THEORY AND INTERVENTION STRATEGY

SOCIAL III

UNIT I
ORIGINS AND EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL WORK IN THE
COMMUNITY DIMENSION.
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7. FOUNDATIONS, OBJECTIVES, AND PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL WORK

COMMUNITY.

There is no specific agreement regarding the nature of Social Work.

Community, it is debated whether it is:
a) A differentiable activity of political action;
b) A differentiable activity from volunteer work and leadership;
c) If it is a specific profession or a way of working that is assumed by
different social professionals;
d) If it is a part of Social Work.

Based on personal experience, it is a part of Social Work that

it understands the most extensive and complex dimension of work. It is no longer the same
working in the dimension of the family, nor of the group; the community is much more
there, it will also involve the development of complementary knowledge of the
profession, such as knowing about research methodologies and techniques
social; statistical techniques, interpretation and analysis of data; psychology
community, sociology, cultural anthropology, social policy, techniques of
planning, resource management, among others, in addition to the process
methodological that is characteristic of Social Work.

Community Social Work is configured as an integrated whole, with so many

variations exist as different communities, and programs or projects of
intervention.

Community social work is a professional challenge, independent of the framework.

institucional y de la relación contractual del trabajador social, este desafío pone en
game the values of solidarity, participation, coexistence to help the
community in raising awareness about its needs, its situation, and its
possibilities of change.

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The following community objectives are presented according to the
conceptualization of authors.

The author Walter Friedlander (1978) identified the following objectives for the
Community Social Work:
Help citizens find the necessary means for their
well-being in your social environment.

Encourage cooperative efforts to pursue common goals.

Build channels of mutual understanding for individuals and groups to

the common action.

Alan Twelvetrees, (1988), highlights objectives as:

Ensure that specific changes occur in the environment.
Help people to work together in acquiring the
confidence and the skills necessary to face problems.

The author points out as a requirement not to supersede the will of the people, doing so
that the organization or the professional wants; the social worker must be able to
to position oneself where the population is located, in order to understand and empathize with
the community.

Twelvetrees highlights that there are two different perspectives on how to approach work.
social, on one hand the unitary approach and on the other hand the sectoral approach:

The unitary or social work approach: this approach emerges and consolidates
in the United States. Social workers are conceived as
"change agents" who intervene at different times and in
different levels, in front of the specialized social workers in
chaos, groups and community.

This idea contributed to the formulation of the unique or basic method, whose
The development was enhanced by the Latin American reconceptualization.

Community social work approach with youth: in Great Britain

there is a specific training for this type of community social work,

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professionals must have specific training with youth, no
they usually consider the organization of the community as a
professional objective. (Twelvetrees, A. 1998: 13-12)

In the conceptualization of Community Social Work, Twelvetrees highlights 4

modalities:

1.-Unpaid community work; which is the equivalent of

voluntary and altruistic work that the community does for the improvement of its
living conditions and according to their interests, without interference from
no professional.

2.-Work of other professionals who adopt a work approach

community: they are professional interventions aimed at the community and
with applications of the community social work methodology, such as
ejemplo: psicología comunitaria, medicina comunitaria, educación medio-
environmental, etc.

3.-Specialized community work; it is the work that is carried out by a

professional hired to carry out specific tasks in the field of
community, in a comprehensive or global manner in the areas of well-being, or well
in more specific aspects, such as housing, education, etc.

4.-Generalist social work; it carries out community work that is 'pure',

establishing groups and helping the community in its process of
development and change.

8. PRINCIPLES OF COMMUNITY SOCIAL WORK.

According to the author Marco Marchioni, the following can be highlighted

principles:
The community as the primary client must be understood and accepted.
how and wherever it is.

The interests and participation of everyone must be taken into account.

members of the community.

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Every community tends towards processes of perfection.

There is a basic interdependence among all community elements.

Any change to be effective implies participation, therefore, development

it is a product of people that is produced through taking
awareness of the situation in which they live, of the need to change it and
of the awareness of their rights.

Self-determination of individuals and communities.

Predisposed development rhythm, not imposed.

From the perspective of the role of the Social Work professional

Community-oriented, the following principles of action are also highlighted:
Help the community and understand the existing problems.

Use the available resources.

