Reaching Inner-City Children

One of the obstacles faced by community social service agencies is difficulty in attracting adolescents to the services offered them. Adoldscents typically do not walk in or keep appointments at outpatient clinics and can be difficult to engage even for outreach programs. One solution to this dilemma is to go where the children are: the public schools. One of the biggest problems in the Boston public school system is that many students and their families have pressing social, emotional, and physical needs that are not being met outside the school and that adversely affect their education. The schools are educational institutions, not human service agencies, and they are ill prepared to deal with many of the problems and needs of their students' lives. In 1984, an independent board composed of representatives from the Boston Public Schools, state, city, and private social service agencies, parents and students, secured funding and formed the Boston Student Human Services Collaborative. The mission of the Collaborative was to supplement and expand support services to the schools. The hope was that such services would free up both children and teachers to invest in each other, thereby increasing learning. This paper describes the group work component of a Collaborative program at an inner-city school. After a brief look at the inner-city context, the group work program model is presented as a case study, including specific types of groups that have worked well and details of recruitment, composition, goals, activities, and leadership roles. Following this is a discussion of race, color, and ethnicity, and then a list of guiding principles for working with middle school adolescents in groups.     

PEER-LED GROUPS IN GRADUATE EDUCATION

The successful use of peer-led educational/growth groups in graduate education for social work is discussed. Planning and goals for the groups are described, along with the reactions of peer leaders, group participants, and faculty sponsors. Examples of specific exercises and the timing of and response to their use are detailed. The peer-led format discussed lends itself to adaptation by in-service training programs in social agencies.     

University-community partnerships in gerontological social work: building consensus around student learning

This article will demonstrate how schools of social work can collaborate with community agencies to provide a comprehensive and enriching educational experience for both student interns and participating agencies. An innovative partnership of a state school of social work with community agencies leading to a cutting-edge geriatric field education program is described. Case examples are used to illustrate the benefits of these partnerships, as well as challenges partners overcame in forging and sustaining partnerships. Necessary components of partnership development are detailed.     

社会工作督导：有效且必需

社会工作督导是社会工作的一种间接服务方法。社会服务机构的非营利性及其公信力需要社会服务机构对其员工进行行政性督导、教育性督导以及支持性督导，以促进机构目标的实现，服务质量的提高。     

CREATING ‘CHILD‐FRIENDLY’ COMMUNITIES: A STRATEGY TO RECLAIM CHILDREN FROM RISK

A review of the scope and characteristics of the problems facing Australian children and adolescents. Such issues as poor mental health, substance use and abuse, delinquency, violence, school drop‐out rates, youth unemployment and suicide are explained in terms of shortfalls in community endeavour to protect families from risk factors associated with structural and social change. A strategy to reduce vulnerability is proposed, which would involve mobilising government, independent and informal local community sectors to support parents and encourage healthy, pro‐social development. Sustaining the quality of social environments close to children and families requires a process of community capacity‐building, including a renewed emphasis on participation and democracy and better coordination between local service agencies.     

Transforming the curriculum through the intergenerational lens

Our society is aging at a rapid rate and with this trend comes many of the social and economic demands that the profession of Social Work addresses. Akey dilemma of the profession is how to interest and educate undergraduate social work students in aging and gerontology so that the needs of elderly can be supported. Social Work students notoriously are primarily interested in working with children and adolescents. With the support of the John A. Hartford Foundation's Geriatric Enrichment in Social Work Education grant, the authors developed a Spiral Perspective to infuse intergenerational content into the curriculum of their department and to give students exposure to geriatric content throughout their educational experience.     

Social Work Tomorrow: Towards a Critical Understanding of Technology in Social Work

Correspondence to Bob Sapey, Department of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire, Preston PR1 2HE Summary This paper makes use of theoretical ideas that have been developedto understand the impact of new technology on organizationsand applies them to its use within social work agencies. Thesedeveloping theories employ ideas that are familiar to socialworkers—organization theory, decision making theory, andcommunication theory. The paper therefore argues that socialworkers are in a good position to understand and influence theuse of computers within welfare agencies and do not need tobe inhibited by a lack of technological knowledge. It is furtherargued that, unless social workers do become involved in theways in which new technologies are used within organizations,they will fail to influence its impact upon their clients andmay further fail to control the way in which computers affectthe nature of social work itself in the future.     

