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Rooted in Strengths: Celebrating the Strengths Perspective in Social Work

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Rooted in Strengths: Celebrating the Strengths Perspective in Social Work Rooted in Strengths: Celebrating the Strengths Perspective in Social Work Editors Amy N. Mendenhall, PhD, MSW Michelle Mohr Carney, PhD, MSSA i This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non-commercial 4.0 International License (CC-BY-NC 4.0). More information can be found at https:// creativecommons.org/ 3rd party content belongs to the original sources as indicated and is not governed by the CC license. Their terms of use may vary. © 2020 Copyright is held by the Author(s) ISBN: 978-1-936153-15-2 A free, open-source version of this book can be found at kuscholarworks.ku.edu. Access the book directly at http://hdl.handle.net/1808/30023. Published by the University of Kansas Libraries Lawrence, KS 66045 ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Co-Editors would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions to this work: Chapter Peer Reviewers: Deb Adams, Becci Akin, Marian Boyd, D. Crystal Coles, April Diaz, Pat Dustman, Mijin Jeong, Nancy Kepple, Michelle Levy, Melinda Lewis, Jason Matejkowski, Megan Paceley, Patricia Sattler, Dana Shafer Managing Editor: Jenni Atwood Cover Design: Jenni Atwood Publishing Team: Marianne Reed & Pam LeRow iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ix Michelle Mohr Carney & Amy N. Mendenhall Original 1989 Article: ‘A Strengths Perspective for Social Work Practice’ 3 Ann Weick, Charles Rapp, W. Patrick Sullivan & Walter Kisthardt Reflections 15 Charles A. Rapp & Alice Lieberman STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE & EDUCATION The Strength of Black Families: The Elusive Ties of Perspective and Praxis in Social Work Education 25 Tanya Smith Brice & Denise McLane-Davison A Future of Strength: The Strengths Perspective and Developing Social Workers 39 Shelby L. Clark, Becci A. Akin & Kelechi Wright Supporting Students Utilizing the Strengths Perspective: Classroom Activities & Assignments that Encourage and Empower Student Success 51 Kenya Jones Extending the Story: Weaving the Strengths Perspective into Study Abroad Initiatives 61 Jennifer Chappell Deckert Strengths Work in Social Work Education at HAWK, Germany 77 Corinna Ehlers Rooted In Strengths: The Branching of Interprofessional Practice and Education 91 Teri Kennedy v STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE & MACRO PRACTICE Strengths Perspective Policy Practice: Conceptual Underpinnings, Development, and Next Steps 115 Melinda Lewis, Rosemary Kennedy Chapin & Hayden Rand Strengths Perspective in Critical Macro Practice: Tentative Guidance for Transformative Strengths-Based Policy, Organizational, and Community Practice 131 Jason M. Sawyer & D. Crystal Coles Tracing the Impact of the Strengths Perspective: A Personal Narrative 149 Cynthia A. Lietz STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE & MICRO PRACTICE Strengths Model Case Management: Moving Strengths from Concept To Action 165 Richard J. Goscha Form Follows Function: Adapting the Strengths Model to Facilitate Implementation and Sustainability 187 Elizabeth A. Schoenfeld, Brooke A. White & Amy J. Youngbloom Strengths Model for Youth: Moving Toward a Client-Centered, Strengths-based Model of Case Management in Community Mental Health 203 Amy N. Mendenhall, Whitney Grube & Nikolaus Schuetz The Strengths Model In Hong Kong 223 Samson Tse, Eugenie Fung, Wann-Ka Iris Lo, Stephen Wong, Sau Kam Chan, Eppie Wan, Wing-See Emily Tsoi & Wing-Yan Winnie Yuen Introduction And Development of Strengths Perspective and Strengths-Oriented Case Management in the German-Speaking Area 241 Corinna Ehlers & Matthias Müller vi STRENGTHS PERSPECTIVE & PRACTICE WITH VARIOUS POPULATIONS See the Ball. Hit the Ball. One Social Worker’s Real Life Adventure with the Strengths Perspective 259 Lori Madrid Moving Away From a Risk Paradigm to Study Rural Communities Among LGBTQ+ Youth: Promotion of a Strengths Perspective in Research, Practice, and Policy 281 Megan S. Paceley Identification of Strengths among Southwestern LGBTQ+ Young Adults 293 Megan E. Gandy-Guedes & Megan S. Paceley The Circles of Sexuality: Promoting a Strengths-based Model Within Social Work that Provides a Holistic Framework for Client Sexual Well-being 305 George Turner Strengths-based Social Work with Older People: A UK Perspective 327 Holly Nelson-Becker, Liz Lloyd, Alisoun Milne, Emma Perry, Mo Ray, Sally Richards, Mary Pat Sullivan, Denise Tanner & Paul Willis My Sojourn with the Strengths Perspective: Growth and Transformation through Crisis, Illness, and Disability 347 Edward R. Canda Editor Bios 365 Author Bios 367 vii viii Preface Preface In the late 1980s, a group of University of Kansas School of Social Welfare (KUSSW) faculty and doctoral students began to talk about reframing our view of clients’ ca- pacities relative to their own course of treatment. Despite the emergence of social work as a helping profession, a strengths-based approach to work with clients and communities has not always been understood as critical to practice. Historically, cli- ents, particularly highly vulnerable clients, were seen in terms of their deficits. This deficit approach to working with individuals led to a culture of “fixing” clients with the task of doing so implicitly placed on the social worker, practitioner, etc. Flipping that view to recognize that each individual had innate strengths and abilities to offer in their own change process and the importance of recognizing and valuing the client perspective in that process was forming at KUSSW. What emerged at KUSSW was a way of thinking and a practice model that repre- sented the shifting perspectives from deficit to strengths when working with people. In 1989, “A Strengths Perspective for Social Work Practice” (Weick, Rapp, Sullivan, & Kisthardt, 1989), a seminal article calling for and defining a strengths perspective for social work practice, was published by a group of University of Kansas School of Social Welfare faculty and students in the journal Social Work. The Strengths Perspective emphasizes the human capacity for resilience and resourcefulness and recognizes the need for individuals and communities to form and achieve their own goals and aspirations. While acknowledging the difficulties ix Rooted in Strengths: Celebrating the Strengths Perspective in Social Work that clients experience, the Strengths Perspective reframes obstacles as challenges, opportunities, and motivators for change, and places social workers as collaborators with clients, their families, and communities in the change process. The article and related work completed at the time set the foundation for the Strengths Perspective to become a guiding principle for academic and scholarly activity at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare for the next 30 years. However, the notion of identifying strengths was not a new one. Various move- ments had long challenged conventional deficit thinking in social work. Additionally, numerous theories and perspectives including empowerment, social construction- ism, feminism, and critical theories emphasize concepts that emerge as key prin- cipals of strengths-based practice. In this volume, authors Tanya Smith Brice and Denise McLane-Davison provide a historical view of strengths-based work with Black families based on the writings of Dubois and Billingsley to illustrate the long-held understanding of the importance of recognizing strengths. Today the Strengths Perspective has become pervasive in social work, viewed as foundational to social work practice in the USA and several other countries. Practi- cal applications, critical reviews, and innovative extensions of the perspective have emerged in social work education, policy development and analysis, organizational practice, and direct practice with clients. Strengths as a starting point are ubiquitous in our field. Current social work students and early career social workers would have little understanding of a deficit approach to working with people. The purpose of this special volume is to highlight the journey, catalog the paradigm shift, and doc- ument the historical roots of recognizing individuals’ strengths in their own ability to change. Our call to authors was intentionally abstract. Contributors were asked to share their application of the Strengths Perspective in practice, research/schol- arship, or teaching, but given no parameters beyond that. It was our hope that we would hear the “story” of strengths work in social work from the unique perspective of the authors. What resulted is a wide-ranging collection of chapters that speaks to the power of strengths in the authors’ own words. From traditional research articles to personal narratives, the chapters illustrate how the Strengths Perspective has been applied in the United States and internationally. The book opens with a reprint of the 1989 article by Weick and colleagues and a chronological reflection by two University of Kansas emeritus faculty including an author from that article. The following chapters are divided into four sections: (1) Strengths Perspective and Education, (2) Strengths Perspective and Macro Practice, (3) Strengths Perspective and Micro Practice, and (4) Strengths Perspective and Practice with Various Populations. Not only do the chapters in this volume highlight past and current applications of the Strengths Perspective but they also provide a guide for moving forward. Teri Kennedy suggests a strengths-based approach to interprofessional practice and education (SB-IPE), and Megan E. Gandy-Guedes and Megan S. Paceley highlight the x Preface need to shift from a focus on risks among LGBTQ+ youth, which fails to fully recog- nize their resilience, to an approach that identifies and
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