Integrating Social Work and Community-Development Practice in Victoria, Australia

Abstract

Community development is generally considered to be a core component of social work practice and knowledge. Yet much professional social work literature and discourse seem to relegate community development to the sidelines. This article aims to address this deficit by interviewing six Victorian social workers involved in community-development practice. It documents the use of CD skills and strategies in social-work interventions, and the integration of the values, principles and frameworks of the two disciplines.

Explaining the policy practice of community social workers

“…Despite its apparent importance, policy practice is still a neglected area in social work research (Weiss-Gal, 2017b), not least with regard to community social workers. While there are case studies that describe the role of community social workers in social policy change (Bowen, 2015; Burghardt, 2013; Mendes, 2008; Staples, 1999), there is only limited knowledge pertaining to the degree to which community social workers actually engage in policy practice in the context of their workplace and to the factors associated with this. One of these is a study that compared the engagement of community social workers employed in local government social service agencies and other social workers in Israel (Weiss-Gal, Gal, Schwartz-Tayri, Gewirtz, & Sommerfeld, in press).…”

Teaching community development to social work students: a critical reflection

“…Another deficit was the lack of informative material exploring the specific relationship between social work and community development practice in Australia. Over time, I have attempted to address both these gaps in my own research and publication activities to provide students with relevant resource material (Mendes, 2002;2008).…”