I work from the foundations.

Action through groups to improve individuals.

Community Social Work is an action with and for the community, it is not a
action for, on the community, although the effect of should not be underestimated
especially the last ones, if they produce an expansion of social rights.
However, it is important to point out as a basic premise of Social Work
Community participation in intervention processes, and
Hello, it is only possible when actions are organized taking into account the
community, which are felt as their own by it.

9. THE ORGANIZATIONAL PROCESS OF THE COMMUNITY.

Many times, community social work is understood as a way of

address from individual attention, a holistic approach, overcome the

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assistive, other times it is understood as the development of projects that
They are trying to integrate the action of various services, disciplines, and professions.
linked to the land; it is also understood as the intervention that implies
participation through community groups and associations that have
common objectives.

In this regard, Twelvetrees (1988) points out other manifestations of what it is the
Community Social Work: "An agreement has not yet been reached regarding
what community work is, for some it cannot be distinguished from the
political action, others see no differences between community work that is
paid and the one that is voluntary. Another topic of discussion is to reach
determine if community work can be carried out by any affiliated professional
with the social sciences, and it is also discussed whether community work is a
part of Social Work.

Community social work aims to transform situations that are

collective, that is, they can be problems that affect an entire community
territorial, then it is an action aimed at a task that.
faces the challenge of forming and sustaining a group or several groups around the
development and implementation of social development projects.

9.1. Typology of community groups:

Simple group: it is a group or an association, for example: center of
parents and guardians of an educational institution.

Intergroups: they can be more complex groupings, for example a

committee, a coordinator of groups, individual people that make up
a grouping; such as: territorial communal unions.

While the goal is to address the change of collective situations, the group appears
as an element within a social space that redensifies social life,
politically strengthens the groups or populations of which it is also a part
part, energizes them and promotes democratic participation in society, hence
when talking about social development project.

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Below is Graph 1, which reviews how Social Work arises and develops.
Community. It is essential that the collective becomes aware of its reality and of
the problems or needs they have, to be realistic in the face of that which
they demand from their local authorities. Community organization is a step
important, since if the community is not organized, it will never be able to attend to
the issues, diluting efforts, acting in a disordered manner or
disintegrated many times, and finally not managing to solve their
problems.

The existence of community work gains strength when people participate and
integrates through a solidary and voluntary act, of mutual collaboration and exchange,
all social actors are important, everyone can express their opinions and
give ideas, which will facilitate action and social integration.

Everyone can join and participate.

Source: Internet Images. 2015.

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10. DIMENSIONS OF COMMUNITY WORK AND THEORETICAL APPROACHES.

Graph 1

Process of awareness Organization

community

Community Work

Mobilization
Social action

Source: Dumas and Séquer. Community actions. 1977.

Dumas and Séguier (1977) differentiate three processes in community actions

transversal character:
The process of awareness.
The process of organization.
The mobilization process.

They point out that in this process they correspond and complement each other, which is why
initiatives should be developed from the identity of the actor, allowing for the
collective identification of group members in the decision-making process
awareness; strengthen the ties of cooperation, both internal and external in
the framework of the community organization process; and together build strengths and
empowerments to act on challenges that are collective and social, through
of the mobilization process.

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These three processes constitute axes or dimensions of community work.

Important authors inspire community social work, Paulo Freire develops

the theory of consciousness; Murray Ross, P. Henderson, and D. Thomas focus on
in the theory of organization; and S. Alinsky in the theory of mobilization.

Of the three axes, all important, the one that is central to understanding work.
Community Social is the organization, from there the conceptualization that the
community work is the 'application of organizational processes', and that in the
practice is called the field of social intervention.

Murray Ross, (1977), takes the concept of organization that gives the title to his book
Community organization; it refers to the process of generating organizations.
neighborhoods or organized groups of people who share interests to
to unify and integrate the inhabitants and populations of neighborhoods.

P. Henderson (1980) establishes that "the most fundamental task is the

community workers is to bring people together and help them create and maintain
an organization that will achieve objectives.

Dumas and Séguier (1977) emphasize the importance of the three axes, and underline the
importance of organization: "The process of collective organization links the
set of operations, through which a latent group, a fraction of the
population has common interests, and they transform into an organized group
efficient, capable of promoting its own interests.

