SWRK 4200/4300 Field Focus Child Welfare Course Guide: Course readings

This resource offers students and experienced practitioners alike the opportunity to explore a range of visions, strategies and concrete skills for anti-racist and anti-oppresive child welfare practice.

Strengths-based, solution-focused practice is one of the most exciting areas of contemporary child protection work. The demand for this protection practice has increased faster than the availability of training resources to help students and practitioners, until now. Strengths-Based Child Protection is the first textbook solely dedicated to furthering strengths-based practices in a child protection setting. Carolyn Oliver provides an original, accessible, and practical research-based model that focuses on the key to success in this field: the worker-client relationship. Oliver's long and varied front line experience in child welfare and research based on surveys and interviews with 225 child protection workers provides grounding in the realities of child protection work. Strengths-Based Child Protection contains a rich combination of case studies, reflective questions, and exercises that enable students and practitioners to conceptualize and master implementing strengths-based practices with children.

Recent Serious Case Reviews into child deaths have concluded that social workers attention is drawn away from the child by demands placed on them by the adults, organisational structures and systems. This book repositions social work thinking and practice by placing the child's lived experience at the centre of its illustrative examples and cases.

This unique core text helps BSW and MSW students structure their field placement learning around the nine CSWE professional social work competencies. Empowering students to go beyond merely completing tasks, the book facilitates mastery and integration of these competencies by elucidating key concepts and applying them to realistic competency-based case scenarios. Each user-friendly chapter--directly linked to a particular competency--promotes thought-provoking reflection about field work with critical thinking questions, a detailed case example, and an online competency reflection log template. These tools reinforce learning by connecting competencies directly to students' internship experiences. Cases are structured to serve as models when students prepare their own cases and include a review of the competency; detailed practice settings; socioeconomic and context factors at micro, macro, and mezzo levels; a problem overview; an assessment of client strengths and weaknesses; and a closing summary. Additional learning aids include chapter opening vignettes and objectives, plus chapter summaries. Web and video links offer students a wealth of supplemental resources, and a robust instructors package provides teachers with PowerPoints, written competency assignments with grading rubrics, and discussion exercises. The print version includes free, searchable, digital access to entire contents of the book. Key Features: Integrates field placement experiences with the nine CSWE 2015 competenciesPromotes thought-provoking reflection about fieldwork with detailed case studies and challenging learning toolsIncludes discussions of ethical dilemmas, technology, and social media to reflect growing use and the challenges associatedIncludes online instructors' resources including, PowerPoints, written competency assignments with grading rubrics, and class discussion field reflection activitiesPrint version includes free, searchable, digital access to entire contents of the book

Moving from the classroom to the field is often a daunting transition for social work students. In this new edition of their celebrated text, Kelly Ward and Robin Sakina Mama address student fears and concerns with a straightforward, adventure-based instruction method. Using interactive exercises to integrate cross-curricula content, Breaking Out of the Box, Fourth Edition, encourages students to gain perspective and insight as they navigate field placement and their growing careers. Previous editions of Breaking Out of the Box have been commended for their direct and honest approach to a wide array of concerns shared by social workers and students. The fourth edition returns to this mission with a new chapter on emotional intelligence written with the authors' hands-on and direct approach. The book's exercises allow students to become comfortable using vital social work tools and theories outside of the classroom. Emphasis on individual decision making within group settings fosters independent skills and confidence in addition to proficient group work and leadership skills. In Breaking Out of the Box, Ward and Mama prepare social work students for the full scope of their careers in the field in one crucial text.