Evaluation of a social work practice

Evaluation of a social work practice Evaluation of Social Work Practice with Hispanic Children and Families Example of a practice evaluation A practice evaluation is a review and evaluation of individual practice within program and how the practice affects the person or recipient of services. Within The Place for Hope and Restoration, is the Raid and Rescue program has service practices for the â€Å"outreach workers† is to â€Å"raid† the streets to identify possible victims, such as prostitutes, exotic dancers, and/or service workers, such as cooks, busboys, waitresses, and day laborers. The outreach workers provide information about the other programs of the agency, to include how they can provide a safe place to stay, help the victim learn how to be a survivor, provision of advocacy and legal services, etc†¦ and offer â€Å"rescue† service, to include transportation to the Safe Harbor program and the other programs within The Place for Hope and Restoration. How these service practice affect the person is essential in identifying the impact to the individual, the staff, the agency and the comm unity. Some areas of practice to be reviewed would include: access, safety, effectiveness of outreach, raid procedures, barriers to the raid and rescue process, along with the needs of the individuals and program. Through the use of data, such as structured record reviews, individual case reviews, surveys or other data, the program practices can be evaluated regarding the efficacy, efficiency, and outcomes. Through evaluation of the practices of the Raid and Rescue program, stakeholders will be able to determine the ongoing needs of the practices, identify program deficits and determine if the practices are meeting the defined outcome measures for the target population and the community. This should assist the overall program in determining the need to continue, modify, or discontinue the practice utilized by the Raid and Rescue program to meet the needs of the stakeholders. Example of a Program Evaluation A program evaluation is the systematic review of a â€Å"program’s current (and future) interventions, outcomes, and efficiency to aid in case – and program-level decision making in an effort for our profession to become more accountable to stakeholder groups† (Grinnell, Gabor, Unrau, 2012, p.26). Program evaluations come in a variety of formats, but should include evaluation of the program’s goal(s), mission, program objectives, practice objectives and activities (Grinnell, Gabor, Unrau, 2012, p. 55) to determine if the outcomes and purpose of the program are being met. As noted previously, The Place for Hope and Restoration has multiple departments including outreach, Safe Harbor, fundraising, advocacy and policy, and administrative services. Within each department there are several programs. An example of this is the outreach department has the â€Å"Raid and Rescue† and â€Å"Community Outreach† programs under it. Each program then has s pecific goals to meet the needs and requirements of the stakeholders and funding source(s). A program evaluation is focused on the specific program, not the department nor the specific practices, though they are part of the comprehensive program evaluation. Utilization of the Six-Steps of the Program Evaluation Process The first of six steps of the evaluation process for a program would include the engagement of stakeholders. To evaluate the Raid and Rescue Program, stakeholders would need to be identified and engaged to provide feedback. This will be accomplished through a variety of formats including public hearings, meeting with community service coalition groups, and the use of standardized survey tools. Both internal and external stakeholders should be involved in this evaluation process. Internal stakeholders would include those involved in the operation of the program. This includes, but is not limited to, funders, board members, administrators, staff and volunteers. External stakeholders would include law enforcement, legal services, community service programs, family members, elected officials, and the community-at-large. The recipients of services are also key stakeholders and need to be involved in the evaluation process, both those who are currently participating in the program, those w ho have transitioned into other programs of the agency and those who either refused or did not follow through with accessing raid and rescue. The next step in evaluating the program would be to clearly describe the program. To do this one must identify the expected effects, activities, resources, stage of development, context, and logic model (Grinnell, Gabor, Unrau, 2012, p. 31). This will be achieved through the review of the agencys strategic plan, the mission statement, funding requirements, and various other agency resources that describe what the purpose and goals of the program. The third step of this program evaluation process is to develop a plan of how the program will be evaluated. For the Raid and Rescue program, the Theory of Change will be utilized to determine if the program is effective and what the practices are effective within the program. This will be completed through a retrospective chart review, client and stakeholder surveys, and stakeholder focus groups. Step four is the gathering and evaluation of data (Grinnell, Gabor, Unrau, 2012, p. 32). For this program the data from the surveys, chart revie ws, and focus groups will be gathered, analyzed to determine strengths and areas of need. Data will be presented as both qualitative and quantitative data, to demonstrate success rate, completion rate and other variables, determined by the stakeholders. Outcomes towards program goals will also be evaluated to determine if Raid and Rescue is reaching victims and if their practices are helping victims. Step five is tied directly into step four of the evaluation process as this is the development of conclusions and making recommendations, based upon the data. To complete this step one must â€Å"judge the data against agreed-upon values or standards set by the stakeholders† (Grinnell, Gabor, Unrau, 2012, p. 33) and present the conclusions in a clear and consise manner. Lastly, there is a need for follow-up regarding the program evaluation in order to ensure the process was meaningful. The results should be disseminated, meetings should take place to review the results with key stakeholders, such as advisory committees, management staff, project teams in order to prioritize any needs and outliers of the program and develop action plans, based upon the identified needs or to continue current practices. The stakeholders should also be provided information regarding the successes of the program through focus groups, reporting results back to coalition groups, and through the use of media, such as newsletter articles, social media formats, program reports to funders, and formal reports to board members. References: Grinnell, R. G. (2012). Program Evaluation for Social Workers (Sixth ed.). New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, Inc.

