Michael J. Austin – författare

This book offers a practical approach to conducting practice research in the field of human services. This evolving form of applied research seeks to understand practice in the context of the relationships between service providers and service users, between service providers and their managers, between agency-based service providers and community advocacy and support groups, and between agency managers and policy makers. Practice research represents a form of evidence-informed practice that involves a wide array of research designs and methods, in contrast to the narrower emphasis on experimental designs that characterizes evidence-based practice. The emerging principles and practices associated with practice research highlight: 1) including multiple, diverse stakeholders, 2) maximizing and negotiating participation, 3) promoting practitioner engagement in all phases of the research process, and 4) developing new identities for participants as research-minded practitioners and practice-minded researchers. The book is designed for researchers, practitioners, service users and students, and focuses on concrete experiences that illustrate the processes and activities involved in a specific, locally negotiated model of practice research. The book describes multiple practice research studies across an array of fields of practice in the human services, focusing on the research questions, designs, roles and relationships that have been developed in the context of a university-agency practice research partnership. These descriptions and stories are used to construct a comprehensive, detailed picture of the research process. Based upon these descriptions, the book synthesizes a set of broader principles and guidelines for practice researchers.

Addressing the multiple meanings of service integration, Human Services Integration analyzes how motivations and expectations for social service integration differ significantly among different players in the service system. In a period of major budget cutbacks and welfare reform, however, it is important that service providers collaborate to reduce or eliminate boundaries between categorically defined and provided services. This book tells you about the efforts being made to provide existing services more efficiently while avoiding duplication and waste. As you will quickly see, developing consensus for service integration efforts at the administrative, community, and staff levels will result in the ability to set achievable goals and objectives and secure cooperation at all levels.Human Services Integration covers practice principles for managing organizational and community change and offers strategies for organizing human service agencies and overcoming fragmented service integration in communities with complex problems and needs. To also help you identify specific service intergration activities that are relevant in the context of unique communities, it discusses:specifications for conducting a self-assessment of progress at the local level toward social service integration goals Georgia’s Family Connection, a statewide human services initiative interweaving formal and informal systems of care in a community-centered approach to service integration a children’s initiative collaborative social science theory pertinent to service integration gathering support from elected officials such as boards of supervisors, city leaders, and local elected boardsHuman Services Integration will help you understand why service integration cannot be defined by a particular service model or outcome. Its insight will also help you understand why involving service users and community members in the design and delivery of services is fundamental to developing an integrated service system that is culturally competent, empowering, and responsive to its neighborhood and community context.

Contains field-tested techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your local social services! Changing Welfare Services: Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs describes promising programs and practices that have emerged in the United States since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Using case studies, this reference provides important lessons that will help social service directors and staff to develop strategies that will improve local welfare-to-work services. This casebook focuses on the agencies rather than the welfare population, emphasizing the guiding values of these agencies and the lessons they learned. Changing Welfare Services explores new approaches to service delivery, with emphasis on removing barriers to work force participation and promoting self-sufficiency through support services. The case studies involve programs focused on working with the community by developing partnerships with local organizations to provide better services. This text emphasizes the organizational changessuch as the development of new training programs, merging employment and social service agencies, and restructuring agency programs to foster collaboration between child welfare services and welfare-to-work programsthat were successful strategies used to implement welfare reform. In Changing Welfare Services, you will learn about:the Connections Shuttle and the Guaranteed Ride Home Programtransportation services for welfare-to-work participants the Exempt Provider Training Program trains Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) participants and others to launch and improve their own high-quality child care businesses co-location of support servicessituating mental health and substance abuse services near the social services agency so TANF participants can make a single visit for all necessary services the Family Loan Programhelps low-income families deal with large or unexpected one-time expenses the JobKeeper Hotlineprovides round-the-clock counseling, crisis intervention, and referral services to help participants stay employed and much more! Changing Welfare Services shows how these agencies discovered new ways to serve the needs of low-income residents and offers you a variety of inventive techniques for improving your own agency’s support for welfare recipients. Enhanced with tables, figures, and appendixes, this practitioner-oriented casebook is a much-needed complement to the many quantitative studies of the welfare population. This book is a valuable resource for state and local human service administrators and staff, policymakers, and university faculty and students of public policy.

