Practicing What We Preach: Creating Groups for Ourselves

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This article describes the structure and process of Group WorkCamp, an experiential training program sponsored by the International Association for Social Work with Groups (IASWG). The purpose of this 3-day event, which offers workshops and activities in a camp environment, is to transmit the skills, culture, and philosophy of social work with groups to students and new professionals. Camp also aims to connect participants to the group work community through interaction with skilled and enthusiastic professionals and educators. Participants live together as a large group and engage in ever-changing small groups. They learn primarily by experiencing group membership in the present moment, reflecting on this experience, and then discussing its implications. As the Chinese proverb says, "Tell me and I will forget. Show me and I will remember. Involve me and I will understand." In the course of this experiential learning process participants develop strong connections with peers and mentors and become familiar with IASWG, a resource for support and stimulation that will be invaluable as they pursue group work practice in an environment likely to isolate them from group work peers. The article ends with a discussion of the implications of this model for group work education, supervision, and practice.

Section: The Need For Mentoring In Group Work Education and Trainingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Going to Camp Together: Lighting the Group Work Fire in a New Generation

Bergart

Clements

2014

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“…However, as the demand for group work services has grown, the supply of skilled group work practitioners and supervisors has diminished (Bergart & Simon, 2004;Sweifach & Heft-LaPorte, 2008). Many MSW-level social workers have graduated from their programs without a single course in social group work (Birnbaum & Auerbach, 1994).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Current State of Group Work Education in U.S. Graduate Schools of Social Work

Simon

Kilbane

2014

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Social work has historically recognized group work as a core practice methodology; however, group work's prominence within the graduate curriculum has diminished over the years. This article reports the results of a national survey of accredited U.S. MSW programs' curricular offerings in group work. The survey replicates and builds upon a 1994 Birnbaum and Auerbach study to identify changes and trends over this 20-year period. Overall, a further decline in group work curricular offerings was found. Strategies to renew and bolster commitment to group work education are offered.

“…Approximately two decades ago, social work writers expressed concern that group work education in social work programs was declining (Birnbaum & Auerbach, 1994;Knight, 2009;Steinberg, 1993). In the past decade there has been concern not only about the teaching of group work in the social work undergraduate and graduate curriculum, but also about the practice of group work in social work agencies providing internships for students (Bergart & Simon, 2004;Drumm, 2006;Kurland & Salmon, 2002).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Faculty Field Liaison: An Essential Role for Advancing Graduate and Undergraduate Group Work Education

Tully

2014

The faculty field liaison is responsible for representing a school's social work program in monitoring agency internship sites and agency field instructors for an assigned cohort of the program's BSW or MSW internship students. This article focuses on the faculty field liaison's role in effectively monitoring the internship site and field instruction to ensure the internship experience is successfully providing the group work skills and knowledge the BSW or MSW student intern needs to be an effective group work practitioner. The field instructor role has been given a lot of attention in the social work literature, but the role of the faculty field liaison has been given little to no attention. This is despite the faculty field liaison's significant responsibility of representing the BSW and MSW program by bridging the relationships between the program, the field instructor, and the internship student. This article identifies the importance of the faculty field liaison responding to concerns in group work education in the classroom and field setting. Practice vignettes illustrating the work of the faculty field liaison in monitoring group work assignments and field instruction supervision for graduate and undergraduate social work interns are provided.