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Despite early successes, vaccine uptake for COVID-19 has considerably slowed. In light of the serious implications of COVID for population health, especially within older adults, we must better understand lessons arising from early successes from community organizations. In this research, we present findings from in-depth interviews with bilingual, bicultural professionals within community-based programs serving older Asian immigrants with LEP to explore experiences and strategies regarding vaccination promotion. In-depth interviews were conducted with bicultural and bilingual Asian outreach specialists, recruited in 2020–2021 through purposive sampling from one major United States city (N = 10). Through a constant comparative method, we refined our theoretical frameworks and coding schemes, building an interpretative structure and conceptual model that situates multiple, integrated behavior change theories into a community-centered and culturally specific framework. Results highlight how community workers, typically from the same ethnic/cultural background as their clients, mobilized tight-knit service provision, community engagement, social cohesion, and empowerment to build vaccine acceptance among their clients. Behavioral change strategies workers used (perceived susceptibility, severity of the disease, benefits of vaccination, and self-efficacy) were situated within a collectivist ethos: community-centered motivators such as reciprocal determinism, observational learning, and reinforcements were essential. Findings point to the need to understand health behavior within and across multiple, mutually dependent levels of influence by workers embedded within specific communities, highlighting the importance of long-lasting, culturally specific, community-based programs for public health emergencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Society & Social Work / Toplum ve Sosyal Hizmet is the property of Journal of Society and Social Work and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of European Journal of Social Work is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Neo-liberalism and globalization have had a significant impact on social work education. What was once a program that focused equally on micro-practice with individuals to a macro-practice with communities, has now seen a shift away from collective practice and responsibility. Based within the context of a reciprocal short-term study abroad program between Taiwan and Australia, the aim of this study was to investigate the immersive practices that enhance intercultural, and community work practice among social work students. Using program documents and qualitative data from social work students, academics and community practitioners, this collaborative inquiry is underpinned by the theory of practice architectures framework. This study highlights how immersive, embodied, and experiential learning enhanced students understanding of community work and intercultural practice. It suggests that in order to maximize intercultural learning in social work education, the program and pedagogy must be embedded in reciprocal, ongoing, and authentic relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This special issue, a collaboration between The Qualitative Report and the Narrative Practice Research Network, is a rich and diverse collection of papers linking Narrative Therapy/Community Work and qualitative research. In four sections, authors explore narrative practice research innovations, practitioners doing research and influencing practice via Research as Daily Practice, insider knowledge/insider research towards broader social movement politics, and research in service of broader change. The special issue organizers and contributors hope this collection leads to more conversation and collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Narrative practice is a broad field which includes therapy, community work, and research methods, all of which are less rigidly defined as they are connected through resonant ethics. In this paper I explore a practice I have developed in my early years as a narrative therapist asking the question, "If coming to talk to me were part of a Project--although not necessarily the first part, nor the most important part--what would that Project be called?" Through a reflexive process of aspiring towards narrative research principles of co-research, committing to relational ethics (which is grounded and contextual, rather than codified), and engaging with alternative theories of research (Deleuze & Guattari, 1987; Epston, 1999; Epston & White, 1992; St. George et al., 2015), I come to the understanding of my therapy practice as "Co-Research as Daily Practice of a Minor Science." I present the "findings" of this research, as it pertains to the Project Question, and explore the ways that conducting the research will impact the way I use the Project Question in therapy sessions. Rather than the modernist notion that evidence-based practices are how one ought to practice, this process produces possibilities for how one might practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Czech & Slovak Social Work / Sociální Práce / Sociálna Práca is the property of Czech & Slovak Social Work and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Old, often neglected downtown neighborhoods are usually the salt of the city, the center of its original culture, and the area of an authentic community anchored in traditional values as: an ethos of work, loyalty, multi-generational family, independence. In the process of city regeneration, instead of making urban space more attractive, such neighborhoods are treated as an obstacle and therefore subjected to various forms of oppression (spatial, political, discursive). On the basis of those negative diagnoses, a project of participatory action and learning has been constructed, the goal of which is individual and structural empowerment of disadvantaged neighborhoods (communities) as well as action learning opportunities for social work/social pedagogy students. The locality development makes communities more effective in resisting the oppression of large municipal investments. The plan assumed a joint action (academics, practitioners, students, city officers, inhabitants) of rebuilding the historical and social pride of the communities and then including them as active and important elements of the city also in terms of the labor market and political power. Other important goals were a participatory model of social work education (field-based research learning) and an increase in social recognition of disadvantaged neighborhoods (political result). