CENTRAL CONNECTICUT STATE UNIVERSITY
Social Work Program
Fall 1998
SOCIAL WORK 362
Generalist Social Work Practice With Families, Organizations and Communities
Tues. 5:00 p.m. to 7:40 p.m.

INSTRUCTOR: Evelyn Newman Phillips, M.S. W., Ph.D. LSCW (FL)
Telephone # (860) 832-2617
E-mail: Phillipse@ccsu.edu
Office: 110 DiLoreto Hall

Office hours: Tues 10-11 a.m. Wed 1:30- 3:00 p.m.Thur. 5-6 p.m.or by appointment

Prerequisites: SW 360 or SW 361 or permission of instructor.

COURSE DESCRIPTION: Generalist Social Work Practice with Families, Organizations and Communities is designed to train students to intervene and develop strategies to help families, organizations, and communities in the context of generalist social work practice. Students are taught tasks and skills necessary to bring about change in large systems. Social Work 450 and 451 or Sw 452 and SW 453 be taken concurrently.

Field work is required in this course.

Required Texts:
Rothman, Jack, John L. Erlich and John Tropman
1995 (Fifth Edition)
Strategies of Community Intervention. F. E. Peacock Publishers, Inc.

Medoff, Peter and Holly Sklar
1994 Streets of Hope: The Fall and the Rise of an Urban Neighborhood.
Boston: South End Press.

Kiritz, Norton
1980 Program Planning and Proposal Writing: Expanded Version.
Los Angeles: The Grantsmanship Center

Social Policy Spring 1998 What's Left? ( This resource is an issue of the journal Social Policy).

Note About Texts:

During the past two decades corporations downsized workers and governments reduced public funds for social services. These propensities result in untold problems for workers, families, and communities regardless of their class distinctions. I selected various texts for this course to highlight the issues that United States citizens face and to examine how some groups organize to address these challenges in their lives.These resources help us to conceptualize what skills are needed to buffer and counteract the adverse effects of homeless, jobless and poverty. These texts highlight problems as well as give examples of problem resolutions.

Course Overview:

This course is designed to allow you opportunities to learn methods and strategies that will improve the quality of life for families, organizations, and communities. A major assumption of this class is that some families, organizations and community groups do not realize their fullest potentials because of disparities of power, lack of resources, racism, sexism, ageism and other structural inequalities. Social work implies that collective action, advocacy, conscious raising, and community development among members in societies can alter oppressive conditions and enrich our sense of belonging. To acquire organizing skills, we explore the historical development of activism in the global community, examine various strategies and their effectiveness. Liberation movements among women, African Americans, gays, labor, senior citizens, the differently-abled and other groups will be discussed. Finally, we study characteristics and implications of organizing and development in the 1990s. Lectures, guest activists, videos, exercises, research and discussion will be employed to convey concepts about community organizing and development.

Objectives: When this class is completed, you will be able to:

€ Define organizing and development in social work and understand their implications in a world system.

€Identify how social, political, economics, and historical conditions create climates that lead people in the United States and other parts of the globe to organize.

€ Increase awareness of the strengths and qualities that exists within families, communities and organizations.

€Examine diverse strategies that have been used among various community activists globally.

€ Plan, analyze and assess the effectiveness of methods employed to meet basic human needs and to ensure that the dignity of humans is elevated.

€Determine which approaches are appropriate for helping families, organizations and communities to achieve optimal results.

€Develop programs and resources that empower groups to envision change and work collaboratively to achieve economic and social justice.

€Conceptualize a problem and write a grant proposal.

Expectations:
This genre of social work involves active participation. Learning occurs by applying principles. Empowerment is demonstrated in action.

€You are required to attend classes promptly and regularly. More than three unexcused absences reduce your grade by 20 points for each class missed.

€All assignments should be turned in when due. Written requests for extension must be submitted to instructor. After consultation we will sign an agreement that indicates when assignment is due.

