{"title":"Social Work, Op-Shops, and Job Training","authors":"Grant W. O. Holland, Lesley Shuttleworth","doi":"10.4018/978-1-7998-6784-5.ch007","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-6784-5.ch007","url":null,"abstract":"Many disadvantaged young people and adults, long and short-term unemployed, overseas arrivals/refugees, people with mental health issues, mothers returning to the workforce, and those disconnected from their communities have lost hope of ever getting employment. Numerous employment-training programs are narrowly-focused classroom-based simulations provided on a sessional basis, while real-world job training opportunities with flexible entry/exit points and on-site professional social work support for those disconnected from employment opportunities are uncommon. The STEP program, an innovative and engaging real-world training program in an opportunity shop (op-shop), gives hope and job success to disaffected people, offering life-changing training in every aspect of running a business in the retail and office administration sector as well as teaching valuable life skills, including job interviews, accounts and administration, and customer service.","PeriodicalId":113536,"journal":{"name":"Practical and Political Approaches to Recontextualizing Social Work","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133053942","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advancing Local, Social, and Ecological Transitions Through Community Development","authors":"Anne C. Jennings","doi":"10.4018/978-1-7998-6784-5.ch011","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-6784-5.ch011","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter explores social work and community development practices in light of the urgent social, economic, and environmental issues facing the world today. Can those professions, established to support individuals and communities, overcome social disadvantage, evolve into new, alternative roles that seek combined human and non-human (animals, plants, living organisms) understandings leading towards transformative practices? Those professions are viewed within their own constructs and environmental agendas. Ancient and contemporary Indigenous knowledges are then considered, as they relate to the First Law of caring for their living country and living lifestyles. Two community development case studies are examined, involving non-Indigenous people in their community, and Indigenous traditional owners across a whole river catchment to address key questions: How can those disciplines contribute to ecological transformation? Can they appreciate and include non-humans in their practice? and How can Indigenous ancient and current knowledges contribute to social justice practice?","PeriodicalId":113536,"journal":{"name":"Practical and Political Approaches to Recontextualizing Social Work","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"122358205","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Working the Borderlands","authors":"Jacques Boulet","doi":"10.4018/978-1-7998-6784-5.ch002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-6784-5.ch002","url":null,"abstract":"This chapter describes why and how the author decided to leave his social work teaching position at an Australian university and start a cooperative that could more appropriately respond to the changing social and ecological context and could be more commensurate with the true values of the social work profession. The chapter moves from the author's experiences and philosophical motivations guiding his decision to move from the university context to the establishment of a social and ecological change cooperative and the invitation to colleagues and students to join the re-contextualizing experiment to the reasons why the cooperative format was chosen. The programs, projects, and partnerships, which have been realized in the course of the 23 years since the start of the Borderlands Cooperative, are documented and reflected upon, leading to final recommendations for a social work practice that remains true to its historical mission whilst responding to the contemporary contextual challenges.","PeriodicalId":113536,"journal":{"name":"Practical and Political Approaches to Recontextualizing Social Work","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"126594898","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Social Workers Navigating a Colonial Bureaucratic System While Also Re-Kindling Obuntu-Led Relational Social Work in Uganda","authors":"Sharlotte Tusasiirwe","doi":"10.4018/978-1-7998-6784-5.ch009","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-6784-5.ch009","url":null,"abstract":"Diverse contexts present to us diverse philosophies on being and knowing, which would inform diverse but equally valid ways of constructing social work around the world. However, due to enlightenment modernity and Western colonialism, social work remains resistant to embracing this diversity as, often uncritically, a social work defined from a privileged white Western perspective is imposed. The purpose of this chapter is to disrupt ongoing colonization in social work: reclaim and theorize social work as conceptualized from Obuntu/Ubuntu philosophies central in most African Bantu communities. Obuntu or Ubuntu, as it is used in different African languages, defines what being human (person/omuntu) entails including embracing values like interconnectedness, collectivism, solidarity, caring for and about others, and the environment. This chapter will first explore experiences of social workers as they navigate a colonial bureaucracy, with frustrations forcing them to re-kindle indigenous models of social work. Implications for social work in Uganda and Australian contexts are then discussed.","PeriodicalId":113536,"journal":{"name":"Practical and Political Approaches to Recontextualizing Social Work","volume":"35 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1900-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"129459584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}