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Social Work / Praca Socjalna is the property of Akademia Pedagogiki Specjalnej im Marii Grzegorzewskiej and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of PRAKSIS is the property of PRAKSIS and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Summary: Burnout has become an increasingly prevalent condition, especially affecting professionals in direct contact with clients. Human service workers (HSWs) have quite emotionally taxing jobs supporting vulnerable groups. In developing a close relationship with the communities they work with, it could be possible that community-related variables have an impact on HSWs' burnout. We aim to analyze the prevalence of burnout in a sample of HSWs from Portugal and the role of community resilience as a predictor of their burnout, as well as explore if their subjective well-being and community attachment could explain the relationship between community resilience and burnout, during the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were collected through an online questionnaire between August 2020 and January 2021 (N = 598). Findings: Results indicate that HSWs presented medium to low levels of burnout, although 8.9% presented high levels. Those who reported lower levels of burnout perceived higher community resilience and had much higher well-being and community attachment. Findings point to community resilience having a significant direct effect on burnout and also an indirect effect, which was explained by subjective well-being and community attachment. Applications: Results seem to suggest that this sample's low-medium levels of burnout could be linked to the benefit of experiencing high community attachment and working in communities with high resilience, which consequently impacted their well-being and burnout. This highlights the crucial role of the work context in professionals' mental health, showing that a broader context needs to be considered in professional mental health promotion programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study offers insight into the moral deliberations of public sector community workers (PCWs), who operate in the super-diverse neighborhoods of South Tel Aviv, which are home to similar numbers of citizen and asylum-seeker residents. Two questions were central to our examination: How do PCWs decide which populations and residents constitute the "local communities" that deserve their support; and how humanitarian considerations may intersect with contestation over "community" and "locality" in PCWs' work. The study's findings, based on interviews with PCWs, illustrate what happens when community work is positioned as a "public" service in a deeply divisive political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of an empirical investigation aimed at analyzing the influence of social networks on community projects promoted in neighborhoods in situations of vulnerability and/or social exclusion. First, the universe of community projects in a delimited territorial context (region of Murcia, Spain) is characterized and, subsequently, the impacts that social networks have had on them (content, typology, linkage, internal/external communication plan, aims, scope, participation, competencies, training and proposals) are analyzed. As for the procedure, the 22 community projects were analyzed from their inception (2021) to (2023), through documentary analysis (projects, memories) and digital/social networks and/or platforms (Instagram, Facebook, X, Tiktok, Youtube and Web); 1282 documents/graphs were analyzed. Subsequently, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the professionals responsible for the universe of community projects, questionnaires were applied and a discussion group was formed with the professionals involved. The data collection instruments were previously validated. The results obtained show the importance and impact of social networks in the projects, becoming virtual community spaces that generate citizen participation, favoring the dissemination of actions and processes, the visibility of participants and results, the transparency of participatory processes, actions and decisions, as well as the promotion of community synergies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to promote community wellbeing that is capable of addressing social problems by valuing the actions of community members, it is important for practitioners to develop interventions in a participatory way. Community Network Dialogues are a structured decision-making process that supports the equal participation of service users, family members, citizens, social workers and policy makers. The paper presents the results of action research carried out in Lombardy with the aim of experimenting and exploring Community Network Dialogues in the planning of community-based interventions. It presents the design results of 10 dialogue sessions involving 126 people, including families and individual citizens, volunteers from non-profit organisations, policy makers and professionals. The study, conducted through analysis of the drafts written at the end of each dialogue and the questionnaires completed by the participants, highlights the concerns as well as the coping strategies shared. The data also show that the level of concern about the social problem decreases significantly at the end of the dialogue session. The research highlights the potential of Community Network Dialogues as a structured method for participatory planning of community care interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Avances is the property of Instituto de Informacion Cientifica y Tecnologica and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The Anton Trstenjak Institute for Gerontology and Intergenerational Relations is named after its co-founder, academician Prof. Anton Trstenjak, Ph.D. The work of the Institute is based on a holistic view of the human being. In the spirit of its co-founder, the Institute researches, publishes, teaches and develops practical programmes in all the areas for which it has been founded; in addition to ageing and coexistence, it also includes psychology and logotherapy, which were in its title when it was founded, including intoxication and addictions, which have been the lifelong focus of the Institute’s co-founders. This article presents some of the outlines of Trstenjak’s life and work and their significance for the development of the Anton Trstenjak Institute up to 2022, when it celebrates its thirtieth anniversary.