€Keep a copy of all papers turned in. All papers must be signed and stapled. No loose papers will be accepted. Invest in a stapler. Do not use plastic folders; save the universe.

€Read assigned materials before attending class. Participate in class discussion. Extend your learning beyond the classroom.

€You are expected to give your best.

€Your professionalism is assessed during your tenure in the social work program. The criteria include responsible behavior, promptness, and respect for diverse cultural views.

€If you need course adaptation or accommodations because of a disability, have emergency medical information to share with me, or need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible.

The old law of an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind. Dr. Martin Luther King

Major Assignments:

€1. You will identify a problem in either your agency, community or university campus that needs to be addressed and write a grant proposal to fund your efforts. Discuss your plans with me by Sept. 15, 1998. You may work with a group that needs an organizer or choose to organize people to address a problem. Discuss the nature of the problem, its affect on the group and the individuals' collective vision of their life without the problem and what do they propose be done to alleviate the obstacle. Investigate the capacity of individuals and groups to change this problem. Also consider resources that will support your effort. As you document the problem, consider objectives and strategies necessary to fulfill your goal. Also, think about the implications of your intervention. Review Program Planning and Proposal Writing by Norton Kiritz. In class, we will collectively assist each other to develop a tight proposal. Try to write a serious proposal that could possibly be funded. Why not make your work a service to some group. Frivolous proposals are discouraged but creativity is a must. Enjoy the process.
100 points Due November 17, 1998.
You will be graded by the criteria listed in Kiritz as "Components of Proposal Writing."

€2 .To help you to acquire knowledge about other people's efforts to organize and alter societal conditions, you are expected to a study the organizing/ development strategies of a local group. You should interview local people who are involved in Connecticut. Neighborhood groups will be a valuable resource for this assignment. No more than an 8 page report is necessary. Prepare a 15 minute class presentation.
Due October 6. 50 Points. Presentations will begin October 6, 1998.
50 points

Your report should include the following components:

€What problem motivated the group to organize?
€Who initiated the action?
€How was problem was established and documented?
€Who were affected by the problem?
€What were the objectives of the organizers?
€Which strategies were employed to achieve their goals?
€Were alliances built and with whom?
€How was government influenced to help eliminate the problem?
€Which obstacles were met and how were they resolved?
€Which challenges remain unmet?
€ How did organization adapt to the changing political economy?
€What were the consequences and implications of the group's organizing efforts?
€How id the group's actions change their community?
€ What sustains the project?
€ If it is not sustained, discuss why not?

3. MidTerm October 13, 1998 50 points

4. Final Examination December 8, 1998. 50 points

5. Class Participation 100 points

Unit 1. Sept 1
€The objective of this unit is to introduce to students to the concept of social work
as an organizing tool to influence social change.

A.What is macro practice?
1. Administration
a. Planning
b. Coordinating
c. Evaluation

2. Community Organization
a. Planned intervention
b. Collective Action

3. Community Development and Social Planning
a. Problem Identification
b. Data collection
c. Development of Course of Action
d. Recommendation
e. Evaluation of Implementation of Plans

B. Why is macro practice essential in social work?

1. Inequitable distribution of wealth and resources.
2. Poverty
3. Discrimination
4. Adverse Conditions

C. Why is collective action important?

1. Enhance social functioning
2. Improve living environments
3. Development of community

€Questions: What conditions led to the development of social work macro practice and community organizing? Is there a need for community organizing and development in social work now? What is the role of macro practice given the present political climate?

€Read: On Reserve in Library

Garvin, Charles and Fred M. Cox 1995 "A History of Community Organizing Since the Civil War with Special Reference to Oppressed Communities." Pp. 64-99 in Strategies of Community Intervention .Rothman, et al. E. F. Peacock Publishers.
Also in Strategies of Community Intervention read Parsons, et. al. Integrated Practice: A Framework for Problem Solving. Pp. 195-203

Unit 2: Sept 8
€The objective of this section is to examine the definition of community, the goals of community organizing, and the concept of community organizing.

