The History of Community Practice in U.S. Social Work: Interdisciplinary Scholarship for Community Practice in the 21st C.

Item Type Poster/Presentation

Authors Reisch, Michael, 1948-

Publication Date 2012-06

Keywords Social service--Community practice; Social service--United States--History; Social Work; United States

Download date 01/10/2021 01:20:30

Item License https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10713/2658 The History of Community Practice in U.S. Social Work

Interdisciplinary Scholarship for Community Practice in the 21st C. Michael Reisch, Ph.D., MSW University of Maryland

Before There Were Other Forms of Professional Social Work in the US … There was Community Practice & Social Activism

Key Themes in the History of Community Practice • Demographic & Cultural Changes • Openness to International Concepts & Ideas from Other Fields • Relationship to Social Movements and Radical Goals, Strategies, Tactics • Risk-Taking and Innovation • Use of New Technology

Roots of U.S. Community Practice

• Self-help/Mutual Aid/Civic Participation • Labor & Working Class Organizing • Radical Political Organizations • Social Movements • Immigrants’ Rights Groups • Alinsky Model • International Influences

Influences on Evolution of Community Practice in the U.S. • Rapid socioeconomic & political change: • History, culture, context of communities • Heterogeneity of U.S. society • Emergence of specific issues (HIV/AIDS) • Impact of external events (e.g., war) • Secular & religious ideologies (from Socialism to the Social Gospel) Progressive Era • Public & nonprofit social welfare systems • Promotion of mutual aid & self-help • Research on poverty, child welfare issues, factory conditions, public health needs • Organizing labor unions, esp. for women • Social Reforms: Child labor, public health, occupational safety, mothers’ pensions • Civil rights: NAACP, anti-lynching campaigns, women’s suffrage, immigration reform • Advocacy for peace & anti-militarism Jane Addams & Ellen Gates Starr: Creating Community Practice Jane Addams & Alice Paul: Promoting Peace & Women’s Suffrage Ida Wells Barnett and Lillian Wald: Resisting Racial & Gender Violence Mary Church Terrell & Mary McLeod Bethune: Early Civil Rights Leaders George E. Haynes & W.E.B. DuBois: Speaking Out for Racial Justice Eduard Lindemann & Mary Parker Follett: A New State & A New Community Depression/New Deal Era

• Advocacy for relief, jobs, SS, labor rights • Neighborhood-Based Organizing (Alinsky) • Rank & File Movement & Its Leaders • Growth of Social Work Unions & Link to CIO • Participation in Civil Rights Movement • Concern Over International Issues (Fascism) • Creation of Vital Services During/After WW II

Saul Alinsky: Creating Modern Community Practice Harry Hopkins & Frances Perkins: Creating the U.S. Welfare State Mary van Kleeck & Bertha Reynolds: Leaders of the Rank& File Movement War on Poverty/Great Society • Promoted Awareness of Poverty in the U.S. • Developed New Models of Services (MFY) • Key Roles in War on Poverty & Great Society • Policy Reform: SS Amendments, Medicare & Medicaid, Older Americans Act, Eco Opp. Act • Creation of Community Action Programs • Work with welfare rights, United Farm Workers, civil rights & peace/anti-war groups Whitney Young & Dorothy Height: Leaders of Civil Rights Movement Reagan-Bush-Clinton Years • Defensive strategies to protect social welfare • Promoted awareness of emerging issues: -- AIDS/HIV -- Domestic violence, -- Immigrants’ and Refugees’ Needs & Rights -- Homelessness -- Environmental Justice -- International human rights • Greater role of identity-based organizations • New organizational forms & types of tactics • Growing involvement in electoral politics Richard Cloward & Frances Fox Piven: Forging the Welfare Rights Movement Today … And Tomorrow … • More Awareness of Local/Global Linkages • New Issues: Environment, Global Poverty, Civil Conflict, Trafficking, Economic Crisis • Multicultural & Cross-National Coalitions • New Technologies: Practice Implications • International Anti-Globalization Movement • Tea Party & Occupy Movement • Significance of 2008/2010/2012 Elections Fair Globalization Movement

