1 Social Work 696 Social Work Practice with Children and Youth Fall, 2005 Friday, 2:00pm to 5:00pm Office Hours: by appointment Ellen Yashinsky-Chute MSW, ACSWOffice: (248) 592-2666Home: (248) 661-0343E-mail: [email protected]@[email protected] COURSE DESCRIPTION This advanced level methods course in the Children and Youth in Families and Societies concentration builds upon the foundation level practice methods course and prepares students for employment in the many human service delivery systems that address the needs of children, youth and their families. This cross cutting skills course encompasses both direct/micro and indirect/macro practice methods used to address problems presented by or to children and youth in a variety of contexts. This course teaches the development of social work skills applicable to promotion, prevention, remediation and social rehabilitation activities with diverse child and youth populations at all levels of intervention. This course stresses the child and youth in context, and interventions based on this context. Intervention strategies focus on ways to bring about a change at various levels of the child’s ecosystem. The aim of the course is to promote interpersonal competence, self-esteem, self-efficacy, achievement, and moral development in children and youth by making the contexts within which they develop, more responsive to their developmental needs. Students will be taught assessment skills to be able to identify special needs, abuse and neglect, family violence, substance abuse, and circumstances of extreme stress, danger or deprivation. The students will learn how to design individual programs of intervention that are based on clearly articulated goals and priorities. Throughout the course, cultural competence and differences among families will be stressed. The course format will combine lecture with multi media presentations, guest lecturers, and in-class student presentations. COURSE OBJECTIVES Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:2 1. Apply an ecological systems perspective to social work practice with children and youth 2. Effectively communicate and establish collaborative relationships with children and youth, their families, and other significant members of their social environment 3. Apply collaboration building and consultation skills to strengthen families and organize communities in response to the needs of children and youth. 4. Assess risks to the child’s and youth’s safety, health and well-being and identify the strengths and resources available in the child’s environment to address these concerns. 5. Demonstrate an ability to conduct culturally sensitive and competent practice, which recognizes diversity across and within groups and the uniqueness of each individual and family. 6. Critically evaluate and monitor practice, programs and services provided to children and youth, their families and communities, involving, whenever possible, children and youth, their families and other care taking adults, their communities, and other service providers in the evaluation and monitoring of services. 7. Select, implement and justify research supported interventions, which are based on identifiable goals and priorities and a thorough evaluation of children, youth and families involved. 8. Describe roles, characteristics and responsibilities of the significant public and private agencies, which provide services to children, youth and their families. RELATIONSHIP OF THE COURSE TO THE FOUR CIRRICULAR THEMES Multicultural and diversity issues will be emphasized throughout this course, not only in relationship to direct intervention with children and youth and their families and communities, but also in regard to the need to develop and maintain effective collaborative relationships with other community resources and service providers. Students will learn to recognize the existence of group differences in a number of areas (such as nonverbal communication, individual and family values, family and community structures, preferred and accepted responses to crisis response to exclusion or oppression) and how these may impact intervention relationships with children, youth and their families. Social change and social justice issues will be addressed in relationship to children and youth as populations who experience vulnerability due to developmental and status factors (i.e. age and dependence), in addition to other impacts they may experience due to membership in other groups which encounter exclusion and discrimination. In3recognition of this, abuses of power within the family (i.e., domestic violence, physical and sexual abuse and exploitation) will be addressed as issues related to social justice and human rights, and not just as indicators of individual and family psychopathology. Advocacy for children and youth, especially whose families and communities are particularly impacted by social inequality and social injustice, will be emphasized at individual, family, organizational, community and policy levels. Promotion and prevention are particularly important for child and youth populations, due to the increased likelihood of negative outcomes as services or interventions are delayed, and the “time-limited” nature of childhood and youth. These areas are addressed in the direct practice areas through family life education, family preservation activities; screening and early identification of children at risk, and family and community based early intervention with children and youth in a variety context. At the direct practice level, program development and evaluation, staff and professional training, fiscal and economic issues and policy analysis addresses the relationship between policy decisions and risks to children and youth. Social science knowledge is presented as the necessary basis for conducting empirically grounded assessment, intervention and evaluation practice at all levels of intervention. Course materials draw upon research knowledge from a variety of social sciences, as well as other professions and disciplines (i.e., social work, medicine, psychology, sociology, economics, law, etc.), and emphasizes the need for multidisciplinary collaboration and communication around issues related to children and youth. Social science research concepts and methods are described in relationship to both social work practice