Water Insecurity: A Case for Social Policy Action by Social Workers

Abstract

This article discusses the nationally and internationally urgent water insecurity issue, and why it represents a highly relevant area for social policy action by social workers, both at local and global levels. Drawing on secondary data analysis, the paper explores the nature and scope of water insecurity as a global social work issue, discusses its social policy dimensions, and suggests a framework for social policy action by social workers. It argues that, due to the complex nature of the water insecurity issue and its consequences, particularly on the poor and disadvantaged groups, and on ecosystems, it is critical to analyse it from conservation, distribution, and access perspectives and to act. Social workers need to think creatively about the application of their knowledge, skills, and virtues to the water insecurity issue in order to bring about necessary changes in human and institutional behaviour relating to water.     

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.     

Ethical and Racial Conflicts in Urban-Based Action Research

Abstract

Through the use of a case study of a joint faculty-student research project, this paper discusses how community-based action research, policy analysis, and community organizing can be synthesized in work with low-income communities. It outlines potential implications of this synthesis for both community practice and social work education.     

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.     

Food Security: An Ecological–Social Analysis to Promote Social Development

Coupled with the obesity epidemic, food insecurity presents a public health and social crisis. The United States' industrialized food system embodies an unsustainable network of production and unequal distribution of food creating threats to both the natural environment and human development. Ecological, economic, and social systems are interdependent and their relationships to food security are complex and dynamic. Social workers have a unique set of community practice knowledge and skills that can help communities achieve greater access to affordable, healthy food. Building interdisciplinary networks to change food policies and develop sustainable and equitable food systems can address food insecurity.     

Women's Status and Social Capital in the United States

SUMMARY

Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone found that social capital is closely associated with a variety of important indicators of community health, and women benefit from many of these resources as members of their communities. But is there anything distinct about how women experience social capital? Is there a relationship between social capital and women's status overall? Using data on social capital from Bowling Alone and data collected by the Institute for Women's Policy Research for its Status of Women in the States project, we assess trends across the states on both dimensions. Overall, the findings suggest that there is a strong relationship between the two.     

Community-Based Research and Participatory Change: A Strategic,Multi-Method Community Impact Assessment

This article presents a community impact assessment that was triggered by a proposed land development project that had the potential to dramatically change the social fabric and quality of life in a neighborhood whose history dated back several generations. Developers of the project never asked, “How would this project impact the surrounding neighborhood?” Community planning faculty and student researchers embarked on a 5-month effort to answer this question. This case study presents this research and points to the usefulness of community impact assessments for neighborhoods that are faced with development where the future of their community is at stake.     

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.     

Towards a Comprehensive Framework for Understanding the Social Environment

SUMMARY

This paper presents a conceptual framework for selecting and organizing concepts of the social environment. It expands upon the traditional Human Behavior and the Social Environment perspectives used in social work curricula in the United States by identifying how a macro-systemconsisting of the intersection of four societal forces (social justice, social problems, social policy, and the political economy) works to influence a micro-systemof community, organizational, and group dynamics. In this framework, the impact of the macrosystem is mediated by collective responses of partnerships, alliances, and networks convened to address these forces. The framework is useful for understanding the complexity and uncertainty of the social environment in modern society with specific reference to: (1) how macro-system forces work to shape a constellation of community and organizational concerns, (2) how collective responses that seek solutions can be understood as instruments for achieving meaningful social change, and (3) how micro-systems concepts of structure (stages of development, systems of exchange, and diversity) and process (power and leadership, conflict and change, and integrating mechanisms) can inform practice.     

University Civic Engagement with Community-Based Organizations

Abstract

This article compares and contrasts two case studies of large research universities involved in civic engagement projects with urban nonprofit community-based organizations and neighborhood associations. The article uses a community building framework in which organizational, interorganizational, and community-level features are examined. The study found that each university used a different approach through which to achieve a university-community partnership. A dispersed model favored an entrepreneurial approach for individual faculty and student involvement, while the coordinated model requested faculty and students from different departments to work together toward a community-driven goal. The extent to which these different models of civic engagement delivered what community organizations wanted was based on five factors: (1) the university's geographic proximity to a tar get low-income neighborhood, (2) leadership for institutional social commitment, (3) use of community-based research, (4) funding as a social strategy, and (5) a flexible curriculum. Challenges faced by faculty, students, and practitioners are addressed, and directions for future research are suggested.     

