Posted: September 13th, 2017

Case Study in Community Development

Case Study in Community Development

Order Description

Enquiry one has one assessment task, a 1700 word written assignment which takes the form of an individual written report, based on the following scenario:

You are working as a social worker in a social work team within a community health service. This organization services the municipal area of Greensprings in an outer suburb of Melbourne, previously a rural area. The area is culturally diverse. A high number of residents have origins in the Philippines, India, New Zealand and Eastern Europe. More recently, there have been larger numbers of people with African backgrounds settling in the region. The area also has one of the largest Aboriginal populations in Victoria with approximately 9% of the population being of Indigenous origin.

In comparison to the State average, the community of Greensprings has:
• A high rate of people receiving unemployment benefits and disability support pension
• High rate of child protection notifications
• High rate of domestic violence and other crimes
• Low level of high school (Yr 12) completion
• High incidence of drug and alcohol issues
. Low levels of membership of community associations
• High rates of preventable health issues.

In today’s team meeting, the social work health team discussed the difficulties they are having in engaging and supporting individuals and families in the community. For example, Janice, a family therapist, said that she is concerned that a number of families are not regularly attending their appointments. Another worker, Tom, had heard from other allied health professionals, including the speech therapists and dieticians, that they have similar concerns. You too have been having similar problems. Aware of family’s stresses you started a parent support group last year, but only two families attended and both stopped coming after the second week.

The team is at a loss as to what to do but feels as the social work team they should have some strategies for addressing communities experiencing disadvantage. You aren’t sure yourself what to do, but asked if you could have time to consider the issue. You think you might revisit the literature on community development as this might provide some ideas. Bob asked you to prepare a written report as it seems to be an issue relevant to the whole organization, and it would be good to circulate the ideas to other teams and management.

? You need to imagine you are the social worker in the above scenario, writing from that perspective.
? Prepare a report for your workplace team and organization which provides an overview of the key principles and theoretical perspectives you consider relevant to community level practice within the community described.
? Provide some final conclusions or recommendations as to how the team and the organization may reflect upon or discuss these ideas.

Enquiry One Marking Criteria Marks
Evidence of retrieval and use of relevant literature 10
Ability to articulate core theoretical perspectives and principles of community development 10
Demonstrated understanding of how core theoretical perspectives and principles of community development might be applied to a process for community change. 10
Ability to present a well organized and well written report, within the requisites of the School’s style guidelines. 10