Planning for Community Crisis: A Marketing Approach

The article is based on an examination of a nominal group procedure of two welfare agencies located on the confrontation line between Lebanon and Israel, which implemented a marketing approach in planning intervention for the population for times of community crisis. The agencies are located at a place that was attacked and suffered personal and property loss particularly by short range missiles. In the nominal group procedure, five elements of the marketing approach (target market, service mix, place and distribution, price, and promotion) were implemented, for four phases of community crisis (warning, shock, organizing, and changing). The results show that the implementation of the marketing approach demands different marketing patterns for each phase of the community crisis. These patterns, based on previous experience of the agencies, are described and discussed

Towards a Practice-based Model for Community Practice: Linking Theory and Practice

Careful examination of the literature of community practice shows that existing community practice models do not ad- equately respond to the unique and changing needs of vari- ous communities. This article provides an alternative model that challenges the existing models. Based on extensive content analysis of the literature and practice knowledge, this alterna- tive model offers sufficient flexibility to adapt to any particular community. The model is also participatory, process-oriented, and reflective. Herein we first review existing models, provide criteria for assessing their applicability, then introduce the new model, and subsequently discuss its applicability and merit

Social Workers and Politics: Direct Political Involvement and Encouragement of Client Involvement in Politics

The research focused on two aspects of political involvement among social workers. The first was the direct political involvement of social workers on behalf of their clients, and the second, the social workers’ encouragement of their clients’ involvement in political activity. The main purpose of the research was to identify the factors that explain these two types of political involvement among social workers. The data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire from a research sample of 165 social workers in 50 social services departments in Israel. The findings indicate that the factors of the community (as opposed to clinical) field of practice, political self-efficacy, management support, low level of perceived organizational politics, and work in a rural setting contribute most to the explanation of political involvement of social workers. The perception of political involvement as a professional activity did not explain its prevalence among the social workers. The article discusses the theoretical and practical implications of the findings

The Development of Resilience of Social Work Services in a State of Political Conflict

<p>ABSTRACT: Throughout the world, political conflicts lead to violence between countries. In such situations, wars and terrorism result in physical and mental injury to members of the civilian population. The social work services are many times the first to provide assistance in the initial stages of shock and defense. The success of the services depends, among other things, on their organizational characteristics. The present study is based upon qualitative research conducted in Israel with social workers. The point of departure was the knowledge gained from the experience of the social workers. The sample included 46 interviewees from 20 social work services. Thirteen of the services were identified as having organizational resilience and coped effectively with emergencies among the civilian population exposed to war and terrorism, and the other 13 were found to lack resilience. The research findings indicated that the tendency to take action was the most prominent characteristic among the resilient organizations. Other characteristics that contributed to action (in resilient organizations) or deterred action (in unsuccessful organizations) were associated with organizational structure, management and leadership style, the decision-making process, communication, role division, relations with the environment, and nature of the roles of the team members. The study discusses the characteristics of resilience and practical aspects for the development of social work services. </p> <p>KEYWORDS: Resilience, Disaster, War</p