The Global Group Work Project

Cross-National and Cross-Cultural Examination and Enhancement of Professional Education and Practice of Social Work with Group

Purpose and Activities: Social work groups meet compelling human needs, as sources of action, healing, justice, and learning, but group practice is not a unitary system of social work intervention, nor is it taught similarly across educational settings.

Through a cross-national and cross-cultural consensus building process, we are constructing a core of global/essential concepts and culturally and/or geographically specific concepts and skills for teaching and training in social work with groups that will complement and expand existing teaching and practice in this vital area of social work practice.

The Global Group Work Project engages social work educators and practitioners from diverse geographic regions in examining where and how social work with groups is practiced ad taught. Our working hypothesis is that while thinking about groups differs around the world, there are some global, “essential” elements of social group work. We believe that geographic or culture-specific elements of group are also critical to gather, and to explore how local conditions generate specialized practices.

Through the use of international group conferencing and web-based communication, we are building on existing work and establishing an international network of educators and practitioners interested in enhancing social work with groups.

Through it’s action research, the Global Group Work Project will contribute empirical knowledge about the nature of cross-national and cross-cultural group work. It is expected to bring together new and existing data in an accessible inventory and supporting materials about teaching social work with groups and propose essential, core areas for teaching that will be developed through international dialogue and collaboration, which will complement local methods and practice. The Project builds on existing international networks and the Global Standards for Social Work Education and Training crafted by the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the International Federation of Social Workers (2004).

The project collaborators are in the process of launching the Global Group Work list serve and website, hosted by the AASWG. This will provide a forum for future collaboration and research. We believe that this Project will encourage expansion of teaching social work with groups in class and field, ultimately leading to greater opportunities for effective and powerful social work group membership throughout the world.

The Global Group Work Project is funded by the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), and is supported by the Association for the Advancment of Social Work with Groups (AASWG)

For Additional Information, Please Contact: Carol S. Cohen Adelphi University School of Social Work One South Avenue Garden City, NY 11531 USA 516.877.4427 cohen5@adelphi.edu