The chain is never stronger than its weakest link: implementing a model of collaboration among agencies serving vulnerable children and adolescents

This article analyses agency collaboration to help vulnerable children and adolescents with complex social and psychological problems, examining the implementation of a formal collaboration model for these groups. This model, implemented in Västra Götaland, Sweden, involves five municipal agencies and five county council agencies in 49 different municipalities. Data were collected using two questionnaires sent to 355 lower managers and 424 professional representatives in the concerned organizations. The analysis demonstrates that there are differences in implementation results between the agencies, and that the differences are largely explainable by organizational self-interest and top management prioritization of collaboration model implementation. The main barriers to collaboration are factors modifiable by the agencies themselves, and perceived barriers decreased when the policy was working. The study suggests that managers of human service organizations must assume responsibility when implementing collaboratively, and that accountable professional and political leaders must rise above organizational interests to protect vulnerable citizens.     

A Pedagogical Model of Clinical Supervision of Adolescents as Therapeutic Caretakers for Children and Each Other

This article describes a model of supervision provided to adolescents who function as therapeutic “caretakers” with children in a unique neighborhood community mental health organization located in the South Bronx. Rooted in theories of community mental health, social support, and pedagogy, the article describes the recruitment process, training, and supervision given to the organization's adolescent “caretakers” to ensure that they will develop the attitudes and skills needed in their therapeutic interactions with children. Particular emphasis is placed on “in vivo” supervisory processes derived from the organization's pedagogical model. The model's usefulness is not limited to training adolescent therapeutic caretakers and is readily applicable to training professional or nonprofessional helpers in a variety of settings (e.g., collaborative partnerships with schools and community agencies where personnel are trained to serve directly or in an auxiliary role as therapeutic change agents).     

Number of siblings and personality: Evidence among eighth graders from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K)

Most prior sociological research on siblings explores their effects on educational, cognitive and social outcomes. This study focuses on personality traits and extends its scope to early adolescence. Using the eighth-grade data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), it tests the relationship between number of siblings and three personality traits: internalizing problem behavior, self-concept, and locus of control. The results suggest that sibship size has only a modest effect on personality traits among early adolescents. Specifically, only those adolescents who have at least four siblings are found to have significantly worse internalizing problem behaviors, worse self-concept, and worse locus of control compared to only children. In addition, this study finds little evidence that adolescents benefit more from sisters than brothers. Lastly, compared to having older siblings, having younger siblings is more beneficial for personality traits in predicting self-concept and locus of control.     

A Model for Implementing an Evidence-Based Practice in Student Fieldwork Placements: Barriers and Facilitators to the Use of “SBIRT”

ABSTRACT

This article reports on focus group data analysis that was used to understand initial, largely positive outcomes from a university-based initiative to disseminate and implement an evidence-based practice (EBP)—Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment for Substance Use (SBIRT)—into student fieldwork placements, which are usual care social work settings. Focus groups were conducted with three groups of stakeholders involved in the ongoing project: social work department faculty (n = 10), bachelor- and master-level social work students (n = 8), and social work fieldwork instructors (n = 6). Dimensional analysis of the focus group data yielded results indicating that dissemination and implementation of SBIRT was influenced by agency- and school-level factors and perceived fit between the EBP and individual professional identity, intrapersonal characteristics, and timing. The resulting model, developed through the focus group analysis, is offered and shows how these factors interacted and affected training, supervision, and use of the EBP. The model provides social work educational programs and agencies a working tool for diagnosing and proactively addressing barriers and breakdowns in the EBP implementation process. Future research that tests the model as a diagnostic tool and generates knowledge about its influence in developing competent evidence-based practitioners is indicated. Future focus groups in relation to this initiative are needed to better understand these barriers and facilitators in the EBP implementation process and their critical roles in the process of translating SBIRT into standard social work practice.     

Waltzing with a Monster: Bringing Research to Bear on Public Policy

Social scientists who want their research to influence social policy would do well to work with executive branch agencies, especially at state and local levels. Agency administrators are ready to use social science theories and evidence if the social science is brought to them. The article offers six principles for work with administrative agencies: (1) individual leaders matter, (2) timing matters, (3) ideas matter, (4) costs, and who bears the costs matter, (5) government is not monolithic, and (6) one cannot control the uses to which data are put. Working with government, like waltzing with a monster, is not unproblematic, but attending to these principles can help avoid some bruised toes.     

