With research showing that clients from diverse racial and ethnic groups disproportionately experience barriers in their interactions with social services and that providers recognize the need to be better prepared to work with these groups, this book invites us to rethink current approaches to social work practice with multicultural communities. We begin with a synthesis of the current evidence on the provision of care to multicultural communities that provides an in-depth look at both client and provider experiences. The following chapters offer tangible, research-based approaches to engaging with multicultural clients and reveal often unrecognized problems with current models of social work practice. A unique compilation of rigorous qualitative, experimental, and community-based studies demonstrate the effectiveness of culturally grounded interventions and identify the specific factors associated with positive outcomes. Areas covered include disability, marriage and couple relationship problems, domestic violence, and mental illness within Latinx, African American, First Nations, and South Asian communities. As the authors in this book show, the stories of multicultural communities are narratives of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Yet, social work underutilizes rich family and community cultural resources. By not facilitating their involvement, social service systems compromise these vital resources which social services cannot replace. In arguing that we need to expand professional boundaries to encompass indigenous practices, family and extended kin, and therapeutic relationships that make sense to different cultural groups, this book will be of interest to those studying the ways in which social work practice can be improved to better suit the needs of a racially and ethnically diverse population. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

With research showing that clients from diverse racial and ethnic groups disproportionately experience barriers in their interactions with social services and that providers recognize the need to be better prepared to work with these groups, this book invites us to rethink current approaches to social work practice with multicultural communities. We begin with a synthesis of the current evidence on the provision of care to multicultural communities that provides an in-depth look at both client and provider experiences. The following chapters offer tangible, research-based approaches to engaging with multicultural clients and reveal often unrecognized problems with current models of social work practice. A unique compilation of rigorous qualitative, experimental, and community-based studies demonstrate the effectiveness of culturally grounded interventions and identify the specific factors associated with positive outcomes. Areas covered include disability, marriage and couple relationship problems, domestic violence, and mental illness within Latinx, African American, First Nations, and South Asian communities. As the authors in this book show, the stories of multicultural communities are narratives of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. Yet, social work underutilizes rich family and community cultural resources. By not facilitating their involvement, social service systems compromise these vital resources which social services cannot replace. In arguing that we need to expand professional boundaries to encompass indigenous practices, family and extended kin, and therapeutic relationships that make sense to different cultural groups, this book will be of interest to those studying the ways in which social work practice can be improved to better suit the needs of a racially and ethnically diverse population. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work.

This text offers a comprehensive overview of the key aspects of globalisation, their impact on social work and the resulting challenges in practice. The authors draw on post-colonialism to consider the global issues facing social work, such as mass migration, and the ways in which social workers can respond to such difficulties.

Encompassing community development, organizing, planning, & social change, as well as globalisation, this book is grounded in participatory & empowerment practice. The 36 chapters assess practice, theory & research methods.

The underlying frame of social work is the nation state, and it is from within the state that welfare strategies and social policies are devised and implemented. However, post-colonialism, globalisation, migration and the associated implications for human rights, social justice and social welfare policies contest the idea of a clearly defined space for social work and present new challenges for researchers and practitioners. Transnational Social Work and Social Welfare argues for the increased importance of the transnational perspective in social work theory and practice. The book challenges the idea of the nation state as a given entity and argues that globalization and an increasing number of people crossing borders must have an impact on the theories and strategies of social work. The international contributors are critical of a restricted focus on a geographically defined space and the impact on work with clients. With cases covering China, France, India, UK, Germany, Malaysia, Israel, Turkey, the book highlights the challenges as well as the opportunities this new perspective can open up for theories and strategies in social work. It will be of interest to students, researchers and social workers interested in migration, social care, poverty and cultural competency in health and social care.

This book outlines new strategies for helping diverse groups and communities to gain their voices and enhance their capabilities. You will develop an understanding of changes in multicultural practice skills now required by the revised NASW Code of Ethics. Learn subtleties in cultural patterns and political circumstances in diverse immigrant populations that affect your practice approaches. And develop new skills for responding to new public policies that reflect movements toward victim blaming, cost containment and cultural intolerance.

Using concrete examples, this optimistic book illustrates the ways in which structual social work theory is being successfully implemented in social work practice. By providing examples of what does work in structural social work practice, it offers hope to others that this work is not only possible, but that it is happening, it is effective, and the rest of us can do it too.

The Routledge Handbook of Social Work Theory provides an interdisciplinary and international introduction to social work theory. It presents an analytical review of the wide array of theoretical ideas that influence social work on a global scale. It sets the agenda for future trends within social work theory. Separated into four parts, this handbook examines important themes within the discourses on social work theory, as well as offering a critical evaluation of how theoretical ideas influence social work as a profession and in practice. It includes a diverse range of interdisciplinary topics, covering the aims and nature of social work, social work values and ethics, social work practice theories and the use of theory in different fields of practice. The contributors show how and why theory is so important to social work and analyze the impact these concepts have made on social intervention. Bringing together an international team of leading academics within the social work field and newer contributors close to practice, this handbook is essential reading for all those studying social work, as well as practitioners, policymakers and those involved in the associated fields of health and social care.

Community Practice is a comprehensive resource for social workers and students eager to learn how to practice effectively in complex systems and diverse communities. In this completely revised edition of the definitive text in the field, the authors have thoroughly updated each chapter and added two entirely new chapters on community building and community organizing. New material on topics such as negotiation and mediation, community advocacy, participatory rural appraisal, the narrative approach to social change, community involvement, representative client boards, and the latest in grassroots endeavors make this text as inspiring as it is practical. Drawing upon the wealth of information available from local organizations, the Internet, newspapers, and academic journals, the authors introduce contemporary experiments and analyze classic modes of community practice and change. The content, exercises, and references offer instructors the flexibility necessary to tailor their courses to undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level students. This new edition will continue to provide a comprehensive and integrated overview of the theory and skills fundamental to all areas of social work practice. Broad in scope, it offers students as well as practitioners the tools necessary to promote the welfare of individuals and communities.

This groundbreaking book provides a comprehensive account of social work, social welfare, and social development in Nigeria from a postcolonial perspective. It examines the historical development of social work and social welfare and the colonial legacies affecting contemporary social welfare provision, development planning, social work practice, and social work education. Against this historical backdrop, it seeks to understand the position of social work within Nigeria’s minimalist structure of welfare provision and the reasons why social work struggles for legitimacy and recognition today. It covers contexts of social work practice, including child welfare, juvenile justice, disabilities, mental health, and ageing, as well as areas of development-related problems and humanitarian assistance as new areas of practice for social workers, including internally displaced and trafficked people, and their impact on women and children. It seeks to understand Nigeria’s ethnoreligious diversity and indigenous cultural heritage to inform culturally appropriate social work practice. This book offers a global audience insight into Nigeria’s developmental issues and problems and a local audience – social science and human service researchers, educators, practitioners, students, and policymakers - a glimpse of what’s possible when people work together toward a common goal. It will be of interest to all scholars and students of social work, development studies and social policy.