Facilitator's Guide to Participatory Decision-Making


Book Description

"The best book on collaboration ever written!" —Diane Flannery, founding CEO, Juma Ventures And now this classic book is even better—much better. Completely revised and updated, the second edition is loaded with new tools and techniques. Two powerful new chapters on agenda design A full section devoted to reaching closure More than twice as many tools for handling difficult dynamics 70 brand-new pages and over 100 pages significantly improved




Building a Professional Learning Community at Work TM


Book Description

Get a play-by-play guide to implementing PLC concepts. Each chapter begins with a story focused on a particular challenge. A follow-up analysis of the story identifies the good decisions or common mistakes made in relation to that particular scenario. The authors examine the research behind best practice and wrap up each chapter with recommendations and tools you can use in your school.




Total Leadership


Book Description

National Bestseller “Students talk about Stewart D. Friedman, a management professor at the Wharton School, with a mixture of earnest admiration, gratitude and rock star adoration.” —New York Times In this national bestseller, Stew Friedman gives you the tools you need to achieve “four-way wins”—improved performance in all domains of life: work, home, community, and self. Friedman, celebrated professor and founding director of the Wharton School’s Leadership Program and its Work/Life Integration Project, explains how three simple yet potent principles—be real, be whole, and be innovative—can help you, no matter what your age or what you do for work, become a better leader and have a richer life. In this engaging adaptation of his hands-on Wharton course, he offers step-by-step instruction to help you create positive, sustainable change in your world. This proven, programmatic method teaches you how to produce stronger results at work, find clearer purpose, feel less stressed, strengthen connections with the people who matter most to you, contribute further to important causes, and gain greater support for your vision of your future. If you’re ready to learn to lead in all parts of your life—this is the book for you. For a full array of Total Leadership tips and tools, visit totalleadership.org. Also look for Stew Friedman’s book, Leading the Life You Want, which builds on Total Leadership by profiling well-known leaders—from Bruce Springsteen to Michelle Obama—who exemplify its principles and demonstrate how success in your work is accomplished not at the expense of the rest of your life, but as the result of meaningful attachments to all its parts.




Getting it Right


Book Description

Getting it Right is a manual for corporate managers responsible for company operations in poor and politically unstable societies. Managers can analyse their own interactions with local communities, so that they can more effectively accomplish their production goals and ensure local communities are better off as a result.




Building Community Capacity


Book Description

This book focuses on a gap in current social work practice theory: community change. Much work in this area of macro practice, particularly around "grassroots" community organizing, has a somewhat dated feel to it, is highly ideological in orientation, or suffers from superficiality, particularly in the area of theory and practical application. Set against the context of an often narrowly constructed "clinical" emphasis on practice education, coupled with social work's own current rendering of "scientific management," community practice often takes second or third billing in many professional curricula despite its deep roots in the overall field of social welfare. Drawing on extensive case study data from three significant community-building initiatives, program data from numerous other community capacity-building efforts, key informant interviews, and an excellent literature review, Chaskin and his colleagues draw implications for crafting community change strategies as well as for creating and sustaining the organizational infrastructure necessary to support them. The authors bring to bear the perspectives of a variety of professional disciplines including sociology, urban planning, psychology, and social work. Building Community Capacity takes a collaborative, interdisciplinary approach to a subject of wide and current concern: the role of neighborhood and community structures in the delivery of human services or, as the authors put it, "a place where programs and problems can be fitted together." Social work scholars and students of community practice seeking new conceptual frameworks and insights from research to inform novel community interventions will find much of value in Building Community Capacity.




Work, Family, and Community


Book Description

Research in recent decades has proven that the seemingly disparate worlds of family life and the workplace are in fact closely intertwined. Moreover, scholars have begun to recognize the extent to which community life influences the work-family interface, for instance, the lack of fit between school hours and work hours, and assistance provided by community-based child care services. Work, Family, and Community is the first to provide a comprehensive review and analysis of the theoretical and empirical research that has examined the complex interconnections among these domains. This book integrates literature from several disciplines, including sociology, industrial-organizational and occupational health psychology, human development and family studies, management, gender studies, and social work. It documents significant patterns and trends in the economy and looks at the health of communities and neighborhoods, exploring the level of social integration, availability of community services, and the extent to which such services meet the needs of working families. Author Patricia Voydanoff takes an important step in conceptualizing the components and processes that comprise the work-family-community relationship, and provides direction for future theoretical and empirical work on the topic. This volume speaks to scholars, researchers, and students who address the theoretical, empirical, and policy-relevant issues associated with the work-family-community interface.




