Community Youth Social Work Research

Author: Luo Guozhen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-07-01
Features: "The 'For Tomorrow Engineering Community Youth Affairs Research Series' is the first to conduct in-depth research on the community youth group and community youth social work from multiple perspectives such as sociology, social work, psychology, education, law, and an international perspective. It is a series of books on localized community youth social work theory and methods in China that emerged from the Shanghai theoretical community's close integration with Shanghai's practical work. It is also a new theoretical achievement by the Shanghai theoretical community, offering a comprehensive and systematic study of community youth social work both domestically and internationally. The series consists of seven books: Research on Community Youth Social Work, Legal Research on Community Youth, Psychological Research on Community Youth, Research on Education and Employment Work for Community Youth, Research on Methods and Techniques of Community Youth Social Work, International Comparative Research on Community Youth Social Work, and the Shanghai Community Youth Work Blue Book (2003–2005).
Service intervention involves applying professional knowledge, skills, and methods of social work to advance work plans and make timely and appropriate adjustments to the direction of the work. It is a process where both parties actively participate and interact to achieve work goals. Clarifying service objectives and content, discussing confidentiality principles, and other professional aspects are key elements to be addressed during the service intervention stage.
Assisting in the change of the service recipients.
(1) Social workers can help the recipients achieve task goals. In micro social work, social workers can assist clients in expressing and regulating emotions, clarifying inappropriate cognitions and perceptions, and correcting deviant behaviors based on assessments, diagnoses, and planned goals. In macro social work, social workers may need to organize work teams, mobilize recipients to participate, and address problems and meet needs in the process.
(2) Social workers can also help the recipients achieve process goals. In micro social work, social workers work alongside the recipients to face issues, assisting them in learning problem-solving, meeting needs, and discovering and integrating internal and external resources. In macro social work, social workers can select appropriate recipients, times, and topics, and use appropriate methods to engage them, encouraging participation. They can identify leader-type individuals who are passionate about helping others, sociable, good listeners, diligent workers, helpful, strong communicators, and skilled problem-solvers, and improve their qualities through training, participation in activities, private encouragement, and supervision. They can also organize volunteers through registration or invitations, helping them understand the workers and the organization, providing growth opportunities, and promoting positive development.
Of course, achieving both task goals (i.e., alleviating or solving problems) and process goals (i.e., enhancing the recipients' abilities) simultaneously is clearly a more ideal outcome.
Promoting environmental change. If the problems and needs of the service recipients stem from environmental factors, social workers should actively influence these factors. For example, to address the difficulties community youth face in finding employment, social workers can advocate for government policies that incentivize employment and entrepreneurship for community youth. Social workers can also use professional methods to change the micro environment of the service recipients, such as helping the mother of Ah Sheng in the previous example change her behavioral habits to improve the mother-son relationship. They can also connect relevant stakeholders through forms such as attending meetings, participating in activities, information exchange, resource coordination, and cooperative alliances to jointly develop practical projects, improve administrative management, and formulate relevant policies, creating a macro environment favorable to the service recipients.
Demonstrating practical wisdom. During the implementation of plans, social workers need to refer to the plans and the local context to formulate operational plans for each activity. In addition to designing activities, they can assign and review homework, providing meaningful experiences for the recipients. Social workers need to use work records, interactions with the recipients, and other means to understand the execution of the work, the achievement of interim goals, new problems and needs that arise, the recipients' feelings, resource availability, and the appropriateness of work methods, and make timely improvements to the work approach. Social workers also need to respond appropriately to unexpected events and adjust work techniques as needed. In the process of service intervention, only by applying emergency wisdom, making appropriate dynamic adjustments, and timely adjusting service techniques and integrating necessary resources can work goals be ultimately achieved.
P18-19