Adolescent Sex Education

While the aim of the special sex education lecture given to pupils by authorities invited from outside the educational system is laudable, the content is not based on empirical investigation of the needs of youth. A survey of 1,426 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years showed that greater emphasis is needed on the social aspects of dating behaviour than on reproductive biology. An obvious educational need with social implications remains unheeded by government ministers.     

Friends in high places: A dyadic perspective on peer status as predictor of friendship quality and the mediating role of empathy and prosocial behavior

Friendships and peer status play important roles in the social landscape of adolescents and are related to developmental outcomes. Yet, how peer status is related to friendship quality and what role social skills play in this association remains unclear. In this study, we use Actor–Partner Interdependence (Mediation) Modeling (Ledermann, Macho, & Kenny, 2011 ) to investigate how two forms of peer status, preference and popularity, are related to positive and negative friendship quality in mid‐adolescence. Results show that adolescents who are friends with more preferred (i.e., likeable) and popular adolescents report higher friendship quality. These partner effects were partially mediated by adolescents’ own prosocial behavior and their friends’ empathy levels. Higher levels of empathy of one's friend and one's own lesser preference for equity explained why adolescents were more satisfied in a friendship with highly preferred (i.e., likeable) adolescents. Interestingly, empathy was not a mediator for the link between friendship quality and popularity. These findings promote a better understanding of the interplay between different levels of social complexity (i.e., individual, dyadic and peer group level) in adolescence.     

强化社会工作协调人职能,增进福利机构专业化进展

福利服务专业化成为福利机构发展的总体趋势。21世纪以来,社会工作作为社会福利专业化的重要推动力普遍走进社会福利领域。在推动社会福利服务专业化进程中,如何发挥其积极功能是社会工作实践探索的重点。本文从强化社会工作协调人职能的角度,探讨社会工作推动福利机构专业化的方式。     

The Beneficial Effects of Social Identity Protection on the Performance Motivation of Members of Devalued Groups

For members of socially devalued or stigmatized groups, work and educational settings can threaten social identity, inducing the use of coping strategies that lower their motivation (e.g., self-segregation, domain disengagement) rather than improving their position in the social hierarchy. We review a recent research program on women and ethnic minorities to show that members of these stigmatized groups can maintain their motivation in threatening work and educational contexts when they are offered ways to protect their social identity. For example, organizations that communicate value for the social identities of women and ethnic minorities allow members of these groups to focus on success and motivate them to improve their performance on dimensions that increase their social status. Furthermore, social identity protection has important benefits over more individualistic forms of identity protection because it maintains group members' concern for their group's plight, increasing opportunities for successful collective action. The practical implications of this work are discussed.     

服刑人员未成年子女民间救助机构的现状研究——基于西安儿童村的调查报告

服刑人员未成年子女是一个特殊的社会弱势群体,需要全社会的共同关注和爱心救助,民间救助机构就是这样一支重要的社会力量。西安儿童村的调查显示,民间救助机构在救助服刑人员未成年子女的社会公益事业中发挥了重要的作用,但同时面临一些困境,一方面,从业者中专业人员短缺,机构内部管理不规范等;另一方面,救助机构经费不足,社会力量及政府所提供的支持还不能满足需要,支持源和被支持者之间沟通渠道不畅通。     

强化社会工作协调人职能,增进福利机构专业化进展

福利服务专业化成为福利机构发展的总体趋势。21世纪以来,社会工作作为社会福利专业化的重要推动力普遍走进社会福利领域。在推动社会福利服务专业化进程中,如何发挥其积极功能是社会工作实践探索的重点。本文从强化社会工作协调人职能的角度,探讨社会工作推动福利机构专业化的方式。     

Voluntary Leaders in Voluntary Welfare Agencies

The voluntary sector is an increasingly important component of our system of welfare provision. This paper focuses on voluntary leaders of welfare agencies in the voluntary sector; the chairpersons of governing bodies. It draws on a study carried out in an outer metropolitan borough with a socially mixed population. The characteristics of chairpersons and the background to their involvement are described. It appears that most are drawn in to their agencies and in to the role of chairperson more by chance than through positive commitment to a cause, but that, once in post, they rise rapidly to the challenge. Leadership of the local voluntary sector is found to be part of a wider commitment to community benefit and to collective provision of welfare. Some implications of the findings for the development of voluntary sector welfare agencies and for social policy are discussed.