Community Work


Book Description

One in a series of books produced under the auspices of the British Association of Social Work which are written with an emphasis on practice and set within a theoretical framework. This volume examines community work, the process of community development, project management and social change.




Interpersonal Social Work Skills for Community Practice


Book Description

"Specifically dedicated to the skills that social workers need to advance community practice, this creative book is long overdue. Grounded in the wisdom and evidence of well-honed interpersonal social work skills...Donna Hardina's new text takes community practice to a higher level than ever before developed in book form; indeed she displays the most thorough understanding of research on community practice that I have read in any community practice text."--Journal of Teaching in Social Work Community organization has been a major component of social work practice since the late 19th century. It requires a diverse set of abilities, interpersonal skills being among the most important. This textbook describes the essential interpersonal skills that social workers need in community practice and helps students cultivate them. Drawing from empirical literature on community social work practice and the authorís own experience working with community organizers, the book focuses on developing the macro-level skills that are especially useful for community organizing. It covers relationship-building, interviewing, recruitment, community assessment, facilitating group decision-making and task planning, creating successful interventions, working with organizations, and program evaluation, along with examples of specific applications. For clarity and ease of use, the author employs a framework drawn from a variety of community practice models, including social action and social planning, transformative/popular education and community development approaches, and multicultural and feminist approaches. The text is linked to the competencies outlined in the Council of Social Work Educationís (2008) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS), as well as ethics and values identified in the National Association of Social Workersí (NASW) Code of Ethics, and the International Federation of Social Workersí statement of ethical principles. Most chapters begin with a quote from a community organizer explaining how interpersonal skills are used in practice, and student exercises conclude each chapter. The text also addresses other important skills such as legislative advocacy, lobbying, and supervision. Key Features: Describes the essential skills social workers need in community practice and how to acquire them Includes examples of specific applications drawn from empirical literature and the authorís experience working with community organizers Grounded in social justice, strengths-based, and human rights perspectives Linked to competencies outlined in EPAS and values identified in the NASW Code of Ethics Based on a variety of community practice models




Undoing Work, Rethinking Community


Book Description

This revolutionary book presents a new conception of community and the struggle against capitalism. In Undoing Work, Rethinking Community, James A. Chamberlain argues that paid work and the civic duty to perform it substantially undermines freedom and justice. Chamberlain believes that to seize back our time and transform our society, we must abandon the deep-seated view that community is constructed by work, whether paid or not. Chamberlain focuses on the regimes of flexibility and the unconditional basic income, arguing that while both offer prospects for greater freedom and justice, they also incur the risk of shoring up the work society rather than challenging it. To transform the work society, he shows that we must also reconfigure the place of paid work in our lives and rethink the meaning of community at a deeper level. Throughout, he speaks to a broad readership, and his focus on freedom and social justice will interest scholars and activists alike. Chamberlain offers a range of strategies that will allow us to uncouple our deepest human values from the notion that worth is generated only through labor.




Analysing Community Work: Theory and Practice


Book Description

Community work is a unique and important activity that has the potential to help individuals, groups and communities achieve change. This brand new update of an established and acclaimed text explores and analyses different theoretical approaches to community work. Written in a highly accessible style, this book is grounded in practice issues and tackles political and theoretical issues head-on. New to the second edition: Analysis of the work of New Labour Consideration of Coalition government policies, for example, the 'Big Society' project and the impact of budget cuts A new international dimension throughout the text, and an important new chapter on international community work New definitions of 'community' explored to take into account a diverse population Increased emphasis on community work values, skills and challenges Updated pedagogy, including end of chapter summaries and reflective questions References the latest writings in the field Written by an established international expert, this book will be valuable for students on qualifying programmes, practitioners, policy makers and commentators, and those engaged in community work in all capacities. "'Analysing Community Work' provided a key text, tackling issues of theory and practice in accessible ways for some two decades. This second edition builds upon the strengths of the first, updating the book to take account of the major changes that have been taking place since then, both in Britain and internationally. Popple’s critical consideration of the impacts of globalization, neo-liberalism, changing technologies, increasing inequalities and increasing concerns with environmental issues will be particularly welcomed. This edition will be essential reading for those who read and appreciated the first as well as for a new generation of readers." Marjorie Mayo, Emeritus Professor of community development, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK "Popple's book was one of the key overviews of British community work when it first appeared in 1995. In the last few years, the need for a revised and updated version has been increasingly obvious and Popple has now obliged. The last twenty years have seen substantial changes in the political, economic and organisational context within which community work operates and Popple has fully reflected this whilst remaining clear about its basic tenets and goals. This is a highly welcome addition to contemporary community work literature." Gary Craig, Professor of Community Development and Social Justice, Durham University, UK