In difficult times, people turn to poetry, reading, and writing for solace and peace. In emotionally intense and traumatic times, people use poetry to process and understand the lived eyepieces. The havoc wreaked by the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the emotional and psychological well-being of individuals all across the world. Poetry has emerged as a savior in these difficult times. A phenomenon, "lockdown poems", came into existence as individuals all across the globe processed and shared their lived experiences of isolation, pain, and suffering through poems. In the present paper, students of a management program process and share their experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic, the subsequent lockdowns, and their community work experience. Poetry as a therapeutic and hope-building tool is discussed in the paper along with the original poems written by the students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Kakovostna Starost is the property of Anton Trstenjak Institute and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper examines the cultural image of child and adolescent labour performed in the People's Republic of Poland in the years 1948–1989 as was presented in the literary fiction addressed to the young people. During the Stalinist period, literature officially condemned child labour on individual farms, but affirmed the labour of adolescent workers in state industry and construction. After the 1956 Thaw, the subject matter of labour was receding into the background, for several reasons. Nevertheless, the post-1956 youth literature also featured labour-related themes: community works, school cooperatives, work in family crafts, tutoring, and shady trade. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Gerontologie und Geriatrie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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]

The purpose of the present article is to report some of the findings as outcome of the Research Project titled "Community contexts and framework, subjective implications and ways to do things together in territories of poverty".For this research we reached out to community actors from the City of Córdoba between the years 2018 and 2022, with the purpose of identifying their meanings about their living conditions and at the same time seeking to understand their local community networks and their working together procedures. We took into account the communities perceptions, meanings and senses about their doings and the effects observed in their relationships, in their moods and their Community Working modes. In this framework the development of this article is presented along three axes: The emotional, The economic and political dimensions of the social context of our communities linked to a worsening of living conditions and forms of social unrest; Meanings and importance of Community work related to emotional support and the power of being and doing with others; and the impact of a hypothetical lack of Community Work in the territories which would mean greater exposure to contingency, desolation and neoliberal management of life, accounting for the risks in which Community Work is carried out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the cultural image of child and adolescent labor performed in the People’s Republic of Poland in the years 1948–1989 as was presented in the literary fiction addressed to the young people. During the Stalinist period, literature officially condemned child labor on individual farms, but affirmed the labor of adolescent workers in state industry and construction. After the 1956 Thaw, the subject matter of labor was receding into the background, for several reasons. Nevertheless, the post-1956 youth literature also featured labor-related themes: community works, school cooperatives, work in family crafts, tutoring, and shady trade.

This academic article aims to address restorative justice, from the application of the regulations of the Ecuadorian State in cases of violence in the couple. In recent years, the study of restorative justice has focused on identifying needs and opportunities for improvement. In the investigation called "Masculinities and Gender Violence: Condemning sentences carried out for violations of violence in the couple, in the Violence Unit against Women and Members of the Family Nucleus of the Cuenca Canton" results were obtained by collecting information in the Unit Violence Court. For this reason, an analysis is carried out on the sentencing indicators, specifically on the sanctions for violations of violence in the couple, such as custodial sentences and community work. These have been studied from the restorative justice approach, analyzing the comprehensive reparation and mediation as main postulates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community Projects (Progetti utili alla collettività) are one of the relevant new features introduced by the Citizenship Income (CI, Reddito di cittadinanza). Despite their increasing importance, they are still poorly investigated in both the public and scientific debate on the Italian Minimum Income Scheme (MIS). This essay aims at broadening the discussion on Community Projects by presenting the findings of a qualitative research conducted in four regions of Northern Italy in the framework of the project CoPInG - Contrasting Poverty through INclusive Governance. 131 CI recipients and 74 operators were interviewed on the implemented activation measures, with a focus on Community Projects. The results highlight their limits, strengths, and purposes within the Italian MIS. Moreover, they help to reflect on the role of obligation and reciprocity in anti-poverty measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay proposes a strategy for social appropriation of solar technology through a workshop based on the educational design research "Energize my business". The workshop was based on the assumption that appropriation involves both obtaining solar technology equipment and training in energy literacy. The goal was that beneficiaries could self-identify their energy demand and solar solutions as a way to empower their businesses. The sample was a group of three women between 48 and 53 years old with businesses of "tamalería", food establishment and handcrafts of soaps and candles. The workshop followed the 4mat instructional design. The findings were: there was a connection to energy issues in a forced way, the definition and practice followed a simple association information processing pattern, the evaluation process showed that the participants were aware of their energy necessities and solar solutions. Thus, the goal of the workshop was met. The workshop has potential to be replicated in areas with a similar context and population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emergence and rapid spread of COVID-19 led to unprecedented changes for families and systems of care. This study sought to understand the needs of families participating in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) before and during the pandemic and considers the impact remote service delivery has on access to an integrated behavioral health intervention to support the psychosocial needs of children and caregivers. Needs for referral varied significantly pre- and post-pandemic onset. Analyses revealed that significantly more referrals were made regarding social determinants of health after the onset of COVID-19 (13.8%) compared with prior to the COVID-19 pandemic (4.1%, p <.05). Providers' transition to telehealth services sufficiently served WIC families. