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Community-based harm reduction workshops are delivered to reduce a range of community-based risks. In this instance, a community-based non-government organisation (NGO) delivered workshops to 18 villages in a rural setting in Cambodia. This article presents the approach to the delivery of these workshops. The article explores a journey of learning for the community, local authorities and delivering NGO when moving from a more traditional approach to that of a participatory one and the impact on the organisation, community and local authorities as this journey took place. The methods and approaches are explained, findings are presented and discussed, and recommendations for future community-based harm prevention work are made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 has significantly changed individual lives and organizational structures throughout the world. Certain regions and populations, however, have experienced the effects of this global pandemic to a heightened degree. This article includes reflections from a small LGBTQ+ nonprofit in Detroit, a city with some of the starkest health and economic disparities in the United States. While COVID-19 has illuminated numerous barriers for LGBTQ+ older adults in Detroit, it has also revealed surprising ways that nontraditional social work is emerging. The experiences from this organization suggest that when faced with limited resources, LGBTQ+ community members and advocates have expanded their services in ways that mirror the work of many professional social workers, including interpersonal support; facilitated group discussions; direct services; program design, delivery, and coordination; community organizing; and research. Through these roles, community members are beginning to serve as nontraditional social workers to address the urgent and unmet needs of LGBTQ+ older adults and increase the visibility of this population during COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay describes the impact of the pandemic on our experiences as Independent Visitors (IVs) forchildren who are looked-after. Independent Visitors are volunteers who visit, advise and befriend children with the aim of helping them develop a positive, long-term relationship beyond the care system. Based on our personal experiences of being matched with and visiting two young people, we consider how supporting the children remotely during the pandemic has helped us reflect on our relationships with them and our role as IVs. We discuss the role that foster carers play in supporting the IV relationship, the significance of developing routines and rituals with young people, and the challenges and opportunities offered by the transition from visits to virtual contact. We conclude with an outline of the response of service providers to the pandemic, and suggest that increased support for Independent Visiting might improve provision and allow more children to benefit from a relationship with an Independent Visitor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is a reflection about the COVID-19 pandemic from the vantage point of being on a sabbatical. As a result of the virus and global shut down, people are experiencing widespread suffering and economic devastation. The author, a professor, artist, and qualitative researcher advocates for a return to the profession's community-based roots and an activist pedagogy. Additionally, as an artist/teacher/scholar, the author discusses the potential and importance of art and storytelling in social work education with examples of the author's art created during the pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper describes the strategy to mitigate and control epidemic contingencies in the backdrop of Kerala's Covid-19 containment plan. I have purposefully selected Kerala, the southernmost state of India, because of its globally acclaimed experience in efficiently managing the cases of coronavirus that were reported. Even tackling the Nipah and Zika virus cases in the pasts, makes it an exemplary unit of study. Moreover, the past experience of the state points to the fact that the containment strategy adopted is the result of an evolved practical approach. I came across certain innovative strategies implicating community mobilization like community kitchens, social surveillance, large scale production of face masks etc. by utilizing the hidden productive capacity of communities that extended from women self-help groups, youth clubs and even prison inmates. Moreover, the state's controlling and containing measures were mentioned by international media and agencies like the BBC and the World Health Organization (WHO). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified existing injustices in the United States, which is exemplified in Ypsilanti, Michigan. However, the pandemic also provides an opportunity to re-imagine existing ways of being in the world, and mutual aid networks that have provided for people's basic needs during multiple crises while also working towards more radical change provide an opportunity for social workers to examine their relationship to "helping." The author uses their personal experience with a local mutual aid network to examine the power and possibility of mutual aid, particularly in times of crisis, as well as sources of social work resistance to decentralized and non-professional forms of helping and caring. These lessons are carried beyond the COVID-19 pandemic to their consequences for the looming climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the number of patients infected with the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (nCOVID-19) increases, the number of deaths has also been increasing. According to World Health Organization (WHO), as of 4 October 2020, 34,804,348 cases had tested positive for nCOVID-19 globally, which among them, 1,030,738 confirmed deaths had occurred, equivalent to a case-fatality rate of 2.96%. However, in comparison with global statistics, the incidence and mortality of the nCOVID-19 infection are higher in Iran. As reported by the National Committee on COVID-19 Epidemiology of Ministry of Health of Iran, the total number of patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection has reached 468,119, of which 26,746 have died, equivalent to a case-fatality rate of 5.71%. Currently, there is solid evidence that older adults are at a higher risk of severe disease following infection from COVID-19. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pop-up design helps steer city regeneration and community revival. With this belief, Hong Kong-based social creativity studio One Bite Social launched the urban 'matching' platform 'Project House'. Using a tactical place-making approach, it pairs up vacant shops with local social groups facing spatial needs. The win–win results bring local exposure to pop-up vacant shops while providing marginalised community groups with adequate space for new social practices. Can tactical place-making become a tool to create space for place-based community development? What works, and does not work, at Project House, and why? How can Project House be applied to different contexts? By adopting a realist impact evaluation framework, this paper explores the potential of Project House, a first-of-its-kind tactical place-making initiative combining social work and architecture to create a new setting for a community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the last decades, we have witnessed a growing interest for the use of photovoice, also referred to as participatory photography, as a visual research method, particularly in social sciences. In this systematic review of the literature, we seek to explore how the methodology has been applied in studies that focus on research with, on and about women. We critically evaluate the potential of photovoice to 'give' voice to and empower female participants. Nineteen relevant articles were identified and analyzed using a descriptive within- and cross-case analysis. Several authors claimed their study was inspired by feminist theory; however, few were convincing in the way this was implemented in practice. Empowerment claims were made by many, however, seldom evaluated at the end of the studies. We outline how female voices can manifest themselves in different phases of a research process and present types of empowerment that can potentially be reached through photovoice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As women on parole and probation transition from correctional facilities to the community, they face many threats to reintegration. Reintegration counsellors offer support to individuals on parole and probation who are re-entering the community. Working closely with a marginalized population places counsellors at risk for burnout and hopelessness. Research indicates that hope can serve as a sustaining and motivating factor when facing difficult working contexts. Further, a large body of research consistently confirms the importance of hope in the human change process, both for clients and clinicians. The current study investigated how reintegration counsellors fostered and maintained hope in their work, including their personal descriptions of hope. Employing Merriam’s (2002) basic interpretive inquiry, five reintegration counsellors participated in semi-structured interviews about their work experiences. Thematic analysis indicated that hope played an important role in these counsellors’ experiences of work and their belief in their clients. The overarching theme of the findings, Maintaining a Hope-Seeking Orientation, elucidates the complexity of maintaining a hope-seeking orientation in the challenging context of reintegration counselling. Specifically, participants in this study were understood to hold a hope-seeking orientation to their worklife that included, viewing life as a journey, maintaining a hopeful perspective, holding ‘down-to-earth’ expectations, and viewing hope-seeking as a learnable skill. Participants associated hope with both motivation and meaning, believing that hope was a necessary ingredient in their work and a resource to combat work-related exhaustion. Implications for counselling include sustaining hope at work through a variety of means, including perspective change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]