An Evaluation of a Community Collaboration Approach to Psychosocial Rehabilitation

ABSTRACT

This article reports on the results of a multiagency collaboration demonstration project that was designed to replicate the salient features of an exemplary practice, single-agency program of psychosocial rehabilitation for persons with serious mental illness (SMI). The community collaboration extended over two phases for 2 years and involved over 20 mental health service providers. The demonstration project itself was designed to be a replication of the Village Integrated Services Agency (Village ISA) of Long Beach, California. Additionally, this article reports the results of a rigorous evaluation of the project. The treatment group outcomes were substantially superior to all control group measures at or beyond the 0.05 level of significance. With due regard for limitations imposed by a small sample size (n = 50), the project demonstrates that the replicated model of intervention can be effectively implemented through a collaborative organizational structure involving a coalition of agency service providers.     

Design Teams as Learning Systems for Complex Systems Change

Summary

Systems change in child welfare and cross-systems change involving other service sectors are needed in response to two developments: (1) New policy mandates (e.g., TANF, AS FA) and (2) Research on the co-occurring and interlocking needs of many child welfare families. A four-state initiative was structured in response to these needs. Collaborative learning and action research groups called design teams were structured to identify competencies and to develop new service delivery systems. Faculty facilitators representing social work education programs were assigned to these teams and charged with their development and evaluation. Facilitators served as linkage agents for university-communitystate agency partnerships, and they promoted curriculum change. These study reports two sets of findings related to these design teams: (1) Findings from semi-structured interviews of design team members; and (2) Findings from the participatory action research completed by two faculty facilitators. Key themes related to design team processes are presented. Drawing on these emergent themes, components that help explain effective design team processes are identified. Selected implications for social work education programs and faculty also are identified     

Social workers and intercultural mediators: challenges for collaboration and intercultural awareness

ABSTRACT

Social work in Europe is facing numerous challenges in terms of promoting the participation of migrants and their descendants in super-diverse societies. This study investigates collaboration between social workers and intercultural mediators based on international debate and fieldwork in Italy. Does social work require collaboration with other professions specialised in intercultural relations? What are the characteristics of intercultural professionals? What are the pros and cons of collaboration between social workers and intercultural mediators? This study shows that local social services need to work with intercultural mediators, allowing local social services to implement various strategies for tackling cultural and linguistic barriers with their clients and rely on professionals inside or outside their own. Furthermore, intercultural mediators tend to have weak and heterogeneous training backgrounds and working conditions. This article aims to contribute to the debate on the welfare reform process to support migrants and their descendants’ equal rights and participation in society, highlighting the need for collaboration between interculturally aware social workers and intercultural mediators to tackle institutional structural weaknesses in such professions as part of an organisational innovation process in social-welfare institutions.     

Indian Ocean Tsunami and its influence on the resurgence of social work as an academic discipline in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

In December 2004, the massive Indian Ocean Tsunami hit the coastal areas of Sri Lanka causing a devastating impact on the lives of people. National and International humanitarian aid received in the aftermath was unprecedented. Among this was a team of professors and students from the faculty of Social Work, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, who conducted a summer camp as a social work practice project together with Sri Lankan undergraduates. The objective was to initiate a project for support based on an action research model adopting a short-term design built upon a needs assessment. While critically looking at the process of international support in the context of country’s long history of state welfare and community support systems, the paper also focuses on one major lapse among others, negligence of people’s needs during disaster interventions. The paper attempts to view this situation in relation to the absence of an established social work profession in the country and examines the applicability of an international framework and concepts of social work in developing academic and professional social work in a context as diverse as Sri Lanka.     

