Grassroots Leaders Building Skills A Course In Community Leadership

"This course was designed to sharpen social analysis and develop skills in leaders of low-income and marginalized communities in Nova Scotia. Taught by two experienced community workers and funded by two major Canadian foundations, it graduated 50 students over four years. Many joined the program’s advisory committee and helped the course evolve further. Grassroots Leaders Building Skills includes the complete course, with agendas for 25 three-hour sessions, detailed directions for facilitators and spiral-bound handouts for photocopying. Many sessions can stand alone as workshops on topics such as diversity, ideology, community development and building strategies for social change. Plans are included for adapting the sessions to middle class participants, post-secondary classroom settings, or as a series of intensive workshops. Introductory essays explore the theories behind the program and its pedagogy, the logistical organization and the experience of graduates. This powerful course is a valuable resource to anyone teaching social analysis and community organization skills."--pub. desc. "

Becoming an Ally is a book for men who want to end sexism, white people who want to end racism, straight people who want to end heterosexism, able-bodied people who want to end ableism — for all people who recognize their privilege and want to move toward a more just world by learning to act as allies. Has oppression always been with us, just part of “human nature”? What does individual healing have to do with social justice? What does social justice have to do with individual healing? Why do members of the same oppressed group fight one another, sometimes more viciously than they fight their oppressors? Why do some who experience oppression develop a life-long commitment to fighting oppression, while others turn around and oppress those with less power? In this accessible and enlightening book, now in its third edition, Anne Bishop examines history, economic and political structures, and individual psychology in a search for the origins of racism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, ageism and all the other forms of oppression that divide us. Becoming an Ally looks for paths to justice and lays out guidelines for becoming allies of oppressed peoples when we are in the privileged role. A new chapter in this third edition offers a greatly expanded discussion of effective approaches to educating allies, which is meant for teachers of adults, particularly those who teach about diversity, equity and anti-oppression. In this chapter, Bishop examines the ways in which Western culture prevents us from recognizing our roles as members of privileged groups and explores how to challenge this with participatory exercises and group discussion.

This updated third edition of the immensely popular Doing Anti-Oppressive Practice introduces students to anti-oppressive social work, its historical and theoretical roots and the specific contexts of anti-oppressive social work practice. Key to this practice is the understanding that the problems faced by an individual are rooted in the inequalities and oppression of the socio-political structure of society rather than in personal characteristics or individual choices. Moreover, the contributors show that social justice and social change — working against racism, sexism and class oppression — can and must be a key component of social work practice. Drawing on concrete examples from specific practice contexts, personal experience and case work, including child welfare, poverty, mental health, addictions and disability, the contributors demonstrate how to translate social justice theory into everyday practice. This new edition adds chapters on working with refugee, immigrant and racialized families; children; older adults; cognitive behavioural therapy; and using social media as a tool for social change.

HUD is working to nurture the unique contributions that faculty & students can make to their urban communities. This handbook offers examples of successful collaboration in university-community partnerships, cites lessons learned from these experiences, & serves as a guide for institutions of higher education interested in forming or expanding partnerships with community development corporations. This handbook documents initiatives to build partnerships to more effectively plan & carry out projects to improve the neighborhoods they share. It is a guide for higher educational institutions considering entering or expanding collaborative relationships.

Bring your students the latest developments in community organization! Innovative Approaches for Teaching Community Organization Skills in the Classroom will help social work educators efficiently teach students methods of practice that they need to know in order to offer the best services to clients with a variety of different needs in a variety of settings. Here you'll find assignments and exercises that combine new technology with progressive ideas about integrating theory and practice. This valuable book consistently addresses topics that will stimulate discussion on the value assumptions inherent in community practice, appropriate ways to transmit these values in the classroom, and the best way to help students develop their own frameworks for ethical decisionmaking. Innovative Approaches for Teaching Community Organization Skills in the Classroom will be a valuable addition to your collection. This accessible and comprehensive book identifies and provides detailed information for teaching these skills in the classroom: ethical decisionmaking community assessment interpersonal skills development making your practice effective in a multi-cultural environment organizing your practice with computer technology This book describes teaching methods that will educate your students on the development of self-awareness, multicultural competency, and ethical content for practice, preparing them for the diverse situations that may arise in their professional careers.

Using a case study as its starting point, this guide examines the patterns of oppression built into organizations and institutions. Such systems of discrimination and oppression originate not with individuals within the institution, but rather the dynamics within the institutions themselves. Attention is given to the tactics employed to achieve equality and overcome oppressive attitudes in the workplace. According to this analysis, the true test of an institution's intentions is whether its policies achieve only token change or transform its deeper structure.

Enhancing Campus Capacity for Leadership contributes to the growing tradition of giving voice to grassroots leaders, focusing on the largely untapped potential of faculty and staff on college campuses. In an increasingly corporatized environment, grassroots leadership can provide a balance to the prestige- and revenue-seeking impulses of traditional campus leaders, create changes in the teaching and learning core, build greater equity, improve relationships among campus stakeholders, and enhance the student experience. This book documents the stories of grassroots leaders, including their motivation and background, the tactics and strategies that they use, the obstacles that they overcome, and the ways that they navigate power and join with formal authority. This investigation also highlights the fact that grassroots leaders, particularly in more marginalized groups, can face significant backlash. The authors end with a discussion of the future of leadership on college campuses, examining the possibilities for shared and collaborative forms of guidance and governance.

Revised edition of Handbook of social work with groups, 2006.