Social Work Commons^™

Professional Development: An Msw Course Based On Group Work Principles And Opportunities, Shirley Simon

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Professional development is a critical but frequently overlooked aspect of students’ education. This paper chronicles a group work-based MSW elective course that explores issues of professional identity and responsibility within a contemporary context, develops projects focused on individually-determined professional interests, and provides opportunities to participate in and present at professional conferences such as the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG) Symposium. The syllabus, feedback from students, and recommendations for replication are shared.

Integrating Youth Participation And Ecosocial Work: New Possibilities To Advance Environmental And Social Justice, Tania Schusler, Amy Krings, Melissa Hernández

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article reveals possibilities to expand the role of youth within ecosocial work practice. The Where I Stand Youth Summit held in Chicago, Illinois, provided a safe space for young people to reflect upon their understanding of, and roles within, social and environmental justice movements. Drawing upon critical youth empowerment theory and participant observation, we note that youth shared experiences of oppression across unique social identities, while displaying authentic communication, acceptance, and desire for solidarity. Re-defining what knowledge matters, along with intention and self-restoration, also emerged as critical to building young people’s agency and power to effect social change.

Collective Survival Strategies And Anti-Colonial Practice In Ecosocial Work, Finn Mclafferty Bell, Mary Kate Dennis, Amy Krings

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Oppressed communities have long used strategies of caring for and protecting each other to ensure their collective survival. We argue for ecosocial workers to critically interrogate how agency, history, and culture structure environmental problems and our responses to them, by developing a resilience-based framework, collective survival strategies (CSS). CSS consider power, culture and history and build upon the strengths of oppressed communities facing global environmental changes. We challenge the dominant narrative of climate change as a “new” problem and connect it to colonization. We discuss implications by examining a social work program explicitly built on Indigenous knowledges and anti-colonial practice.

The Future Of Environmental Social Work: Looking To Community Initiatives For Models Of Prevention, Samantha Teixeira, John Mathias, Amy Krings

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Social work responses to environmental degradation have sought to mitigate harm that has already occurred and create strategies to respond or adapt to environmental hazards. Despite a good deal of literature suggesting the promise of prevention-focused models, social workers have less frequently considered prevention models to address environmental issues. In this manuscript, we consider how communities engaged in environmentally-based prevention work might inform the development of ecosocial work practice. We describe how a prevention-focused agenda, in partnership with communities, can be a promising avenue for ecosocial work practice to address the root causes of environmental degradation and its social impacts.

Resisting Gentrification: The Theoretical And Practice Contributions Of Social Work, Amie Thurber, Amy Krings, Linda S. Martinez, Mary Ohmer

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Summary

Gentrification is changing the landscape of many cities worldwide, exacerbating economic and racial inequality. Despite its relevance to social work, the field has been conspicuously absent from scholarship related to gentrification. This paper introduces the dominant view of gentrification (a political economic lens), highlighting its contributions and vulnerabilities, then introduces four case studies that illuminate the distinct contributions of social work to broaden the ways in which gentrification is theorized and responded to within communities.

Findings

When gentrification is analyzed exclusively through a political economy lens, researchers, policy makers, and practitioners are likely to focus on changes in land …

Connections For Change, Shirley Simon

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

The author, a social work educator, describes how a light bulb moment led her to recognize that professional associations need the youth, energy and enthusiasm of student involvement, and that social work students need the mentoring, networking, professionalism and purpose of the professional community. Recognizing that students need to find their voice and their passion, she made it her mission, through involvement in the International Association for Social Work with Groups, to ignite a sense of empowerment in these budding professionals and encourage their engagement with the hard work of this profession.

Mentoring For American Indian/Alaska Native Youth Population, Julia Pryce, Crystal Aschenbrener

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This review examines research on mentoring American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) youth. The review is organized around four questions: 1. What is the effectiveness of mentoring for American Indian and Alaska Native youth? 2. What factors influence the effectiveness of mentoring for American Indian and Alaska Native youth? 3. What pathways are most important in linking mentoring to outcomes for American Indian and Alaska Native youth? 4. To what extent have mentoring initiatives for American Indian and Alaska Native youth reached and engaged the youth, been implemented with high quality, and been adopted and sustained?

