Rebuilding Community Organizing Education in Social Work

Although the campaign and election of Barack Obama as the nation's first President with a background in community organizing (CO) has boosted the visibility and popularity of the field, graduate social work programs have not taken full advantage of the opportunity. This article, therefore, presents a three-fold argument regarding the future of CO education. There is an increasing demand and need for trained organizers and community organizing education. This historical moment holds significant potential for CO education in social work. Graduate schools of social work with CO programs should broaden their outreach to attract potential students and activists to careers as social change agents.     

‘Not that kind of atheist’: scepticism as a lifestyle movement

This article examines atheist activists from a lifestyle movement perspective. I focus on how atheist activists adopt the term ‘sceptic’ as a distinct identity marker to represent their growing interest in other types of activism beyond atheist community building and criticism of religious beliefs. My data come from thirty-five interviews with Canadian atheist activists and participant observation in the province of Alberta. In contrast to previous social movement approaches to atheist activism, I deemphasize the importance of collective identity and instead attend to personal identity as the site of social change. My findings show that being a sceptic is a personally meaningful identity in the context of a relatively weak secularist collective identity. Moreover, atheist activists who also identify as sceptics wish to expand the boundaries of the atheist movement to include individualistic projects of personal affirmation based on science and critical thinking. This work contributes to our understanding of the everyday activities of activists who engage in individual action in the absence of a strong collective identity. In particular, this article expands our understanding of lifestyle movements beyond the current focus on socially conscious consumption. Instead, I return to the roots of lifestyle movement theory, that is, how one’s everyday choices serve as a form of protest. Finally, this work contributes to atheism scholarship, which has neglected the diversity of individual identities within atheist organisations and among atheist activists.     

Community Organizing and the Detroit Water Struggle: Report from the Front Lines

At this moment in history, both the need for macro social work approaches and interest in macro social practice among social workers are growing. One macro approach that is particularly well-suited to confronting current political and economic conditions is grassroots community organizing. Some authors have suggested that most successful efforts at community organizing are those which can link the lived experiences of grassroots community members to larger movements for social justice. The struggle for access to affordable water in Detroit is a prime example of such an effort. In 2014, indignation at the announcement that the city would be shutting off the water of all those who could not afford to pay their water bills, combined with resistance to the imposition of emergency management on the city, galvanized a movement that brought together a wide variety of community members, activists, and organizers. As a participant-observer in this struggle, I conducted videotaped interviews with 15 organizers and activists concerning their views on the successes and challenges they have witnessed and the crucial “next steps” for community activists in Detroit. This article reports on these interviews and examines the lessons for community organizers that emerged from them.     

The Use of Dialogue in Community Organization Practice: Using Theory,Values, and Skills to Guide Group Decision-Making

The ability to engage diverse community participants in group dialogue to resolve differences, establish common ground, identify problems, set goals, and plan actions is an essential part of community organization. However, there are limited resources in the social work literature about how social work skills can best be used to facilitate group dialogue in this context. In this article, the theories and values associated with the use of group dialogue are discussed. The manner in which these skills are applied in community organizing is described. The interpersonal skills needed for facilitating group dialogue in community organization practice are also examined.     

The Psychology of Working in Practice: A Theory of Change for a New Era

This article advances the psychology of working theory by developing a parallel change‐based paradigm to guide interventions at the level of individuals (i.e., the psychology of working counseling) and systems (i.e., the psychology of working systemic intervention). The change paradigm presented in this article includes (a) a needs assessment encompassing survival, social connection/contribution, and self‐determination and (b) input on the mobilization of agentic action that includes critical reflection and action, proactive engagement, social support, and community engagement. The needs assessment and agentic action aspects of this approach can be used to foster change in individual counseling, advocacy, and systemic intervention. Case examples reflecting a systemic intervention and an individual counseling vignette are presented along with implications for research, such as explorations of the impact of these change models on client outcomes and systemic change efforts.     

Addressing Barriers to University-Community Collaboration

Abstract

University-community partnerships, and COPC programs in particular, offer important opportunities for traditionally segregated groups to work together in collaborative relationships. The challenge of bringing people who possess distinct differences in background and social power together is a long-standing issue. Class, status, and organizational differences may impede collaboration. This article discusses the history of COPC as social policy and reviews an evaluation report of successful community-university partnerships. Drawing from the community organizing literature in sociology and social work, this article suggests community organizing methods that address structural obstacles to collaborative work. Especially in COPC programs characterized by multiple interactions, it is the community based organization (CBO) which has greatest facility to equalize the playing field between disparate groups. The role of community organizers in CBOs is to acknowledge and disrupt the structural inequalities inherent in these relationships. The community organizer must resist the role of expert or buffer between the community and university and instead strive toward authentic collaboration.     