Contains field-tested techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your local social services! Changing Welfare Services: Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs describes promising programs and practices that have emerged in the United States since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Using case studies, this reference provides important lessons that will help social service directors and staff to develop strategies that will improve local welfare-to-work services. This casebook focuses on the agencies rather than the welfare population, emphasizing the guiding values of these agencies and the lessons they learned. Changing Welfare Services explores new approaches to service delivery, with emphasis on removing barriers to work force participation and promoting self-sufficiency through support services. The case studies involve programs focused on working with the community by developing partnerships with local organizations to provide better services. This text emphasizes the organizational changessuch as the development of new training programs, merging employment and social service agencies, and restructuring agency programs to foster collaboration between child welfare services and welfare-to-work programsthat were successful strategies used to implement welfare reform. In Changing Welfare Services, you will learn about:the Connections Shuttle and the Guaranteed Ride Home Programtransportation services for welfare-to-work participants the Exempt Provider Training Program trains Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) participants and others to launch and improve their own high-quality child care businesses co-location of support servicessituating mental health and substance abuse services near the social services agency so TANF participants can make a single visit for all necessary services the Family Loan Programhelps low-income families deal with large or unexpected one-time expenses the JobKeeper Hotlineprovides round-the-clock counseling, crisis intervention, and referral services to help participants stay employed and much more! Changing Welfare Services shows how these agencies discovered new ways to serve the needs of low-income residents and offers you a variety of inventive techniques for improving your own agency’s support for welfare recipients. Enhanced with tables, figures, and appendixes, this practitioner-oriented casebook is a much-needed complement to the many quantitative studies of the welfare population. This book is a valuable resource for state and local human service administrators and staff, policymakers, and university faculty and students of public policy.

This book provides a "work-in-progress" that seeks to capture the micro (direct service) and macro (managerial) perspectives related to identifying evidence for practice within the practice domain of public child welfare. It is divided into two categories; namely, evidence for direct practice and evidence for management practice. In Part I, the articles are categorized in the areas of child welfare assessment and child welfare outcomes. Expanded versions of the chapters can be accessed at www.bassc.net.In Part II, the focus is on organizational issues that relate to evidence for management practice. This section includes an overview of evidence-based practice from an organizational perspective along with evidence related to the experiences of others in implementing evidence-based practice.This book pushes the discussion of evidence-based practice in several new directions regarding: 1) the use of structured reviews to complement the systematic reviews of the Cochrane and Campbell Collaboratives, 2) the process of viewing the call for evidence-based practice as a goal or future vision of practice and evidence for practice provides a more immediate approach to promote evidence-informed practice, and 3) a recognition that evidence-informed practice is part of building agency-based knowledge sharing systems that involve the tacit and explicit knowledge needed to improve the outcomes of social services.This book was published as a special issue of the Journal Of Evidence-Based Social Work.

This book provides a "work-in-progress" that seeks to capture the micro (direct service) and macro (managerial) perspectives related to identifying evidence for practice within the practice domain of public child welfare. It is divided into two categories; namely, evidence for direct practice and evidence for management practice. In Part I, the articles are categorized in the areas of child welfare assessment and child welfare outcomes. Expanded versions of the chapters can be accessed at www.bassc.net.In Part II, the focus is on organizational issues that relate to evidence for management practice. This section includes an overview of evidence-based practice from an organizational perspective along with evidence related to the experiences of others in implementing evidence-based practice.This book pushes the discussion of evidence-based practice in several new directions regarding: 1) the use of structured reviews to complement the systematic reviews of the Cochrane and Campbell Collaboratives, 2) the process of viewing the call for evidence-based practice as a goal or future vision of practice and evidence for practice provides a more immediate approach to promote evidence-informed practice, and 3) a recognition that evidence-informed practice is part of building agency-based knowledge sharing systems that involve the tacit and explicit knowledge needed to improve the outcomes of social services.This book was published as a special issue of the Journal Of Evidence-Based Social Work.