“The traditional protest- the march, the rally, the chants – is just bad theatre” p. 155 (Boyd,2002)

Summary: Historical Goals of Community Practice & Research • Analyze root causes of inequality & injustice • Emphasize power dynamics in all forms • Juxtapose goals of market economy and SW • Critique role of ideology and culture • Focus on basic institutions and human needs • Promote structural & institutional change • Create alternative institutions & processes • Promote new visions of society & community • Take personal and professional risks Influence of Community Practice Concepts on Social Work - Empowerment - Social Justice - Social Capital - Civic Participation - Conflict - Collaboration - Consensus - Conscientization - Community Competence - Multiculturalism Impact of Community Practice on Social Work Profession • Raised public consciousness of critical issues • Forged unique roles for non-profit CBOs: Complementary, Supplementary & Adversarial • Created new & more responsive services • Supplied much of profession’s leadership • Advocated for social reforms • Introduced international ideas into SW • Gave profession the “moral cover” of social justice by translating rhetoric into practice

New Community Practice Challenges • Growing social & economic inequality • Restructuring of U.S. welfare state – Cutbacks • Disciplinary nature of institutions • Revised mission & culture of nonprofit sector • Changing nature of clients’ needs • Attacks on unions, minorities, women, LGBT • Voter suppression: Threatens electoral work • Impact of new technologies • Routinization of social protest

An Obstacle: Influence of Social Work’s Master Narrative • Reinforced by professional organizations (NASW, CSWE) • Accepts institutional status quo as a given • Shapes profession’s interpretation of its past • Infuses SW theory, research & practice • Masks growing social control function of SW • Silences or marginalizes counter-narratives • Makes social work increasingly apolitical

Impact on Community Practice • Uses expertise to control worker/community relationship. • Devalues experiential knowledge & labels knowledge based on observation as “science” • Restricts problems to the private domain. • Increasing blames people for their problems. • Equates “empowerment” with ability to demand or obtain access to existing services, not to challenge them. • Focuses on community “resiliency” not change

Community Practice as a Potential Counter-Narrative • Social justice as alternative to charity • Environmental explanations for poverty • More democratic conception of services • BUT: Most critical theory work in social work is being done outside of U.S., & within the U.S., outside of social work.

Community Practice as a Counter-Narrative of Resistance • Reorient SW’s goals towards elimination of oppression & creation of egalitarian society • Challenge prevailing practice assumptions • Develop alternative frameworks & theories • Pose different research questions • Clarify ambiguous concepts and vocabulary • Forge new alliances & create new SW roles • New partnerships to pursue social justice.

Specific Steps Short-term: • Help communities promote their interests • Promote resistance at intellectual & practice levels: Implications for research • Help oppressed exercise dignity & agency

Long-term: • Forge “a new social discourse” • Go beyond replacing 1 rhetoric with another • Reframe our analysis, alternatives, & actions.

Future Challenges for Community Practice • Clarify the goals of community intervention • Define the meaning of “success” • Develop measures of effective practice • Reconcile the interests of multiple actors • Define terms such as empowerment & justice • Use a variety of research methods • Link local & international issues • Build & sustain diverse coalitions • Blend geographic & identity-based work

The Challenge of Creating A Socially Just Society

21st C. Issues for Community Practice 1. How can we develop universal social justice principles in a society in which the concept has different and conflicting meanings? 2. How can we achieve social justice in the context of economic globalization when governments have less power & influence and money increasingly controls politics? 3. How can we close the gap between rhetoric & practice to fulfill social justice mission? 4. How can scholarship on community practice inform our efforts to work for social change?

Suggestions for the Future of Community Practice Research  Overall: Shift emphasis from research on interventions that address symptoms to analysis of the relationship between structural changes and increasing socio-economic inequality. Specific research on:  Impact of cutbacks in different communities  Impact of new welfare regime on workers  Impact of new welfare regime on nonprofits  Comparative effectiveness of new technologies  Comparative effective of organizing models

Thank You for Your Attention! [email protected]