Social Issues in Colonial Africa

The title of a book may give the reader an idea of the story or it may make more sense after reading the book. The title Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad prepares the reader for something unpleasant.The title Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe also gives the reader a hint of bad things to come. After reading both it is clear to the reader the titles refer to the terrible social issues caused by the appearance of European colonizers in Africa.The â€Å"darkness† is not just the absence of light typical in an African jungle. It is the mental and emotional dark side of the colonizers, and the dark result of their intrusion on African societies. There are many â€Å"things† that â€Å"fall apart† in Africa when the Europeans arrive. There is an immediate breakdown in communication between the two cultures. Then the domination and brutality of the Europeans causes the African society to â€Å"fall apart†.Both books show the terrible result to the Africans at the hands of the Europeans. Both authors are very effective in bringing the reader â€Å"into† the story. However, each author uses different methods and styles to illustrate the social attitudes, issues and impact arising from colonization.Joseph Conrad uses a narrator, Charlie Marlow, to tell the story of Heart of Darkness. Marlow is a sailor who tells his shipmates the story of how he had worked for a European trading company in Africa.He was employed to take a boat up-river from a company headquarters to bring back Mr. Kurtz, their best ivory trader. Marlow soon witnesses the European attitude and treatment of the Africans. He describes the horrible scene of the Europeans’ slave laborers: â€Å"They were dying slowly—it was very clear.They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now—nothing but black shadows of disease and starvation, lying confusedly in the greenish gloom† (Conrad 64). One of the men who worked at the station was a clerk who tells Marlow â€Å"When one has got to make correct entries, one comes to hate those savages—hate them to the death† (Conrad 66).Marlow learns that the behavior of the Europeans at their headquarters is just the beginning. Although Kurtz is the company’s best ivory trader, he is described as much more to Marlow: â€Å"He is a prodigy†¦an emissary of pity, of science, and progress, and devil knows what else† (Conrad 75). Marlow can begin to see the dark side of the company as the clerk relates Marlow is â€Å"of the new gang—the gang of virtue.The same people who sent him specially also recommended you† (Conrad 75). Marlow discovers a report Kurtz had written for the company describing his experience in the jungle with the Africans. Marlow states that in light of all that happened, and would happen, the beginning of the document â€Å"strikes me now as ominous.He began with the argument that we whites, from t he point of development we had arrived at†¦ ‘approach them with the might of a deity’† (Conrad 111).  It is obvious that Kurtz realized that with all of the â€Å"modern† European goods and weapons he would appear to the Africans as some sort of superior being. What would be even more ominous was Kurtz’ â€Å"note at the foot of the last page†: ‘Exterminate all the brutes!’† (Conrad 111).