Sense of community: Issues and considerations from a cross-cultural perspective

Behaviour settings such as work, family, church and community are primary settings in which we participate, they provide us with meaningful roles, relationships, and social identities. In fact, these are settings that provide us with a sense of community (SOC). SOC has been heralded as the guiding value for community research and action. It reflects the integration of people into networks and structures that provide feelings of belonging, identification and meaning. The concept has received much attention since the introduction of McMillan and Chavis' initial formulation. It is argued that research into SOC has been hampered by relying on the Sense of Community Index at the expense of the SOC model. Insights are drawn from cross-cultural psychology and research to highlight conceptual issues and to encourage exploration and the utilisation of alternative modes of investigation. Contex-tualist approaches including substantive theorising and narrative psychology, which have their roots in pragmatism, are promoted as frameworks for bringing community and SOC into focus as central to social and community development.     

Lessons for Academics for Grassroots Community Organizing: A Case Study—The Industrial Areas Foundation

This article describes and critically analyzes the Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF), the most significant community organizing endeavor in the nation. Examination of the IAF is valuable to academic social work because of the contradiction between social work's commitment to group change efforts and the limited amount of related social work employmeny. Social work can benefit from a fuller understanding of non-academic, community organizing activity. The IAF's strategic model, structure, underlying ideologies and organizing mechanics are detailed. Its training processes as well as transmitted concepts and skills are described. Lastly a critique of the IAF's methodology is presented.     

Schools of Social Work Contribution to Community Partnerships: The Renewal of the Social Compact in Higher Education

ABSTRACT

Embracing the concept that the social compact between university and community can provide a cornerstone for true social change. This article details how partnering with outside organizations in collaborative relationships can help fulfill higher education's obligation to educate for the good of a democratic and learned populace. Often the social conscience of a university, schools of social work can serve as leaders in the development or facilitation of university and community partnerships to address or intervene in areas of social need. One research institution of higher education provides successful examples.     

Psychosocial community work as an alternative mode of political action (The construction and critical transformation of society)

From its start, community social psychology (CSP) has been oriented to produce changes in social actors enabling them to develop their capacities, to empower them so that they are able to obtain and produce new resources and effect transformations in their environment as well as being in control of their own actions and decisions. This has led to a redefinition of power in the sense of assuming that asymmetry does not mean absolute lack of resources. As understood in Latin America, CSP configures a mode of knowledge production that could be considered as belonging to a construction and critical transformation paradigm, which assumes that society is a collective construction effected by persons who consider that their life circumstances must be transformed, and about which they have developed a critical perspective. Applying participatory action-research, psychosocial community work (PCW) merges ordinary knowledge and scientific knowledge, producing a third form of knowledge that enriches both and which, through reflexivity, engenders new transforming actions. This paper shows some of the main characteristics of PCW, and its orientation towards social and individual change, incorporating the participation of the community, and highlighting its political character. It is concluded that PCW is basically a form of political psychology, in so far as it is concerned with the public field, that it develops from social needs and conflicts and that it attacks or palliates the distorting and concealing effects of ideology, through the conscientization processes.     

Solidarity is in the heart,not in the field: joint Israeli–Palestinian peace movement organizations during the 2014 Gaza War

The social movement literature suggests that social movement organizations that work across difference and power asymmetry are dependent to some degree on shared and unified action in order to construct and sustain a sense of ‘we.’ Yet ironically, for two joint Israeli–Palestinian peace movement organizations, sustaining a cross-conflict collective identity during the 2014 Gaza War did not require unified action, but rather, independent action from the Israeli participants. This article makes the argument that in highly asymmetrical environments, and in particular, protracted conflict environments, unified visible action is not always required for maintaining a collective identity. Structural and cultural forces can impede the ability of activists to work across borders or conflict lines. In these situations, what may be required to sustain a collective identity that crosses over traditional community divides is the willingness of the group with more privilege and power to move forward in activity focused on their own community.     

Building on Mutual Goals

ABSTRACT

In this era of diminishing federal and state funds for social services, greater attention has been directed toward how social work and the religious sector can cooperate in providing services. This article suggests that social workers should move beyond this focus and begin to identify and join in collective action with local congregations or faith-based organizations, which take an activist approach toward community needs. The author uses a case study of an activist central city church to illustrate how churches can be involved in community change. Social workers are encouraged to consider all methods of collaboration with the religious sector that would lead to the mutual goal of community betterment.     

The Social Work Outreach Service Within a School of Social Work

ABSTRACT

This article describes a unique community outreach service that is designed specifically to meet the needs of the local community, provide training ground for social work students, and experiment with the development of new practice models. Located within a school of social work, the service was born in an atmosphere in which both the university and the school were being called upon to play a greater part in the community. Since its inception in 1992, it has successfully served the local community through direct service, community organization activities, and consultation. Despite these successes in outreach to the community, internal challenges continue to exist.     

