SocW 513
MACRO SEQUENCE II:
Organization, Community and Policy Practice

Instructors for Spring 2008:

• Section E Scott Winn*
• Section F Scott Winn*
• Jean Kruzich*
• Eric Lock*

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Course Description

This is the first of a 2-quarter course sequence that prepares students for entry-level macro social work practice. Using an anti-oppression lens, students develop foundational skills in assessment, intervention, and evaluation with groups, organizations, and communities; and in policy construction and implementation. These arenas are viewed as both tools and targets for change efforts. This process is driven by the principles of economic and social justice, multiculturalism, and anti-oppression practice and requires social workers to become critical thinkers and reflective practitioners engaged in and capable of facilitating an action-oriented model that reflects social work's core values.

512 & 513 Course Learning Objectives

By the end of the two quarters, you should obtain the following competencies:

1. Apply an anti-oppression lens to analyze critically the effects of power, inequality, and diversity on organizational, community, and policy practice.
2. Critically understand and apply relevant theories regarding human behavior in the social environment to groups, communities and organizations, while recognizing their implications for social and economic justice.
3. Utilize culturally competent intervention skills at the organizational, community, and policy levels, including: problem definition, assessment, creating visions for change, identifying alternative options, values and goal clarification, development and implementation of action plans, monitoring and evaluating the change efforts.
4. Identify the influence of particular social, economic, political and cultural factors and assumptions as these affect the definition of social problems and their solutions.
5. Describe the process of policy development and implementation at the organizational level and in the legislative arena and at the organizational level.
6. Apply intervention skills at the group, organization, community, and policy levels including: advocacy, community organizing, coalition building, and social marketing, with particular attention to collaborating with disenfranchised populations in the quest for social and economic justice.
7. Articulate how organizational culture, structure and governance, service delivery processes and policies impact diverse workers and clients.
8. Recognize and respond to issues faced by social work practitioners at group, community, and organizational levels by applying ethical principles from the Code of Ethics.

513, as 512, will operate as an interactive seminar: you will learn about these skills by reading and writing about them, discussing them with and presenting them to your classmates. We will occasionally also have class exercises. To excel, you must come to each class session prepared to contribute thoughtfully.

Relationship of This Course to the Four SSW Core Values

• Multiculturalism: This course treats multiculturalism as an inclusive concept. It considers how diversity in, for example, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, age, ability - all group identity characteristics - has been structurally challenged or altogether excluded within the domains of policy implementation, community mobilization, and organizational and group management, and why it should be central for social workers practicing as policy advocates and analysts, organizational or program managers, community organizers, and community and group members.
• Social Justice & Social Change: Following on the previous value, the course will advance students' skills in redistributing power and other resources at the institutional level to advance representation of marginalized groups, individuals, and ideas. Rather than being principally focused on interpersonal bias (also an urgently important topic for macro practice), we will develop tools for shifting the allocation of capital - human, social, other - to communities and individuals through social, political, economic and cultural mechanisms.
• Empowerment: The class critically considers empowerment - including its limitations - through its examination of theories and applications of power in the domains of policy implementation, community mobilization, and organizational and group management.

 

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