Community Work And Social Work: The Planned Change Model

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Community work is an essential part of social work. It has been defined as “the process of assisting people to improve their own communities by undertaking autonomous collective actions.”(Twelvetrees, 2001) It entails getting the support of communities members to undertake projects or tasks that would be beneficial for the community. In community work, workers “operate as facilitators with people in relation to what those people decide to become involved with.”(Twelvetrees, 2001) It takes special skills to work within communities especially if the community is not very open to suggestions and the issue to be addressed is sensitive. To be effective in community work, it takes a collaborative effort and partnership to bring about changes and advance the community. When working with communities, the planned change model as developed by Kirst-Ashman & Hull (2009) is a tool that can be utilized. The Planned Change Model is a seven step process which involves: engagement, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, termination and follow up. (Campus, 2014-2015) In the scenario provided, as social workers the first step would involve engaging the community. As a community dealing with the issue of crime, it would be important to include all stakeholders from the community, victims as well as non-affected individuals.’ Secondly, we would walk through, speaking randomly to engage community members so as to get information on what is happening on the grounds of the community.