Community And Human Services

'Working with Communities in Health and Human Services' embeds community participation in well established social science theory about community and participation. It provides both concepts and practical tools for increasing community participation in health and human services programs.

Community and Human Services: Concepts for Practice offers an introduction to the key concepts, theories and perspectives of community and human services in Australia. Written for students of human services and social work, it outlines the more challenging and emerging fields of practice and highlights the real-life situations they may encounter with clients when working in their chosen profession. The text includes a brief history of the industry to provide a background to understanding the evolution of social policy, legislation and human service organisations. Throughout the text, 'Implications for Practice' activities encourage students to give importance to self-reflective practice and self-care. Practice-relevant case examples further demonstrate the work-ready skills that students will find essential in order to prepare themselves for effective and beneficial work in the human services sector.

Dissatisfaction with a human services system that is unresponsive, stigmatizing, and ineffective has led to a ferment of experimentation in recent years. Reinventing Human Services examines the historical and economic context of current efforts to reinvent human services, showing the urgency and the difficulty of the task. It draws on successful examples in Britain, Canada, and the United States to develop a new paradigm for social work practice, one that integrates individual, family, and community levels of practice and reconceptualizes professional-community relations. The interdisciplinary team of authors includes scholars, researchers, and practitioners from the disciplines of economics, urban planning, communications, criminal justice, psychology, marriage and family therapy, education, and social work.

This guide provides parents, families, organizations, and those who work with children with information on existing programs and services administered by the federal government that are relevant to children and youth under 19 years of age. The guide is organized thematically, with programs listed in alphabetical order under such themes as Aboriginal peoples, adoption, children's rights, education, justice, health, families, financial assistance, multiculturalism, safety, food and fitness, travel, substance abuse, and youth employment (programs under Canada's Youth Employment Strategy only). Program descriptions contain information on objectives, target groups, and particulars for obtaining further information. Indexed by subject and by department or agency name.

"The material contained in this text is so very relevant to the practice of case management in rehabilitation, especially in these troubled economic times when case managers must rely heavily on community-based resources to serve their clients effectively". Frances P. Casey, Ed.D., C.R.C., Springfield College.

This book establishes community engagement and service-learning as pathways to advancing human development and common good. Using the human development and capability approach as normative frameworks, with South Africa as a frame of reference, the author investigates the theoretical contributions and ultimate benefits of university-community partnerships. In doing so, this book demonstrates that three interrelated capabilities – affiliation, common good professionals and local citizenship – are developed through community engagement and service-learning. Subsequently, the notion of transformative change through community engagement and service-learning is illuminated, particularly when operating within the context of power differentials, inequality and extreme poverty. This book will be of interest and value to students and scholars of service-learning, and its implications for partnerships between universities and external communities.

Traditionally, human services policy has been made by people whose own lives are unaffected by their decisions. As a consequence, that policy often fails to meet the needs of service users. In this second edition of Connecting Policy to Practice, as in the first, Wharf and McKenzie suggest that a more inclusive process will produce better results. Following a careful examination of current practices, they look at a number of alternative strategies, including shared decision-making, policy communities, community governance, and family group conference.

This latest work on rural social work and the small community follows decades of research on understanding and working with such communities. Close to Home explains the dynamics of small communities in terms that are essential for scholars of rural services and rural life. The book covers the major issues facing human services delivery in small towns -- in some cases for the first time in the professional literature. The book will be essential reading for students and human services practitioners who are working in or aspire to serve in small towns and rural areas.