Addressing the multiple meanings of service integration, Human Services Integration analyzes how motivations and expectations for social service integration differ significantly among different players in the service system. In a period of major budget cutbacks and welfare reform, however, it is important that service providers collaborate to reduce or eliminate boundaries between categorically defined and provided services. This book tells you about the efforts being made to provide existing services more efficiently while avoiding duplication and waste. As you will quickly see, developing consensus for service integration efforts at the administrative, community, and staff levels will result in the ability to set achievable goals and objectives and secure cooperation at all levels.Human Services Integration covers practice principles for managing organizational and community change and offers strategies for organizing human service agencies and overcoming fragmented service integration in communities with complex problems and needs. To also help you identify specific service intergration activities that are relevant in the context of unique communities, it discusses:specifications for conducting a self-assessment of progress at the local level toward social service integration goals Georgia’s Family Connection, a statewide human services initiative interweaving formal and informal systems of care in a community-centered approach to service integration a children’s initiative collaborative social science theory pertinent to service integration gathering support from elected officials such as boards of supervisors, city leaders, and local elected boardsHuman Services Integration will help you understand why service integration cannot be defined by a particular service model or outcome. Its insight will also help you understand why involving service users and community members in the design and delivery of services is fundamental to developing an integrated service system that is culturally competent, empowering, and responsive to its neighborhood and community context.

Managing the Challenges in Human Service Organizations: A Casebook offers current and aspiring human service managers a view into the kinds of experiences they will likely encounter to better prepare them for the world they are about to enter. The cases are inspired by real situations and are designed to encourage students to determine how they would act and work towards a resolution of the dilemmas presented. Key Features   Simulates administrative dilemmas through cases that offer different aspects of agency administration and replicate aspects of actual practice Levels the learning field for students entering graduate human service management programs with different managerial experiences Orients students to the challenges of management by helping them develop mental models linked to the values of client-centered administration Helps students develop a beginning sense of competence and understanding of managerial work while refining their analytic skills Offers the opportunity for repeated learning opportunities using different analytical frameworks Supplements fieldwork by providing more time to reflect and consider a broader array of alternatives than is found in most field experiences Intended Audience   This book is ideally suited as a supplemental text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in social work and counseling, as well as a much-needed reference for human services supervisors and practitioners.

This unique and timely book, edited by Michael J. Austin, introduces and connects social justice to the core values of social work across the curriculum. It presents the history and philosophy that supports social justice and ties it to ethical concepts that will help readers understand social justice as a core social work value. The book further conveys the importance of amplifying client voice; explores organization-based advocacy; and describes how an understanding of social justice can inform practice and outlines implications for education and practice.

Digital Portfolio Construction: A Guide for Showcasing Social Work Skills guides students through the process of compiling a digital portfolio—a collection of artifacts that demonstrates the knowledge, skills, and competencies they have mastered and articulates all they have learned throughout their social work program.The first part of the text focuses on constructing a digital portfolio, which includes the processes of gathering, selecting, reflecting, and sharing assignments and artifacts. In the later chapters, readers gain a greater understanding of the connection between what they learn within their courses and the social work competencies that are the hallmark of the profession.Recognizing that the construction and presentation of a digital portfolio requires active engagement and collaboration between students, faculty, and administration, two valuable appendices provide teaching suggestions for social work instructors and describe the programmatic and administrative contexts necessary to support the successful compilation of a digital portfolio and its use as a program outcome measure.Developed to help future practitioners increase their competence and confidence in presenting their knowledge and skills, Digital Portfolio Construction is a guide that can be integrated within social work curriculum and programs, or leveraged as a tool for independent study.Watch author Dale K. Fitch introduce Digital Portfolio Construction and speak to the how the text can help students recognize and reflect upon the competencies they acquire as they progress through their social work program.Watch Samantha Brown, M.S.W. speak to the importance of social work portfolios and how building a portfolio has been instrumental in her job search and professional networking.

Public Child Welfare: A Casebook for Learning and Teaching provides social work students and practicing social workers with 20 real-world cases gathered from four California county child welfare agencies. Readers are exposed to the stories of social workers and families involved in child welfare services. The rich and varied content captures the daily complexities, challenges, and successes that social workers experience in the field.Framed within the context of relevant national and state policy and practices, the cases address a variety of child welfare issues including neglect and abuse, substance abuse, domestic violence, criminal justice involvement, mental health, reunification and adoption, and more. Case-based learning relates to family dynamics, initial risks and harms, finding the right home for the child, court proceedings, and the trajectory of these complex cases over time.Public Child Welfare challenges social work students and practitioners to critically examine documented, real-world cases to inform and strengthen their own practices. The casebook is an ideal resource for social work courses, child welfare seminars, and agency-based training programs.