A. What is community?
1. Is it physically constructed?
2. Is it symbolically derived?

B. What is community organizing and its history?

C. What are the goals of community organizing?
1. Improve quality of life.
2. Eliminate of social inequalities.
3. Promote social justice.
4. Advance sense community and belonging
5. Foster self-determination and actualization

D. What do community organizers do?
1. Identify barriers to self realization.
2. Inventory human capacities, talents and skills.
3. Determine resources
4. Plan and implement programs.
5. Raise funds, recruit supporters.
6. Propose policies and advocate change
7. Develop neighborhoods and communities.

Read: Reserve Room:
€Hardcastle, David, et. al 1997 " The Concept of Community in Social Work Practice." in Community Practice Theories and Skills for Social Workers. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 97-113.

Cox, Fred 1995 "Community Problem Solving: A Guide to Practice with Comments." Pp. 146-162. in Strategies of Community Intervention. Rothman, et. al. F. F. Peacock Publishers.

Unit 3: Sept 15
The objective is to understand relationships that exist between the political economy and community problems.

A. What is Political Economy?
1. Neo-classical political economy
2. Marxist political economy
B. Evidence of Political Economy
1. Ideology
a.The American Dream
b. Individualism
c. Meritocracy
2. Historical dialectics
a. Industrial revolution
b. Post-Industrial Society

€Read: Bobo, Kim et. al. 1995 "Cleaning Up in the Nineties." pp. 99-113 in Strategies of Community Intervention. Rothman, et al. eds. Itasca: F. E. Peacock Publishers.

€Assignment: During the past weeks, you have observed the environment in which your clients live. No doubt you noticed that many clients encounter similar problems in their lives. Perhaps on closer observation, you realize that these problems are structurally derived. I would like for you to develop an interview schedule or a brief survey to assess some of the needs that clients encounter. The survey may be exploratory and open-ended. Determine if there is a consensus among members of this population. These data will be the beginning of your project. Assess how the political economy contributes to certain problems. Before distributing questionnaire, review the instrument with the instructor.
This assessment will serve you well when you write your grant proposal.

Unit 4: Sept. 22
The objective of this unit is to explain how some families are affected by a market economy.

A. Political economy and families
1. Industrialization and nuclear families
2. Division of Labor
3. "Leave to Beaver and Brady Bunch" Ideologies
B. Impact of political economy on families
1. Extended families dislocated
2. Unfulfilled role expectation
3. Loss of home
4. Stigma
5. Loss of class position
6. Emotional stability disrupted
7.Liminality

Read: Medoff and Sklar Chapters 1-2, "Remembering," "Creating the Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative," Pp. 1-66. Boston: South End Press.

€Discuss how the families you encounter are affected by the changing economy.
€Examine how they perceive their places in the economy.

Also, note the progress you are making in defining the problems your clients encounter.

Unit 5 Sept. 29 Happy Yom Kippur
€The objective of the unit to explore how to gain access to organizations and community members to enhance their lives.
A. Entering the community
1. Selecting a community where commonalities exist
2. Establish relationship with members of community
3. Understand power structure
4. Establish contact with power structure
5. Understand how decisions are made

B. Ideal characteristics of organizers/action researcher.
1.. Honesty
2. Realistic expectations--Don't promise what you can't fulfill
3. Respect for knowledge and capacities of community members

C.Analyzing communities/ agencies
1. Determine causes of problems
a. Local policies, culture and conditions
b. National policies, culture and conditions
c. International policies, culture and conditions
2. Target population
a. Characteristics
b. Culture
3. Fact Gathering
a. Census
b. Newspapers
c. Agency policy manuals
d. Annual Reports
e. Consensus of felt need

D. Exploring government resources
a. Programs
b. Funding
E. Laws and Regulations
F. Government Structure
G. How to influence government

€Read:
Fellin, Phillip Understanding American Communities." Pp. 114- 128 In Strategies of Community Intervention. Rothman, et. al. Itasca, Illinois: F. E. Peacock Publishers.
Kiritz. Pages 1-18. Proposal Summary and Introduction

€Assignment: Based on the problem you have identified, write a draft of a problem statement/needs assessment for a proposal. Make sure you are clear about which funding sources you plan to contact. Some proposals have been funded. This proposal may assist others to improve their conditions.