Social Work, Politics, And Social Policy Education: Applying A Multidimensional Framework Of Power, Amy Krings, Vincent Fusaro, Kerri L. Nicoll, Na Youn Lee

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

The call to promote social justice sets the social work profession in a political context. In an effort to enhance social workers’ preparedness to engage in political advocacy, this article calls on educators to integrate a broad theoretical understanding of power into social policy curricula. We suggest the use of a multidimensional conceptualization of power that emphasizes mechanisms of decision making, agenda control, and attitude formation. We then apply these mechanisms to demonstrate how two prominent features of contemporary politics—party polarization and racially biased attitudes—affect the ability of social workers to influence policy. Finally, we suggest content that social work …

State Of Domestic Violence Content In Msw Curriculum In The U.S. Perspectives On Social Work, Abha Rai, Yoon Joon Choi, Lalit Khandare

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Domestic violence remains a serious concern in the U.S. and stopping family violence is one of the 12 grand challenges for social work. Further, the core values of our profession are deeply rooted in social justice, dignity and worth of the person and importance of human relationships. This makes the preparedness of social work students to address domestic violence crucial. Social work students need to be provided with support to work with survivors, perpetrators and their families, while engaging in prevention of domestic violence. The present study explores the extent to which domestic violence content is covered within MSW curriculum …

Facilitating Transformation In Workforce Training: Using Clinical Theory To Understand Psychological Self-Sufficiency, Rana Hong, Terry B. Northcut, Marcia Spira, Philip Young P. Hong

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Acknowledging the scarcity of a bottom up social work practice model in facilitating the development of success in workforce development programs, this study explores Psychological self-sufficiency (PSS) as an emerging social work practice theory. Phenomenological studies of low-income jobseekers in employment training along with the empirical validation of measures of the core constructs of PSS – employment hope scale (EHS) and perceived employment barrier scale (PEBS) – and testing of the theoretical model resulted in the emergence of a new theory of PSS. PSS was conceptually defined as a dynamic and internal drive that activates the process of transforming cognitively …

Exploring The Loss And Disenfranchised Grief Of Animal Care Workers., Benjamin Marton, Teresa Kilbane, Holly Nelson-Becker

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

This article explores the psychological distress of Animal Care Workers (ACWs), and the disenfranchisement of this distress through mixed methods study conducted as an online survey. In all, 139 participants responded about their experiences as an ACW, related psychological distress, and the systemic disenfranchisement of distress. Findings indicate that nearly half of ACWs experienced symptoms of depression in the previous month. Over 66% indicated it was difficult to cope. Limited support often resulted in a disenfranchized loss. Implications suggest ACW distress and disenfranchisement related to animals they serve is similar to that of individuals who lose animal companions.

Consumer Competence Strategies, Spiritually Inspired Core Values And Locus Of Control: What Are The Links?, Gabriella Spinelli, Holly Nelson-Becker, Roberta Ligossi

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Ethical consumption has increased as a result of a more pressing environmental agenda, allowing consumers to assert their core values through marketplace decisions. The progressive secularisation of society has opened a gap on how religion and spirituality, defined in this paper as constructs that underpin core values, affect individuals through their consumption choices. An exploratory approach was taken in this research to investigate how consumers negotiate their daily shopping habits, whether they align with or diverge from their religious or secular core values, and whether an internal or external locus of control (LoC) was demonstrated. This qualitative study used the …

Depression Education As Primary Prevention: The Erika’S Lighthouse School-Based Program For High School Students, Michael S. Kelly, Heather Freed, Peggy Kubert, Sarah Greibler

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Major depression is a treatable and common mental health disorder for youth. Untreated depression is a major risk factor for youth who become suicidal and die by suicide. Recent focus in the school-based literature on creating universal mental health promotion programs have recognized the need for effective depression awareness education programs to assist youth in identifying symptoms of depression in themselves and their peers, and to encourage those youth to seek trusted adults for help. A quasiexperimental design (QED) was employed in two suburban Chicago high schools (n=652) to evaluate the intervention, Real Teenagers Talking About Adolescent Depression (RTTAAD), a …

Positive Youth Development: Developing, Implementing, And Sustaining Music-Based Services For Emerging Adults Experiencing Homelessness, Brian Kelly

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Research suggests that comprehensive services that consider the complex and interconnected needs of emerging adults experiencing homelessness may be more effective than interventions with a singular focus. There is little research that demonstrates how agencies that implement programs for individuals experiencing homelessness develop and sustain meaningful services for emerging adults, especially under conditions of increasing austerity. This study targets this gap in the literature by investigating how one transitional living program for emerging adults experiencing homelessness developed a music studio. Specifically, this study examines the factors and processes that were involved in developing, implementing, and sustaining the music studio. Findings …

Research Knowledge Of Advanced Standing And Traditional Students: Implications For Bsw Education, Jennifer L. K. Charles, Nathan H. Perkins, Christopher J. Ward, Melissa L. Stewart, Mary C. Secret

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

The advanced standing model of social work education, which affords graduate credit to qualified BSW students who pursue their MSW, has not been without issue or controversy, including questions of potential differences in performance on various educational outcomes. Specifically related to research curriculum, the importance of which is often not wholly embraced by students, this article reports the results of a secondary data analysis comparing research knowledge among advanced standing and traditional MSW students as well as among the various undergraduate majors (i.e., BSW, psychology, and sociology). Results suggest that research knowledge is similar and low across student subgroups. Important …