Psychological Perspectives Essay

Behaviourist approach-we can understand any type of behaviour perspective by looking at what the person has learnt, including personality, confidence, optimism or pessimism. Classical conditioning and Pavlov’s dogs. Pavlov was working with dogs to investigate their digestive system Pavlov attached a tube to the dogs mouth was the sliver comes from. This was then attached to a monitor in whom the monitor would monitor how much sliver was used during salivation. Salivation was a automatic response that is unconditioned (not learnt). Food leads to this almost automatically (unconditioned stimulus). Pavlov decided he wanted to find out how much the dog salivated when associated with different noises before giving him food. Pavlov put up a wooden wall so the dog could not see the food, he then rang a bell the dog began to salivate. Over the day the dog then began to associate the bell with the food a salivated as soon as he heard the bell. It had learnt the conditioned response of salivation to the conditioned stimulus of the bell. Operant conditioning and skinners rats. This was to discover the key principles of new learning behaviours. The rat was first places in the box with a lever which when pressed it released a food pellet in to the box. At first when the rat got in to the box it sniffed around and at some point it pressed the lever, discovering that the pellet was dropped. The rat then repeated this performance and learned that pressing the lever is automatically followed by the pellet being dropped. ( the consequence) The pellet is seen as reinforcing, this means something that the rat would like to have more of. There are two types of enforcement negative and positive reinforcement. Skinner then investigated negative reinforcement by running a low electrical current on the floor of the box, the current would be de-activated when the lever was pressed. The behaviour of pressing the leaver was then negatively in reinforcing. For example humans used pain killers as a negative reinforcement because if you use them the pain then tends to go away. Social learning approach Social learning is what affects a person because of a certain individual or a group of people. This could lead to negative behaviour which could be smoking, drinking and drugs. These could be influenced by friends, parents or a guardian and also from the environment they live in. Albert Bandura proved this because he observed this by doing the bobo doll experiment which was children watching a adult kick, punch and sit on the doll. The children then were allowed to go in a play with the doll and they did what they had observed. But also in the room there was other items that they could play with so they could chose to be aggressive or not but they chose to play with the doll, when they were playing with the doll some got guns involved and pretended to shoot it, which the adult never did. The children also used aggressive language towards the doll, this showed that because they had observed the adult being aggressive towards the dolls the children copied. Bandura also believed that behaviour can be learnt from the following principles observational learning, this is watching someone else perform a behaviour such as smoking, drinking, wearing a cycle helmet, they can be learnt but does not have to be reproduced unless the person is motivated to perform the behaviour. A role model which is an individual that inspires others as they could be prestigious, attractive, have a high status and they may copy their behaviour. Modelling which is the process of basing behaviour for example dressing the same as someone who they may admire. Availability the behaviour to be learnt must be available this could be performed somewhere for the individual to see this could be on TV, the computer, games, there peers and family members. Attention the behaviour must be noticed or we will not be able to learn it, if someone is feeling unwell they may not pay attention which could be a problem because you will not remember the procedure. Retention is behaviour that must be retained which is that the person must be interested enough and old enough to retain the information in their memory. Reproduction the individual must be capable of performing the behaviour. Motivation behaviour will be learnt and then performed. Humanistic approach Maslow was a psychologist that believed we were all seeking to become the best that we possibly can be physically, spiritually, emotionally and intellectually, he called this self-actualisation. He also made the theory known as hierarchy of needs this explains that every human requires certain basic needs to be met before they are able to move on to the next stage. He also believed that all our energies will be focused on the stage that we are at, until the basic needs are met we will not focus on our emotional needs and to feel self-esteem which is how valuable we may feel, for someone who has a high self-esteem they will believe that that they are loved and are loveable and also that they feel important and valued. For someone who has a low self-esteem they could feel worthless and that they have no value to anyone and may feel unloved and that they are not unlovable. Self-concept is developed at an early age and it is the way we see ourselves, for example if someone was a child got told they were silly they are more likely to be that way were if a child is praised they will be behave and will have a positive self-concept. Rogers was interested in concept of self, it is the way we view ourselves which includes physical and biological attributes like being male or female, short or tall. He believed that we also hold a concept of our self which represents as view of how we should be and as we would like to be, when there is incongruence between our self and our ideal self we can become unhappy and troubled. (betec level 3 health and social care book 1) Biological approach The maturational theory is that a child would be born with a set of genetics which are passed down through their parents, which are cognitive, physical, and other developmental processes which unfold over time. It is a theory that states that development is to nature not nurture. Gesell’s theory was that he believed that the development happened the way it was suppose to, this was from developing in the womb until birth. After birth he believed that this is when the child’s genes started to develop them into the person that they were meant to be. He also believed that the environment supported them developing their skills, talents, personality and also their interests but what was the main thing that helped the child develop was the maturational process. The importance of genetic influences on behaviour is that genes affect someone’s behaviour in a numerous of ways. A dominant gene can cause disorders like Huntington’s disease which can be passed on through a parent. Other disorder could be cystic fibrosis which both parents need to carry the gene in order for their child to get it. Disorders can be passed down but are not genetically determined which can lead to the person developing the disorder for example breast cancer can be passed down if one of the family members carry the gene. Psychodynamic approach focuses on unconscious thought processes, the patient will explore the unresolved issues and the conflicts that they have had in in the past which are believed to affect them in their present life. The therapies focus on relieving and resolving the unconscious conflicts which are motivating their symptoms. Freud first developed the vital ideas which bring about the approach as a whole particularly the idea that understanding behavior requires insight into the thoughts and feelings that motivate our actions. Freud also describes conscious mind, which consists of all the mental processes of which we are aware. For example, you may be feeling hungry at this moment and decide to get something to eat. Erikson’s theory differs in a number of important ways. Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of predetermined stages. Unlike Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages, Erikson’s theory describe the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan.