Unit 6 Oct 6
€Objective: To explore theories about how to mobilize people for action and sustain their efforts.

A. Inducement to activism
1. Commitment to organization
2. Cultural or ethnic identification
3. Dissatisfied with neighborhood or life situation

B. Models of mobilization
1. The Alinksy Model
2. The House Meeting Model
3.The Boston Model
4. The Acorn Model
5. Issues Model
6. Advocacy Model

C. Expanding Networks
1. Religious organizations
2. Issue Organizations
3. Opinion Leaders
4. Recruitment
D. Sustained effort
1. Self determination
2. "Winning" Small battles

€Read: Rothman, 1995 "Approaches to Community Intervention."Pp. 26-63. in Rothman, "Strategies for Community Interventions. Itasca: F. E. Peacock.
Zald, Mayer N. 1995 "Organization As Polities: And Analysis of Community Organization Agencies." Pp. 129- 139. in Strategies of Community Intervention.Skim Rothman, et. al.Itasca, Illinois: F. E. Peacock Publishers..

Kiritz, p. 20-23.Program Objectives

€Assignment: Bring a draft of the program objective section of your proposal.

Mid-Term Examination Oct 13

Unit 7 Oct 20
Social Action Campaigns
€The objective of this unit is to define social action and to document the strategies that used to social inequalities.

A. Social Action Purpose
1. Strategies to acquire power
2. Designed to redefine and prioritize political issues

B. Methods to acquire power
1. Expose power differential
2. Public information campaign
3. Demonstration
4. Humiliation/embarrassment
5. Develop group's strength
6. Explore the opponents weaknesses
7. Influencing political decisions
C. Legitimizing Power
1. Getting the Public to Buy-In
2. Ethics
3. Symbolism
4. Bargaining
D. Political Tactics
1. Electing People
2. Advocating Policies
3. Lobbying
4. Serving on Board
5. Preparing Legislation
6. Registering Voters
7. Monitoring Bureaucratic Actions

€Read: Medoff and Sklar Chapter 3"Don't Dump on Us: Organizing the Neighborhood."
Pp. 67-88 Boston: South End Press.

€ Kiritz. P. 24-27 "Methods."

€Discussion: How did DSNI legitimize their campaign? Which tactics did the group use to acquire power? What role did symbolism play in their campaign? How did they acquire power? How did they influence the political system?

€Assignment: Bring a draft of the first four components of your proposal. The class members will critique proposal and recommend improvements.

"A vision without a task is but a dream. a task with out a vision is a drudgery. but a vision with a task can change the world. " Margaret Leonard
(Medoff and Sklar 1994:253)
Unit 8 Oct. 27
€The objective this unit is to explain the dynamics of community development as a strategy for social change.

A. Community Development
1. Theories
a. Wallerstein
b. Rostow
2. Rationale
a. Distribution of Resources
b. Location Development
c. Self-Determination
d. "Democratic" participation
B. Urban Development
1. History of Urban Renewal
2. Political Climate
3. Purpose
4. Consequences
C. Current Trends in Domestic Development
1 Housing
2. Enterprise Zones
3. Neighborhood Revitalization Zones
4. Youth Development
D. Current Trends in International Development
1. Women in Development
2. Prevention of Violence

€Read:Medoff and Sklar, "Planning an Urban Village" Chapter 4, Pp. 89-114;"Controlling the Land Through Eminent Domain" Chapter 5, Pp. 115-144
Boston: South End Press.
€Read: Kiritz. Section 5 Pp. 28-33.