Youth-Adult Partnership in Community Organizing

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a campaign developed around sexuality education policy by a national youth-focused organization, Advocates for Youth, and its network of youth activists. The paper provides an overview of the national sexuality education debate and the specific strategies youth and adults use in partnership to advocate for a comprehensive approach to the education. The case study of the My Voice Counts!Campaign provides insight into the creation and evolution of a youth-adult partnership approach to community organizing, beginning with an online activism campaign and resulting in local youth-led projects to improve sex education policies and curricula. Following an analysis of the Campaign's accomplishments, the paper lays out recommendations for action and research to demonstrate the positive effects of this form of community practice.     

Event Coalitions in the Pittsburgh G20 Protests

Protests at events such as the 2009 Group of Twenty (G20) Summit in Pittsburgh frequently require activists to engage in some type of coalition work. This article examines two event coalitions created to organize the Pittsburgh G20 protests: the Pittsburgh G20 Resistance Project (PGRP), consisting of local anti‐authoritarians, and a loose alliance of individuals and organizations brought together by the Thomas Merton Center (TMC), a local peace and justice movement center. I show how the organizational structure and early decisions of the PGRP made it more effective than the TMC alliance and how those choices were affected by preexisting network structures, social movement organizations, ideological alignments, and relationships in the local movement community. The experiences of activists in event coalitions, both positive and negative, then affect the shape of the movement community and subsequent coalitions and campaigns.     

In defence of disability studies: a response to Forshaw (2007) 'In defence of psychology: a reply to Goodley and Lawthom (2005)'

We welcome Forshaw's reply to our paper because it opens up debate about psychology and its relationship with the development of an emancipatory disability studies. In our paper we aimed to: (1) raise possibilities for disability studies researchers' engagement with psychology (rather than psychology colonizing disability studies); (2) trace some of the epistemological journeys we underwent in carrying out disability research and community psychology research; (3) consider these possibilities and journeys in relation to previous literature on emancipatory disability research. Forshaw's reply appears to ignore aims (2) and (3) and instead focuses on the ways in which we (mis)represent psychology. He suggests that we: present an inaccurate account of qualitative research in contemporary psychology; make a divisive argument for a 'breakaway group' of community psychologists; epistemologically contradict ourselves because of our concern with 'reality' and social constructionism; argue for only adopting participatory action research; not least, adopt 'simplistic' and 'outdated' views of psychology. We will respond to these criticisms.     

Lesbian Parent Activism and Meaning-Making in the Current Political Environment

This article discusses the impact of lesbian mothers' activism on legislation and personal well-being. Using a meaning reconstruction framework, the activism of lesbian parents is evaluated as a source of resilience and strength in the current political climate. A case history of one community where lesbian mothers formed a local coalition in response to a statewide proposition to ban same-sex marriage in Texas is described. This community example shows how the activism of lesbian parents can transform both community and activists. Implications for community organizers, therapists and LGBT parents/allies are discussed.     

The Contribution of Macro-intervention Social Workers to the Success of Volunteer Community Activists

The study examined the contribution of macro-intervention social workers to volunteer activists from the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Volunteer activists who were supervised by macro-intervention social workers were compared with those who were not supervised. The comparisons related to internal variables (leadership competence and client participation), as well as to external variables (community activity, and representation), and to support from rabbis for community activity. The sample consisted of 62 activists who were supervised by macro-intervention social workers, and 101 activists who were not. The findings revealed differences between the supervised and non-supervised activists with regard to levels of community activity and representation. With regard to leadership competence and client participation, no significant differences were found. Analysis of the study findings aimed to provide new perspectives on the contribution of professional supervision, as reflected in the differences found between the activists who were supervised versus those who were not.     

Community Work:

This article presents a typology of models of community work currently extant in the United Kingdom. It focuses on clarifying theoretical points through analysis of the currently most widely accepted contemporary models in use throughout the UK: community care; community organization; community development; social/community planning; community education; and community action, and developing models of feminist community work, and black and anti-racist community work. The typology presented is organized on a continuum from models focused on ''care'' to those focusing on ''action.'' Each model is analyzed in relation to the following characteristics: strategy; workers' main roles; and typical agencies and examples of work. Selected critical key texts treating each model are documented. Discussion highlights similarities and differences among the models particularly with regard to techniques and skills and ideological traditions to provide a framework to understand community work practice.     

What are Social Work Students’ Perceptions of the Community Practice Method?

Summary. A unique aspect of the social work profession is the combination of intervention on the personal, community, and societal levels and their interaction. The purpose of this research is to determine students’ perceptions of community practice. Qualitative research was conducted among Israeli social work students before gaining any practical experience in community practice. Findings. The results demonstrated a change in students’ perceptions of the importance of community practice to the profession, and the factors that contributed to this change. Applications. Recommendations that may contribute to changing students’ perceptions of community practice are offered to educators.