About The Trail of Tears - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 772 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/08/16 Category History Essay Level High school Tags: Trail Of Tears Essay Did you like this example? The Question of this project: How was the journey to finding rights, for the Cherokee nation? The journey to obtaining rights as a Cherokee nation was a long a rough journey. The Cherokee people had 53,000 square miles of land in Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama combined but in 1802 white settlers, and President Thomas Jefferson began looking at removing the Cherokee tribe from their lands (GPB n.d.). Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "About The Trail of Tears" essay for you Create order In the court case Worcester v. Georgia, the Cherokee Nation looked to get a federal injunction against the laws passed by the state of Georgia because these laws denied them the rights and privileges from within the state. One year later the U.S. Supreme court ruled that the Cherokee Nation was sovereign. In other words, the state of Georgia had no right to enforce any of their state laws in the Cherokee territory. Andrew Jackson, who was President at that time, rejected the ruling of this case and ordered the removal of the Cherokee nation. The United States army forces were used in certain instances to round them up. This elimination and journey is called The Trail of Tears. Out of the 15,000 Cherokee people who left, 4,000 died on the way to Indian Territory but what is now the state of Oklahoma (FJC n.d.). These past couple paragraphs are the official take on what happened but there is also the point of view of someone who went through it herself and her name was Margaret McGurie. In this interview she went on to explain in detail, how it was on the journey. She said, The Cherokees had to walk; all the old people who were too weak to walk could ride in the Government wagons that hauled the food and the blankets which they allowed to have. It goes on to say that the food on the Trail of Tears was horrible and there was not very much of it, so often the Indians had to go two days without water. This trail started in Georgia and went across Kentucky, Tennessee, and through Missouri all the way to Old Fort Wayne which was built as a shelter for the Indians until houses were built (Montiero 1837). As a conclusion it is clear that the Cherokee Indians went through a lot just to get rights. I would need information on Works Cited FJC. n.d. Federal Judicial Center. Accessed November 4, 2018. https://www.fjc.gov/history/timeline/cherokee-nation-v.-georgia. The Federal Judicial Center produced and maintains this site in furtherance of its statutory mission. The Center regards the contents of this site to be responsible and valuable. The Court ruled four years later in Worcester v. Georgia that the Cherokee Nation was a separate political entity that could not be regulated by the state, and that only the federal government had authority to regulate the use of Indian land. GPB. n.d. Judgement Day. Accessed November 4, 2018. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h1567.html. PBS is Americas largest classroom, the nations largest stage for the arts and a trusted window to the world. In addition, PBSs educational media helps prepare people for success in school and opens up the world to them. Their main goal is to fulfill our essential mission to the American public, providing trusted programming that is uniquely different from commercial broadcasting and treating audiences as citizens, not simply consumers. For 15 consecutive years, a national study has rated PBS as the most-trusted institution in America. Montiero, Lorrie. 1837. Sequoyah Research Center. August 20. Accessed November 4, 2018. https://ualrexhibits.org/tribalwriters/artifacts/Family-Stories-Trail-of-Tears.html. The collections of the University of Arkansas at Little Rocks Sequoyah National Research Center constitute the largest assemblage of Native American expression in the world. Our mission, to acquire and preserve the writings and ideas of Native North Americans, is accomplished through collecting the written word and art of Native Americans and creating a research atmosphere that invites indigenous peoples to make the Center an archival home for their creative work. Oyez. Accessed November 4, 2018. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1832/2. Oyez a free law project from Cornells Legal Information Institute (LII), Justia, and Chicago-Kent College of Lawis a multimedia archive devoted to making the Supreme Court of the United States accessible to everyone. It is the most complete and authoritative source for all of the Courts audio since the installation of a recording system in October 1955. Oyez offers transcript-synchronized and searchable audio, plain-English case summaries, illustrated decision information, and full-text Supreme Court opinions (through Justia). Oyez also provides detailed information on every justice throughout the Courts history and offers a panoramic tour of the Supreme Court building, including the chambers of several justices.