Hello. My name is Mary Ruffolo and I'm a professor at the School of Social Work here at the University of Michigan. In this section, we're going to look at core frameworks and approaches that we use in social work. We're going to introduce you to each of these frameworks very briefly and we're going to help you look at how social workers assess where to focus change efforts. The first approach that we're going to look at is the ecological systems framework. The underlying perspective in this framework is that everything affects everything else. So what we're looking at here is that when one part of a system changes, other parts of that system will change also. For example, in the ecological systems approach, we really look at the person in the environment. We look at emphasizing reciprocal relationships between the person and the environment. On the one side here you see the circle with the individual, family or small group. On the other side you see the environment, which is the family, the neighborhoods, the schools, work, community, organizations, and larger systems. In social work, what we're most interested in is the transactions between the individual, family or small group and the environment. Usually people come to social workers when those transactions aren't working well. They're either transactions that are resulting in negative outcomes for the individual or negative outcomes for the environment. So what we're going to be doing using this framework is trying to better understand how the individual and the environment transact with each other and what are the different systems that each person that we work with or community that we work with are most important for change. As strengths perspective, we look to the strengths that individuals and families and communities bring to the change effort. We build on strengths in our planning and our intervention phases of work. So when you are working with an individual who is experiencing a challenge, such as an individual who has just lost their job, you would be looking not only at the problems and the challenges that they have, but also at what do they bring to the effort for making change happen? What are their strengths? What are the skill sets or what are the supports that this individual has that might help them in moving back into the workforce? Empowerment is the process of increasing personal, interpersonal, or political power so that individuals, families, and communities can take action to improve their situations. This is a definition from Professor Gutierrez. Basically what we're looking at in the empowerment perspective is making sure that we're aware how the larger context influences individuals and how individuals can influence their larger context. So in our work with individuals and families and communities, we are interested in how power and different levels of system supports either work for or against building a more just society for people in a day-to-day situation. The final lens that we use is the social justice lens. This lens helps us to recognize that everything we do has this need for us to be aware of multiple perspectives. We want to recognize that there is diversity in the communities, in the individuals, in the society. We want to look at the strengths of those diversity factors that are present in every encounter that we have in social work. We also want to pay attention to how are resources distributed. Are they distributed equitably? If they're not, what do we need to do to make sure that we are helping those individuals or communities that we are engaged in the change effort for? We also want to look at unjust policies and practices. We want to work in solidarity with others and we want to challenge negative discrimination. This social justice lens overlays every aspect of what we do in social work. So what is important about these perspectives and how do we make them alive for your understanding of how we combine both the ecological, the strengths, the empowerment, and the social justice lens? We do that by building collaborations or partnerships with the individuals, communities, or organizations that we work with. We're really interested in looking at what their vision of change is. We want to partner with them on that vision of change by looking at what types of supports and assets are already present, what types of obstacles or challenges people may have, and then how they may plan for change. Let me give you a couple examples, If you're working at the macro level, you may be working with communities. One one probably about maybe 10 years ago, I went to a talk by Wilma Mankiller, a Cherokee Chief, and she was talking about how she was working in different communities in Oklahoma, that were part of her tribe. She was also an MSW social worker who was a community organizer. One of the things that I learned from her talk about macro change, which brings us to all of these different levels of building collaboration, is that she first talked about the idea of going into a new community. She thought what she needed to do in that community is build some new youth centers, so that students and youth in that community would not be attracted to getting into gangs or other types of negative social interactions. She came to the community saying, "Hey, I can bring to you some funds to help you develop this community center". What happened is at her first meeting, no one came. The second meeting, a few people came, but then when she started to listen to the community members, she found out they really weren't very interested in building a youth center at this point. That they had many other pressing needs that were more important for them, as they looked for change. So what she had to do is change her vision of change, to what the community's vision of change was, and that was they needed indoor plumbing. So she worked with the community to find the funds that they needed, to do the indoor plumbing within that community. She also got commitment, she got action from all of the different members of the community, to assist in implementing the plan. So she looked at the supports and assets that were there already in the community. She looked at the obstacles that were stopping people from getting this very important plumbing system in their community, and then they developed a plan that they worked on together. That's an example of a macro change. When you look at building collaborations at a more micro level, you're working with probably an individual or a family. Let's say, for example, you're working with a family that has been referred to the child welfare system, because they have had neglect substantiated. What you want to do when you first work with a family that is involved in the child welfare system, is to actually listen to what's going on in that family's life. To understand, what is their hope for change? Where do they want their family to go? What are the goals that this family has? In that case, what is their vision for change? You're going to look at the supports that that family has. Who are maybe some extended family members? Who are their neighbors? Who are people from their work, that might be supports in helping them to address this neglect issue that has been challenging their family? You're going to also look at what have been some of the obstacles for this family in being able to meet the day-to-day needs of their children, and then you're going to implement a plan that incorporates the collaborations that you now have with this family for change. Another way you can look at this is to ask different questions, and this is a very simple way of thinking about the change that we want to see happen. We want to look at, what are we worried about? As a social worker, what are you worried about when you're working with a particular community, or an individual, or a family? What do the individuals, the family members, or the community members say that they're worried about? Then you want to look at what's working well. What's in this community that's working in the way to help individuals and families to get to the goals that the community has? What needs to happen? So who needs to get involved and how do they need to get involved? What skills need to be developed? These are the questions that you're constantly keeping at the forefront, when you're working in assessing change within a community or within an individual. The takeaway message that I want you to have from this brief overview of some of the approaches that we use in social work, is that social workers use an ecological systems framework, a strengths perspective, an empowerment approach, and a social justice lens, to facilitate change efforts and to promote positive outcomes for individuals, families, and communities.
