COMMUNITY SOCIAL WORK: HISTORY, CHARACTERISTICS, FUNCTIONS - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The social work community is related to the actions taken within a particular community to promote positive transformation of it. The relevance of this action derives from the fact that the existence of a constructive community is fundamental for the development of nations.

Currently in many contexts there is talk of increasing social capital, which corresponds to the real capital of nations: their inhabitants. The GDP of each country is measured by social progress, and this indicator includes not only the possibility that people live with high standards of quality of life, but also more indicators of civility.

In community social work, the active participation of community members is sought. Source: pixabay.com

When it comes to civility or civilization, it is not a utopia. Rather, it is about finding within technological and economic progress features of a society that is tolerant and respectful of differences, that knows how to approach problems from the perspective of the common good.

Beyond technology, the development of science in favor of a more humane development must be supported by disciplines that have to do with this knowledge and develop it. It is in this sense that the disciplines that have the human being as their object of study (such as the social and human sciences) are the protagonists.

As María José Escartín, a specialist in this discipline points out, without the development of social work there would be no historical legacy and scientific heritage that would allow us to improve social interventions and make them increasingly relevant and replicable, in terms of good practices and to generate studies that allow a better understanding of the phenomenon.

It is not surprising that, being such a young discipline, there is not a high level of development that allows overcoming cultural barriers to make possible the replication of successful interventions in different nations and communities. However, since they are human sciences, it is understood that their identity and foundations are still under construction.

Thus, it is very important to know how the foundations of community social work are established, new approaches, how new links are included, what social networks and volunteers are like. It pursues the integral development that must arise above the economic and global aspect, and that only seems possible with community participation.

History

The first social works

Community social work as it is currently conceptualized has had many variations. It is defined as social intervention in the community itself, but it is still a field with foundations that lead to controversy not only its non-professional citizen defenders, but also professionals trained in these disciplines.

There are known references to community social work from 1817 and 1860 in the United States and England respectively, with the organizations called Cooperative Peoples of Robert Owen and Charity Organization Society.

The first was created by the New Harmony Foundation with the intention of making the life of industries and factories become a more humane life without differences of social class. The second was a private charitable organization that aimed to reduce the poverty of English workers.

In 1884 the Establishment Movements were created, attempting to educate adults in London through youth. The intention was to confront the latter with society and teach them its true problems and needs.

Your mission: wellness

According to various studies, from 1900 to about 1930 important initiatives were developed with respect to social and community work.

An example of this were the community planning councils, whose purpose was to confront the problem of European migration in the US. The community funds also stand out, which sought to subsidize the various aid and welfare projects.

According to various sources, the first schools of social work began to be established in the 1930s. One of the first countries was Colombia and the objective was to offer the migrant training opportunities to be able to face the workplace with some training in trades.

Institutionalization

These initiatives were combined with those of international organizations such as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Food Organization (FAO).

The goal was to generate programs that had a more structured and lasting hold over time to help others while improving infrastructure and fundamentals.

It was not until 1962 that community work was accepted as a field of social work practice thanks to the National Association of American Social Workers. Since then it has been referred to as community development, community organization and community intervention.

There has always been a need to equally serve minorities in each society, as target users or populations at risk. After several years this need was institutionalized and structured in a more concrete way.

characteristics

- Community social work is characterized by being framed within the conception of social and human discipline.

- It is also characterized by having an empirical and also practical training.

- It is essential to get society involved; if not, there can be no social integration.

- It is supported by social and humanistic values, centered on the person and positioned based on respect for the dignity of the social being.

- It is characterized by being responsible, it is based on empathy and the conviction that ethics should be what guides the practice of the community social worker. This is how Cristina De Robertis, a social worker, points out.

- Through community social work, it must be understood that communities have the necessary resources to attend to their own needs.

- It can occur in different spheres: local, state or national, and even combining these scenarios with each other.

- None of the positive effects will be possible without the most important characteristic: the presence of volunteers, which is a condition of humanitarian disposition.

Features

Community social work seeks the social welfare of the population. It tries to generate an analysis of the situation and the search for solutions to the problems that afflict the community from the same population, through the use of its own resources.

Among the main functions it stands out to create spaces and processes that serve to enhance the resources and skills of the people who make up the community. The idea of ​​this is that the different options come out from the community itself to develop comprehensively without exclusion.

It can be said that its fundamental objective is to coexist in peace, respecting the dignity of the other and guaranteeing the civic rights that are established.

This goal is feasible from the ethical vision of living together and coexisting, and not only includes societies or nations in open war, as this is a general objective that has become a priority given the increasingly absent social ethics in the world.

Methodology

Like any social discipline, community social work has to follow a methodology that allows replicating and strategically making possible the pursuit of objectives.

Emphasis should be placed on the use of techniques that are based on the community participating, integrating, recognizing and discovering its own resources, and being able to mobilize them towards the achievement of their development.

The Community development methodology, as this intervention is also called, is made up of the following aspects:

- Study of reality, - Activity plan.

- Execution or social action.

- Subsequent evaluation of what was executed.

In this sense, Niévès Herranz and Elena Nadal, specialists in the area of ​​Social Work, propose a methodology that includes the following phases:

Phase i

Making contact.

Phase ii

Study and diagnostic investigation.

Phase III

Planning.

Phase IV

Execution.

Phase V

Evaluation.

These phases or aspects must be immersed in a macro methodology that responds to the following theoretical foundations: systemic analysis, dialogue, communication and development of a joint plan.

This is what will make it possible for efforts to be mobilized from within the community, always counting on the support of the community social worker but in accordance with the community's own objective.

What social policies demand

In the first place, any community social work must seek to restore citizenship by making social groups aware that they must recognize themselves as citizens with duties and rights, and thus restore their social and civic rights.

On the other hand, through community social work it is necessary to mobilize and restore the social bond. All this must be done on the basis of a kind of “contract” of social intervention, in which the community enables the social worker to intervene in its affairs.

Examples

Social work can be developed in various community settings. For example, there are health programs that cover the specific needs of this area or housing programs for people who are in emergency due to some event, natural disaster or street situations.

One of the most typical examples of community social work in the United States is the houses set up to help African-American and Latino people who live in the suburbs; in this way, it seeks to reduce the segregation of these groups.

References

1. Cerullo, R. Wiesenfeld, E. "Awareness in community psychosocial work from the perspective of its actors" (2001) in Revista de Psicología. Retrieved on June 23, 2019 from Revista de Psicología: uchile.cl
2. Left, FC. Garcia, JMB. "Community work, organization and social development" (2014) in Alianza Editorial. Retrieved on June 23, 2019 from Alianza Editorial: google.es
3. Herranz, NL. Nadal, ER. “Community Work Manual” (2001) in Google Books. Retrieved on June 24, 2019 from: books.google.es
4. Hardcastle, DA. Powers, PR “Community practice: theories and skills for social workers” (2004) in Google Books. Retrieved on June 24, 2019 from google.es
5. De Robertis, C. "Foundations of social work: ethics and methodology" (2003) in Google Books. Retrieved on June 24, 2019 from books.google.es
6. Delgado, “Community social work practice in an urban context: The potential of a capacity-enhancement perspective” (1999) in Google Books. Retrieved on June 24, 2019 from books.google.es