€ For grant project, bring a draft of the evaluation segment of your grant.

€Discussion: How can activists use legal structures to empower disfranchised members of community? How can organizers foster development and avoid the possibility that community groups become dependent? What is dependency? How does an activist evaluate self-determination? How would you classify DSNI? When an agency or group depends on outsiders to fund their efforts, are they self-determined?

Unit 9 Nov. 3 Election Day Vote Vote
Housing and Development
€The objective of this unit is to explore how development strategies are used
when creating housing for diverse members of the society.

A. HUD Strategies and Public Housing
1. Scatter-site housing
2. Owner managed
3. Privately Owned
B. United Nations Global Strategies
C. Faith Communities and Housing Development

€ Read: Medoff and Sklar Chapter 6, Land and Housing Development: The Triangle and Beyond. Pp. 145-168. Marti-Costa and Irma Serrano-Garcia 1995 "Needs Assessment and Community Development: An Ideological Perspective." in Strategies of Community Intervention." Pp. 257-274. Itasca: F. E. Peacock.

€Discussion:What strategies may be used by DSNI to ensure that quality homes are built?

*Unit 10 Issues of Class, Ethnicity, and Gender in Development

€The objective of this class to explore how gender, class and ethnicity may either

foster or disrupt development.

A. Women in Development
B. Ruling Class and Development
C. Cultural Hegemony and Development Among Dominant Cultural groups.

€Read; Gutierrez, Lorraine M. "Working with Women of Color: An Empowerment Perspective." Pp. 204-213 in Strategies of Community Intervention. Jack Rothman,
et. al. eds. F. E. Peacock Publishers.

€Discussion: How do assumptions about development affect women?

Unit 11 Nov. 10
Building Capacity
€ The objective of this unit is to document a series of strategies that may be use to build capacity of group and organizational members through the use of indigenous knowledge.

A. Indigenous Knowledge
1. Local worldview
2. Ethnicity as a consensus builder
3. Ethnicity as a barrier
^^^Document Error^^^B. Native Leadership
1. Customary distribution of power
2. Aware of community issues and people
3. Broad Abilities and Capacities

C. Cosmological Approach to development
1. Values
2. Beliefs
3. Conflictual issues
D. Recognition of capacity

Kaul, Mohan "Serving Oppressed Communities: The Self Help Approach." in Strategies of Community Intervention. Rothman, et.al. Pp. 268-274. Itasca: F. E. Peacock Publishers.
Fleras, Augie 1995 "From Social Welfare to Community Development: Maori Policy and The Department of Maori Affairs in New Zealand."Pp. 275-282." in Strategies of Community Intervention. Rothman, et.al. Itasca: F. E. Peacock Publishers.

Unit 12 Nov 17
Youth and Development
€The objective of this unit is to examine how youths may be integrated into the development process.

A. The Role of Youths in Development
B. Youths as Resources
C. Youth Trained to Sustain Long-term Development

Read Medoff and Sklar, "The Power of Youth" Chapter 8, Pp. 203-245.
Fisher, Robert 1995 "Social Action Community Organization: Proliferation, Persistence, Roots, and Prospects." Pp. 327-340.in Strategies of Community Intervention. Rothman, et.al. Itasca: F. E. Peacock Publishers.

€Discussion: How to we foster youth development?

Unit 13 Nov 24
Sustaining Projects
€The Objective of this unit is to discuss methods that may be use to sustain projects.

A. Project Management
1. Planning
2. Seeking Funding
B. Implementing Objectives
C. Evaluating Success

€Read: Medoff and Sklar, Chapter 7 and 8 "Holistic Development: Human, Economic, Environmental" and "Pathfinders" pp. 245-294.
€Patti, Rino J. 1995 "Managing for Service Effectiveness in Social Welfare Organizations." in Strategies of Community Organization. Rothman, et.al., eds.
Pp. 391-416. Itasca: F.E. Peacock.

