Spring 2025 SOWK 487w Week 07 - Empowerment Groups in Social Work
Spring 2025 SOWK 487w Week 07 - Empowerment Groups in Social Work
title: Spring 2025 SOWK 487w Week 07 - Empowerment Groups in Social Work date: 2025-03-04 20:55:52 location: Heritage University tags:
- Heritage University
- BASW Program
- SOWK 487w presentation_video: > “” description: >
We return to the topic of work with families in week seven. Students will complete their presentations and share evidence-based family treatment modalities. They will also start reading a portion of the content from Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs (2014) Section 1, which presents a model for psychoeducational groups. During class, we will look at the empowerment theory in group work and some examples of how this is implemented. The agenda for class this week is as follows:
- Family Treatment Modality Research Presentations
- Empowerment theory and group work
- Midterm Feedback
Agenda: The Plan for Week 07
- Family Treatment Modality Research Presentations
- Empowerment theory and group work
- Midterm Feedback
A-03: Family Treatment Modality Research Presentations
[Whole Group Activity] Students will work in their groups to complete their presentations before the class.
Introduction
[Whole Class Activity] Watch the Pinky and the Brain video clip.
The readings this week is focused on psycho educational group, but fits with the framework of empowerment-based advocacy. I want spend some time sharing what empowerment theory looks like, how it works with individuals and in a group. Whenever I think about those subjects I also get the feeling that we have to find ways to take over the world.
Empowerment Activity
Description: In this activity, approximately 1/3 of the participants will be given a lollipop. Each participant with a lollipop can voice their ideas and are “empowered,” while people without lollipops do not have a voice and are seen as tokens.
Purpose: This activity can demonstrate the importance of empowerment and ensure that everyone is self-determined and has a voice.
Recommended Group Size: any size of group Estimated time: 15-20 minutes
Activity Summary: As participants are seated (or before the activity), hand out lollipops to every third or fourth person (after the activity, others can also have the lollipops). Participants must be informed that the lollipops are for an activity and must wait to eat them. In this activity, participants with lollipops are people with a voice, who are empowered, and whose ideas are seen as valuable; In contrast, the participants without lollipops are seen as tokens who are not seen as having valuable ideas. This activity will demonstrate the importance of empowerment and establishing your voice.
Leader Instructions with a Draft Script of Directions:
- Below are keywords that should be included in the introduction and conclusion.
Key Points
- Give lollipops to every third to fourth participant
- Clearly state that the lollipops will be used for the activity and that people can get lollipops after the activity
- Throughout the activity, emphasize how brilliant, fabulous, beautiful, etc. the group with the lollipops is while exaggerating how much the people without lollipops are not.
- Introduce the icebreaker
State that you will be discussing how to best assist youth with disabilities with $1 million and want ideas from everyone
- As you get responses, emphasize how amazing the ideas are from the people with lollipops and how much “better” they are than the others
- The importance here is not the ideas or ways to spend money but rather to clearly show a bias for people with lollipops
Concluding Points and Discussion Questions
- After a few minutes of discussing ways to spend money, end the discussion
- This activity wasn’t about deciding on money; it was about biases and not having your voice heard
- Who did we listen to? (Answer: people with lollipops).
- We used a wholly subjective and irrelevant quality to determine who we would listen to.
- Often, people with disabilities may be seen as not having a lollipop and are therefore not listened to.
- What did it feel not to be listened to?
- How did you feel about the people who do have lollipops? Were you mad at them? Did you feel betrayed? Did you feel separated from them or connected to other people who did or did not have a lollipop like you?
Reference:
This activity is Empowerment, Advocacy, and Leadership Activity 1, taken from (http://berkstransition.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/activity1.pdf). It is no longer available on their website.
What is Empowerment?
“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will” – Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre
So what is empowerment, what does it mean?
[Small Group Activity] Have class break up into small groups (partners or trios) and come up with a definition for what empowerment
- What is it?
- Why it’s important?
- How we do it?
Principals of Empowerment Theory (1 of 2)
Empowerment theory has some primary principles in general, not just as it relates to working with groups.
- All oppression should be fought
- A systematic understanding of oppression must be maintained
- People are capable of empowering themselves
- People need to connect with others to work on empowerment
- Clinician and the client share power
(Robbins et al., 2006)
Principals of Empowerment Theory (2 of 2)
- Client centered with the client being encouraged to tell own story & develop own goals
- Client as “victor not victim”
- Social change is goal, not symptom reduction.
- Clinicians must examine how their practice may disempower clients
- Clinician may need to be socially and politically active to address meso and macro needs [local, national, global issues]
Reference
Robbins, S. C. Chatterjee, P., Canda, E. R.(2006) Contemporary human behavior theory: a critical perspective for social work. University of Michigan: Pearson/A and B
Step 1: Self-efficacy
The first step in empowerment theory is empowering the client. This means helping them to gain self-efficacy. This can be done by the following:
- Skill building
- Gaining self-awareness
- Learning to navigate systems
Step 2: Critical Consciousness
The second step in empowerment theory is connecting the client to the “bigger picture.” This means helping them to gain a critical consciousness about oppression and obstacles. Some examples of this are as follows:
- Identifying barriers
- Defining power
- Connecting the client to a group
- Letting them know they aren’t alone
Step 3: Social Change
The third step in empowerment theory is creating more significant social change. The following are some possible ideas:
- Creating policy and or legal changes
- Have the client act as a mentor
- Connect to another activity that allows them to make social change
Intervention/Collaborative action (1 of 5)
The following parts of doing empowerment theory with groups or in mezzo practice. It closely aligns with steps two and three of the micro practice.
- Planning
- Consciousness Raising / Conscientiazation
- Social / Collective action
- Embeddedness in the community
(Breton, 2017)
Intervention/Collaborative action (2 of 5) - Planning
Planning is the basis of any process. Some criteria are essential to consider when planning.
- Inclusive to all participants
- Important that participants understand purpose of the group
- Focus is on both personal and social change
- Involves risk (i.e. doing social change and challenges)
- Takes time
(Breton, 2017)
Intervention/Collaborative action (3 of 5) - Consciousness Raising / Conscientization
The consciousness-raising stage is when collaborative action starts.
- Start of collaborative action
- Mutual aid model
- Developing actions to address needs expressed
(Breton, 2017)
Intervention/Collaborative action (4 of 5) - Social / Collective action
When we move on to the actual implementation and making changes in the community or other locations is where things get exciting.
- Implement the actions to address expressed needs
(Breton, 2017)
Intervention/Collaborative action (5 of 5) - Embeddedness in the community
The final stage is around embeddeness and is the post-action stage.
- Poststage portion of the group
- What does it look like when you are finished or end
- How do we consolidate changes made
Reference
Breton, M. (2017). Chapter 04 - An empowerment perspective. In C. D. Garvin, L. M. Gutierrez, & M. J. Galinsky (Eds.), Handbook of Social Work with Groups (pp. 55-75). The Guilford Press.
Practical Example of a Collaborative Action Group
To provide an example of this, I want to share a little bit about one of my colleagues at the University of the California Institute of Integral Studies. Last spring I was in California for our Residential Intensive for my program, and I attended her dissertation defense.
- Discussion about the study
- Impact of the presentations
- Movement for me to participatory action research for my own project
- Start of a non profit, movement within the government… etc.
Reference
Montgomery Di Marco, A. (2020). How a group of refugee-immigrant women living in the diaspora in Metro-Vancouver define flourishing and experience participatory-hospitality: A feminist participatory action research project California Institute of Integral Studies.