Government Capital,Intimate and Community Social Capital,and Food Security Status in Older Adults with Different Income Levels

Whether government‐based forms of food assistance such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), communal efforts including food pantries, aid from friends and family, or alternative means such as gardening are the appropriate means to reduce the prevalence of household food insecurity is a continuous source of policy contention. To inform this debate, we examine the relative importance of these forms of food assistance and acquisition to a sample of U.S. older adults from the 2010 Brazos Valley Health Assessment of central Texas households that have been stratified by income eligibility for SNAP, low‐income SNAP ineligibility, and above low income status. To identify how membership in these socioeconomic groups constrains household capacity to acquire sufficient food to maintain an adequate and healthy diet, we explore the varied associations of assets received from government; communal and intimate social networks; and alternative food sources such as gardening, hunting, and fishing with household food security across socioeconomic status, while examining the importance of place of residence on the use of capital assets. SNAP participation was the only specific capital asset associated with all levels of food insecurity for both SNAP‐eligible and ineligible low‐income groups, thus emphasizing the continued importance of food assistance among poverty‐level older adults.     

Towards interprofessionality in developing family mediation in Finland

Collaboration crossing professional and organizational boundaries is promoted, but also considered difficult and uncalled for. The aim of this study is to advance the comprehension of inter-professional collaboration on boundaries as a resource for learning and change. I examine and trace the initial shapes of interprofessionality and learning in two separate learning networks of a project researching, developing and learning family mediation in Finland. The naturally occurring data consists of transcribed audio-taped talk between practitioners (e.g. social workers, family counsellors, psychologists and judges) at the beginning of their collaborative work. The qualitative analysis detected communicative patterns, disruptions and dialogical learning mechanisms. The results interpreted through Cultural-Historical Activity Theory show that although the two quite similarly composed learning networks were given the same tasks, they differed on emerging learning mechanisms and unfolding dialogues. If collaboration is intended to be inter-professional and lead to change, there is a need to actively create shared tools, such as models, that enable transformative dialogue. For social work education inter-professional collaboration poses a challenge: how can education concurrently promote both learning the boundaries of social work and learning how to inter-professionally cross them?     

Four Months to System Change

Abstract

This paper discusses the process through which students in a Community Intervention class brought about change in university policy to recognize Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday as a university holiday. It includes tactics and strategies used to influence decision makers, to educate the community, and to empower the minority community on the campus. It discusses important lessons for students including the political nature of system change, issues of power and stratification, and the impact of successful tactics on the opposition. This project was able to bring about change in a system that was unwilling to change. In today's social climate, that is often what social workers must do. Experiencing the process of system change during the educational process allows for the lessons of one class to be applied to larger systems of service delivery in professional practice.     

Social Capital and Communities of Place1

Abstract This paper develops a framework for examining the questions: Does social capital make a difference for well being in communities of place? How might rural sociologists utilize social capital to further well being in communities? The author reviews social capital literature, contrasting rational choice and embeddedness perspectives. Opting for a marriage between embeddedness and conflict theory, he introduces entrepreneurial social infrastructure (ESI) as an alternative to social capital. ESI adds to social capital the notions of equality, inclusion, and agency. Research results are presented which support the embeddedness approach: community-level action (the community field) is not simply an aggregation of individual or organizational actions within the community; social capital and ESI contribute jointly and independently to community action. Examining economic development as a form of collective action, the author concludes?the following: a) ESI contributes to economic development, and b) inclusiveness (internal solidarity) is more closely related to community self-development while industrial recruitment is better predicted by strong external ties.     

Transcending Boundaries

SUMMARY

This paper presents a participatory research and planned change effort to develop a coordinated community response system to domestic violence in a United States culturally diverse community with a large immigrant population. This work grew out of an international, interdisciplinary project that was designed to establish ongoing collaborative relationships between university and community practitioners in the United States, Honduras, and Costa Rica around the theme of intra-familial violence, particularly gender-based violence against women. The paper analytically describes the international collaborative project, the local community-based participatory research and community development project, and lessons learned from both the local and international interdisciplinary collaboration. Examination of differences across disciplinary and cultural contexts generated critical reflection on the need to consider reframing domestic violence in the context of fundamental human rights, as is the case in Central America. At the same time, challenges around developing a coordinated community response, addressing inadequacies in the legal system, and implementing education and training were echoed across boundaries, demonstrating the need for continued international collaboration.