Unit 14 Dec. 1
Retrospective Analysis of Macropractice
€This unit will allow us to revisit issues that we have raised about serving families, communities and organizations through macro practice.

A. What is gained through macro practice?
B. How do we assess our effectiveness?
C. How Do We Leave Communities?
Flacks, Dick 1995 "The Revolution of Citizenship." in Strategies of Community Intervention. Rothman, et.al., Pp. 368-

€What is the future of community organizing in a capitalist dominated world?

Review Nov.8

Dec. 15 Final examination

Proposal Due November 24

"No community is built with a focus on deficiencies and needs. Every community, forever in the past and forever in the future will be built on the capacities and gifts of the people who live there." John McKnight. (Medoff and Sklar 1994:254)

We are called to play the good samaritan on life's roadside; but . . . One day the whole Jericho road must be transformed so that men and women will not be beaten and robbed as they make their journey through life. . . . Dr. Martin Luther King (Medoff and Sklar 1994:286)

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not;
nothing is more common than unsuccessful men(sic) with talent.
Genius will not;
unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education alone will not;
the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge.

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Thomas Edison

"Come to the edge," he said. They said, "We are afraid."
"Come to the edge," he said. They came.
He pushed them
And they flew." Guillaume Appollinaire

MODEL FOR NEEDS ASSESSMENT

Needs assessments are used to determine perceptions and ideas that community members hold about their environment. The assessment does not just focuses on problems but also attempts to document the capacity of community members to address their predicament.

Below are examples of how one may fashion a survey. These questions are merely models; play around with your own models.

Objective of Questions:
To determine the availability of child care resources for working families.

1. Overall how do you rate the availability of safe day care in your neighborhood?

2. How many facilities are opened to families?

3. What is the average cost per child?

4.Which hours are services accessible?

5. What can do help solve this problem?
6. What percentage of the neighborhood member are unable to acquire child care?

7. What can be done to eliminate a shortage in day care?

8. Whom do you know can help resolve this issues?

Objective of Question
To determine extent of joblessness and underemployment among community members.

1.Are you employed?
2. How long?
3. Have you been unemployed in within the past year?
4. How many people do you know who are unemployed?
5. Have people been laid off because of business relocation?
6. Do feel that you are adequately employed?
7. What types of jobs are available to people in this community?
8. What barriers keep people from being employed?
9. What do you think needs to be done to address this problem?
10. What can you do to help.

Thoughts to Consider
I see how deeply connected that split [between personal and political] is to ongoing practices of domination (especially thinking about intimate relationships, ways racism, sexism and class exploitation work in our daily lives, in those private spaces-- that it is there that we are often most wounded, hurt, dehumanized; there that ourselves are most taken away, terrorized, and broken). The public reality and institutional structures of domination make the private space for oppression and exploitation concrete--real. That's why I think it crucial to talk about the points where the public and private meet, to connect the two.
bell Hooks

Oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever. The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself . . . Dr. Martin Luther King

It is far better to be free to govern, or misgovern yourself than to be governed by anyone else. Kwame Nkrumah

The ancestor of every action is a thought. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Fear is that little darkroom where negatives are developed. Michael Pritchard.

Dates for presentations:

October 9

1. ___________________ 2.___________________ 3._____________________

October 16
1.___________________ 2. ____________________ 3. ______________________

October 23

1. ____________________ 2. _________________ 3._______________________

October 30

1.__________________ 2. __________________ 3.__________________________

November6

1.___________________ 2. __________________ 3.________________________

November 13
1. ________________ 2____________________ 3._________________________

November 27
1. ___________________2. ________________ 3.________________________

December 4

1.____________________2. ________________3.________________________