Building Capacity for the Use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Social Work Planning, Practice, and Research

Abstract

The use of geographic information systems (GIS) has been steadily increasing since initial applications first appeared in the social work literature in the mid-1990s. However, this increase is not as substantial as one might think. A possible cause for this is the seeming lack of content on GIS that is included in the social work curriculum. In 2003, an elective course in GIS application was developed at a school of social work in the Northeast region of the United States. The course objective was to promote the use of GIS in the field for social services planning, practice, and research. Through hands-on tutorials, the course introduces students to the basic functions of a variety of GIS software including online programs, such as SocialExplorer and BatchGeo, as well as the commercial software package ArcGIS. Participants also learn to locate and manage data from public domain sources and are introduced to advanced spatial analysis tools. This training allows social work students and professionals to pursue new avenues by which to effectively design, implement, and analyze programs and services. The inclusion of GIS content in the social work curriculum can increase the cachet of social work students as they enter the professional realm.

Locality Service Review and Planning with GIS: A Pilot Study of Spatial Analysis of Poverty Data in Hong Kong

“…Throughout the years there were also some actual applications of the technology in service areas such as children (Ernst, 2000), homelessness (Wong & Hillier, 2001), community health (Faruque, Lofton, Doddato, & Mangum, 2003), HIV (Kaukinen & Fulcher, 2006), and immigrant services (Kim, Hong, Treering, & Sim, 2012). Recently, foundation GIS course have started to be appear on the curriculum of some social work schools (Felke, 2014). Tompkins and Southward (1999) consider that the utilization of GIS technology can contribute to community-based social work practice.…”

Sosyal Hizmet Uygulamalarında Coğrafi Bilgi Sistemlerinin Kullanımı

“…CBS, 1960 yılında (Queralt ve Witte, 1998) Kanada'da askeri amaçlarla kullanılmak üzere geliştirilmiş, 1980'lerden sonra insan ve çevre arasındaki ilişkileri belirlemek amacıyla kullanılmaya başlamıştır (Goodchild, 1995'ten akt. Wier ve Robertson, 1998 (Felke, 2014). Hem sosyal hizmet alanında hem de diğer alanlarda yapılan çalışmalar CBS'nin öncelikle değerlendirme amacıyla kullanıldığını göstermektedir.…”

“…Sosyal konuları keşfetmede mekânsal istatistiklerin kullanımına odaklanma, CBS teknolojilerinin artan kullanımıyla bağlantılıdır (Felke, 2014 (Cox, 1995;Franklin, 1992;Hoefer, Hoefer, ve Tobias, 1994;Huxhold, 1991;Martin, 1991;akt. Wier ve Robertson, 1998).…”

Development of a Web-Based GIS Learning Module for Community Asset Mapping to Enhance Service Learning in Social Work Education

“…An increasing number of higher education institutions have implemented asset mapping within their service learning programs and have shown promising results (Bauer, Kniffin & Priest, 2015;Donaldson and Daughtery, 2011;Garoutte and McCarthy-Gilmore, 2014). There is growing interest in using GIS in social work research and practice (Felke, 2014(Felke, , 2019Hillier, 2007;Wier & Robertson, 1998). However, with a few exceptions, GIS has not found its way into the social work curriculum (Felke, 2014(Felke, , 2019Hillier, 2007).…”