continues to exist at the social policy level. This chapter explores how community caregiving partnerships may contribute to a solution.     

Changes in Community Organization Practice in Quebec (Canada)

Abstract

This paper examines the changes that occurred in community organization practice in the public establishments of Quebec (Canada) in the 1990s. The results of replicated statistical research show that many changes in community organization practice occurred during this period. Most of these changes can be explained by the socioeconomic crisis that took place in the 1990s that affected part of the middle class, driving the reorganization of public social services organizations and important cuts in the government's budget. In this context of crisis, the government of Quebec more easily accepted the local development strategy to overcome unemployment and poverty. These changes can also be explained by a change in community organizers' perceptions of their profession and their strategy for professional recognition observed in the creation of a professional association.     

Working in Complexity: Ethics and Boundaries in Community Work and Mental Health

While codes of ethical conduct are important, they do not always fit neatly in the organic community settings in which some workers engage. Professional standards from accrediting bodies are easy to sign up to, yet much more difficult to put into practice. Drawing upon community connection practice in recovery-oriented mental health work, this article names the professional boundary tensions peculiar to less structured fields of engagement. We suggest that for workers in these fields, there has been a disconnection between the theory, the experience, and the public discourse of professional boundaries. We argue that such disconnection can create uncertainty, anxiety, and secrecy, creating exactly those cultures we wish to avoid. Ultimately this leads to greater harm for vulnerable individuals, as well as the workers and organisations that serve them. The alternative is to engage in what we name a “risky conversation,” to expose this disconnect and engender a new type of professionalism.     

Community Land Trusts in the United States

ABSTRACT

Land trusts are a means to conserve land and/or wildlife (e.g., donating one's farm to The Nature Conservancy) or encourage affordable homeownership and local control of land. The topic of this article is the latter type of land trusts, called Community Land Trusts (CLTs), that have been touted as an innovative means to provide and preserve affordable housing. Through a synthesis of the literature, this article introduces social workers to CLTs. This includes defining Community Land Trusts, reporting on their brief history in the United States, discussing their advantages and disadvantages, and examining the limited empirical evidence. This review suggests that Community Land Trusts are an arena for future social work practice and research.     

Reconceptualizing Community Organization in India

SUMMARY

This article traces the history of community organization (CO) in the disciplinary and practice arena in India. Although CO within the academia grew with social work, the trajectory of CO practice reveals an increasing tension with the discipline of social work, especially the way it is structured and taught in India. The interface with the community development (CD) programme of the government, as also the growth of the voluntary sector and the influence of new social movements, compelled a review of the orientation of CD and CO. A sectoral thrust on livelihoods, health, education, housing, wages, land alienation, access to entitlements along with the pluralization of debates on caste, ethnicity, tribal and gender identities enriched CO in India. The article offers a perspective on CO based on practice and the critical engagements of faculty members in one of the premier institutes of India which offers social work programmes. Concerted efforts to respond to the changing social and political context with consistent pro-poor stances provided unique insights which are reshaping, refining and re-conceptualizing the perspective of CO in India. This is reflected in course work, the conscious recasting of fieldwork, the criteria of selecting sites of practice and agencies, and the policy work undertaken by faculty members. Could the new curriculum be termed as transdisciplinary or is CO emerging as a distinct discipline? This is a question posed for further debate.     

Institutional Innovation in Philanthropy: Community Foundations in the UK

In the United Kingdom, there has been a resurgence of interest in philanthropy amongst the media, policymakers, and scholars alike. In this context, the analysis of new and innovative forms of philanthropy is paramount. This paper focuses on an innovation in the philanthropic form: the community foundation. The success of community foundations in the United States provided the impetus for the establishment of community foundations in the UK in the 1980s. This paper examines how the community foundation form has been adapted to the UK and the factors which have influenced the development and roles of British community foundations. It is argued that this study is both timely and important for three reasons. First, the analysis of new structures through which people give furthers our understanding of Britain’s culture of giving. Second, the paper examines the role of community-based philanthropy in the civil renewal of Britain’s communities. Finally, the study makes an important contribution to efforts to promote the community foundation form worldwide as it highlights the challenges of transferring philanthropic forms from one context to another.

高校志愿者参与社区来沪青少年管理服务机制探索

社区作为来沪青少年工作的主要阵地之一,承担了大量相关管理服务工作,伴随着来沪青少年数量的快速增长,出现了诸多新的困难和挑战。高校志愿者的有序参与,能够缓解社区人员有限、资源匮乏等各类困难,促进社区来沪青少年工作的有效提升。对高校志愿者参与社区来沪青少年工作机制的实证研究和理论分析。可以更好地为管理和服务社区来沪青少年提供合理化建议,对实现社区来沪青少年的有效引导具有积极作用。     

Community and social capital in Slovenia—the impact of transition

The transition from socialism to capitalism has many impacts on the everyday life of the people of Slovenia. Amongst others it has an impact on their community ties and their choices regarding participation in public life. Community can enable or diminish the basic processes, such as solidarity, equal choices and opportunities, and respect for the differences that are needed for an inclusive society. This article researches such processes through the concept of social capital and provides some responses necessary for the political and professional planning of social policy and the practice of social services.     

Redefining Food Security in a Community Context: An Exploration of Community Food Security Indicators and Social Worker Roles in Community Food Strategies

Large numbers of households experiencing the effects of food insecurity threaten a community’s viability. Although hunger has been viewed as a social problem, research focused on household-level food security tends to primarily focus on the household economics. This thematic overview of academic and grey literature (a) describes community food security (CFS) research and indicators related to accessibility, affordability, community self-reliance, social justice, and sustainability; (b) provides examples of how community social workers can participate, lead or evaluate CFS strategies that can create sustainable food secure communities; and (c) invites social work researchers to develop holistic measures of CFS.     

Neighborhood and Community Organizing in Colonias

ABSTRACT

Promotores are leaders in traditional Mexican communities whose role in agrarian life dates back to the land reform movement following the revolution. Recently, there have been efforts at developing these roles in the colonias in the United States' southwest as a means of providing health education and civic information in these hard-to-reach communities. This paper discusses an example of how community organizers incorporated the promotora concept among a group of women to bring about social and political change in their colonia.