Community social work includes processes of constitution and/or maintenance.

from organizations, so that they can develop awareness and
empowerment with social issues that correspond to them as well,
being an active part of those organizations, from that base it has to start the
mobilization, or the social action that these civil organizations must undertake.

The aforementioned authors point out various tasks that must be developed by the
community social workers to promote and develop these processes
organizational.

Son:
Discover the needs and potential of the social space, whether it is
this, a neighborhood, institution, social collective, etc.

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Make contact with people and bring them together, to develop the will to
work together with the group to meet the needs. It is
It is important to work on the awareness of need and the possibility of improvement.

To form and establish collective structures, for which it will be necessary to

distribute and assign tasks.

Help the group identify and develop objectives, clarify them, establish
priorities.

Keep the organization active, being a catalyst for processes.

Maintain and develop good interpersonal relationships, help to

to communicate.

Step aside and conclude.

These tasks should be rethought when the organizational process refers to

simple groups or a group and also with intergroups.

Under certain circumstances, the social worker must act from training.
from the community group, providing ongoing technical advice, guiding the group,
until it is established as such, but it is the group that must develop its
entrepreneurship and development towards their goals, that is why the authors
they point out in the last point "step aside and conclude".

The community social worker in the exercise of their profession must be reflective and
rational, situating itself in the methodological process:

1.- Study the collective social situation (research process).

2.- Prepare the diagnosis of the social situation.

3.- Establish the intervention Plan or project.

4.- Project execution.

5.-Evaluation of the execution situation and its results.

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Este proceso debe ser socializado por los miembros de la organización.

The following charts presented show the different stages.

methodological and contextual that are developed during the course of the Work
Community Social, the social worker plays an important role in the community,
develop the role of expert, the one who guides and directs the community towards what the
community members need, supporting and channeling their actions.

The social worker is just another person in the community group, but they are the
expert, one who possesses the methodological knowledge of how to do things,
know the territorial social networks and articulate them to promote resources
leading towards the intervention objective and achieving the desires of the
population

In the following chapters of this subject, each of these will be developed.

points in greater depth.

Graph 2.
Outline of the community social work management process, from the
optics of social intervention.

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Graph 2.

Individual problems and

Groups of people from
of many
the same locality, with
similar needs

Community Social Work

Sorting the group,
the problems and the
needs

Organization Development

Awareness Empowerment

Participatory diagnosis

Proyecto comunitario Project execution

Control
Achievement of goals

Evaluation 12
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The following Graph 3 shows images of the development of relationships.
interpersonal, the gestation of the group organization to solve the
problems with integrative participation.

Figure 4 refers to community participation; citizen squares are

an instance for the approach of local authorities to the community.

Graph 5 shows in a didactic way the awareness-raising of citizens.

development of a sense of belonging to the community, the recognition of
problems and empowerment to achieve concrete solutions.

Field experience is essential, it allows for professional development of

social worker and the possibility of applying their theoretical knowledge, as of
demonstrate their skills and develop their potential in support of
help towards the community.

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Graph 3. Inter-group relationship, group organization, goals.

Group organization

Social interaction and participation

Meta:
Community well-being

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Chart 4. Community Participation:

Citizen plazas.
A space for the
approach and the
communication.
Authorities - government
local - civil society

Organization
Decision making

Social empowerment

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Graph 5. Process of community awareness and visualization
problems or needs.

COMMUNITY SOCIAL WORK

Technical support

Strategies of
Intervention Organized community

Participatory Diagnosis:
The community acknowledges its problems, or
needs (Awareness)

Development of your reflective capacity,

visualize your problems, prioritize your
needs.

Intervention project
Community

Participation
active community

Goals

Source: Graphs 2, 3, 4, 5. Inostroza B. Rosa. Authorship based on experience

field practice and in authors such as Ander-Egg E., Kisnerman N. and others.
2015.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ander Eggs, Exequiel. Methodology and Practice of Community Social Work.

Buenos Aires. Lumen- 2,000.

Barbero J.M. and Cortés F. Community work, organization, and social development.
Alianza Editorial. Madrid. 2005.

Escartín Caparrós, María José. Introduction to Social Work I. Publishing House

Aguaclara. 1994.

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