Week 03 - Foundations for Groups Part II

Location: CBC Campus - SWL 108
Time: Wednesdays from 5:30-8:15
Week 03: 01/29/20
Topic and Content Area: Theoretical and Philosophical Foundations to Groups part II
Reading Assignment: Garvin et al. (2017) Chapters 4-6
Assignments Due: N/A
Other Important Information: N/A

[Whole Class Activity] Watch the Pinky and the Brain video clip.

The readings for this week were about empowerment theory, ethics, and social justice. Whenever I think about those subjects I also get the feeling that we have to find ways to take over the world.

• Empowerment theory
• Ethics and social justice

Empowerment, Advocacy, and Leadership Activity 1 taken from (http://berkstransition.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/activity1.pdf)

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 making sure 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 being seated (or prior to the activity), hand out lollipops to every third or fourth person (after the activity others can also have the lollipops). Participants musts be informed that the lollipops are for an activity and to 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; while the participants without lollipops are seen as tokens who are not seen as having valuable ideas. This activity is meant to demonstrate the importance of empowerment and establishing your voice.

Leader Instructions with a Draft Script of Directions: . Below there are key words 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 entire activity overly emphasize how smart, amazing, beautiful, etc. the group with the lollipops are 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 completely subjective and irrelevant quality as the determining factor of who we were going to listen to.
• Often people with disabilities may be seen as not having a lollipop and are therefore not listened to.
• What did it feel to not 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 that somehow you felt connected to other people who like you did or did not have a lollipop?

“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?

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

There are some primary principals of empowerment theory in general, not just in how it relates to working with groups.

1. All oppression should be fought
2. A systematic understanding of oppression must be maintained
3. People are capable of empowering themselves
4. People need to connect with others to work on empowerment
5. Clinician and the client share power

6. Client centered with the client being encouraged to tell own story & develop own goals
7. Client as “victor not victim”
8. Social change is goal, not symptom reduction.
9. Clinicians must examine how their practice may disempower clients
10. Clinician may need to be socially and politically active to address meso and macro needs [local, national, global issues]

The first step in empowerment theory is the empowering of 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

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

The third step in empowerment theory is creating larger social change. The following are some possible ideas:

• Creating policy and or legal changes
• Having the client act as a mentor
• Connecting to another activity that allows them to make social change

The following are the parts of doing empowerment theory with groups or in mezzo practice. It really closely aligns with steps two and three of the micro practice.

• Planning
• Consciousness raising / conscientization
• Social / collective action
• Embeddedness in the community

The planning is vital to lay the foundation for a successful use of collaborative action. It has several elements that the facilitate must take account of.

• Needs to be inclusive to all participants
• Important that participants clear understand purpose of the group
• Dual focus of the group is on both personal and social change
• Involves risk (i.e. doing social change and challenges)
• Takes time

The second phase or part is the start of collaborative action…

• Mutual aid model
• Developing actions to address needs expressed

Implement the actions to address expressed needs

• Poststage portion of the group
• What does it look like when you are finished or end
• How do we consolidate changes made

This week, while I was in California for my Ph.D. Classes, I got the pleasure of attending a dissertation defense for one of my wonderful colleagues at CIIS, Andrea Montgomery Di Marco

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

Abstract

Refugees are a socio-political category produced by conflict; a category of humans who have become a global crisis. To date (2019) there are an estimated 68.5 million people who are displaced from their homelands, which number includes more than 25.4 million refugees who have fled their homes because it is no longer safe to stay. I propose the further category of refugee-immigrant to describe refugees who are living in a host country as permanent residents; the category is important firstly to locate the individuals who are no longer living in the hiatus of a refugee camp or temporary refuge country, and secondly to clearly demarcate challenges and obstacles that may not exist when one immigrates by choice.

There is an absence in the literature on the experiences of refugee-immigration that include or focus on the voices of women, and a further lack of discussion on refugee-immigrant flourishing. This research, grounded in a feminist participatory action research (FPAR) methodology, sought to discover: How a group of refugee-immigrant women living in the diaspora in Metro-Vancouver, Canada, define flourishing? The concept of flourishing was initially perceived by me to mean a state of wellness of mind, body, and spirt, and differentiates a state of mere survival from a state of well-being and growth. The methodology is based in transnational feminism informed by Dérridean and Lévinasian hospitality; a methodology that is both democratic and decolonizing.

The research group, self-identified as Global Women Seeking Change (Global Women), practised a host-host methodology or participatory-hospitality, a term I propose to specifically capture the nature of this methodology, that resulted in both significant social action and a sustainable community action group. This research revealed much about the obstacles and experiences of refugee-immigration, including the main obstacles of language barriers, family reunification, and childcare, all of which impede the experience of flourishing; but primarily revealed epistemology that included potential solutions and suggestions for policy change and social innovation as they relate to family definition, education, access to resources, and housing. Global Women determined flourishing to be born of resilience; it may include the presence of melancholy; it includes acknowledgement of mystery; and it includes acceptance of that which appears unacceptable. Global Women further determined that flourishing is an active, participatory, and ongoing process.

Keywords: feminist, participatory action research, FPAR, transnational feminism, flourishing, hospitality, participatory-hospitality, host-host methodology, refugee, refugee-immigrant, refugeeism, decolonizing methodology, Metro-Vancouver, Vancouver, Canada

Photo from Jimmy Jeong/The Globe and Mail

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-immigrant-seniors-in-bc-share-their-love-of-learning-english-through/

[Small Group Activity] Thinking about using empowerment in relationship to students at Heritage and Potential needs. Start the planning of what a social action group might look like.

[Whole Class Activity] Discuss what are some potential ethical dilemmas that could come up in relationship to groups.

The tasks to do in the event of an ethical dilemma is to:

• Identify ethical issues
• Determining appropriate help
• Thinking critically
• Managing conflict
• Planning and implementing decisions
• Evaluating and follow-up

Talk about each value

[Small Group Activity] Break up into groups and have talk about how you would know that you have these values within a group.

• Solidarity
• Tolerance
• Inclusion
• Trust
• Cultural Humility
• Empowerment
• Shared leadership