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Mentoring is an intervention aimed at strengthening social networks of individuals by providing one-to-one support to develop a social network. While there is a lack of insight into how the social network intervention "mentoring" affects health outcomes, we used a realist evaluation approach to find out for whom and under what circumstances mentoring affects health. The study was conducted in the Netherlands. In phase 1, an initial program theory of mentoring was developed based on a group interview with participants and professionals engaged in mentoring, complemented by documents (previous studies, descriptions of interventions). In phase 2, the program theory was tested using interviews with 23 participants before and 16 after mentoring. Findings: Mentoring strengthened the social network when two conditions were met. Firstly, mentoring coaches needed to be trained. Secondly, participants needed to have a pre-existing—albeit small—network and need to have some social skills. If the social network was strengthened, mentoring increased self-esteem and self-confidence and decreased experiences of depression and loneliness of participants through three mechanisms: (1) participants were acknowledged and their individual needs were accepted; (2) individual coping resources were improved; (3) capabilities to initiate the search for a social network and to be involved in a social network were realized. Applications: Mentoring is a useful intervention to increase self-esteem and self-confidence and decrease experiences of depression and loneliness of participants if the two conditions are met. Therefore, mentors should be carefully trained to acknowledge and respond to participants' individual needs for social bonds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The worlds of social work practice, community work and social policy analysis converge in the academic study of radical social work. As such, voices from each of these disciplines should be incorporated, jointly, in social work education about radical practice. This article explores the nature of radical social work, its importance in social work education and the partnership approach taken by one University to teaching social workers in training about radical social work practice. Over a two-year programme, students are equipped with sectoral and policy analysis skills, followed by skills for active engagement with the social justice and social change mission of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This constructivist grounded theory study used semi‐structured interviews with 19 youth service providers in community‐based youth development programmes to develop a context‐specific framework of how and why youth voice promotion occurred. Factors external to the youth programmes, such as funder expectations, influenced the conceptualization of role for youth workers. The social process of meaning making in relation to role identity impacted how youth workers perceived self‐efficacy when working with youth, especially when engaged with behaviours falling outside programmatic expectations or norms. Workers prioritized fostering physical and psychological safe spaces for youth participants. When conflict occurred, perceptions of efficacy guided workers in taking positions that either promoted or restricted youth voice based on their perceptions of efficacy in resolving conflict safely. Youth programmes have the capacity to resist or replicate oppression present within the educational system. The adoption and adaptation of educational models of resistance offer a strategy for community‐based youth organizations to promote equity and thriving youth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes a unique software system for the intelligent decision-support of community workers called EVKA. Community work has been proved to be a key tool in tacking dealing social exclusion. So far, distinct approaches and expert methodologies have been developed to help community workers, especially the organization and mobilization of the community and its members through the so-called mobilization cycles. However, to the best of our knowledge, these methodologies and principles have never been implemented in an advanced software tool, and therefore their implementation has always been a matter of personal experience for each community worker. EVKA contains recent computational intelligence techniques, especially in the field of fuzzy modeling, which allow the use of expert knowledge and to use it for decision-making support purposes. This article provides readers with a detailed description of the techniques as well as their implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on prosocial organizing has made great strides in understanding how organizations foster durable social change through core work directly targeting specific beneficiaries (e.g. work integration), and also through community work to obtain the cooperation of key stakeholders. Yet, extant research tends to focus on community work that is closely related – or proximal – to core work and is thus weakly equipped to explain how seemingly unrelated, distal community work unfolds. To address this puzzle, we study an Italian work integration social enterprise that engaged in anti-Mafia work to support its core work of reintegrating people with mental health issues. We unveiled the process whereby it came to engage in this distal community work, how this work facilitated the destigmatization of the beneficiaries and, ultimately, their reintegration in the community. We contribute to the literature on prosocial organizing by providing a more complex and nuanced view of the relationship between core and community work, as well as how to manage stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The community has been dealt from Sociology from multiple approaches. This research considered the possibilities of transformation and enrichment of its preventive action, through community participation, concretely studied in a sociocultural project. It is taken as a premise that the design and action of these projects have a preventive effect, protecting the community from social problems, becoming a cohesive and constructive scenario against social deterioration, so that preventive work is inherent to any project of this type. The objective of this work is to characterize community participation in the Sociocultural Project "Soñarte" and to propose actions for its improvement, based on the evaluation of the phases through which it passes, taking into account the transversal nature of this category and the results achieved by it since its creation. The research had an analytical descriptive character and was carried out with a mixed methodological approach, combining quantitative and qualitative methods and techniques. The carried-out study obtained as a result a characterization of community participation in the Sociocultural Project "Soñarte" and pointed out its difficulties. From a scientific and practical point of view, the research provided a proposal for actions aimed at improving community participation in the prevention work carried out by the "Soñarte" Sociocultural Project, belonging to the "Las Delicias" community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]