“Collaboration is an unnatural action among non-consenting adults.” Eugene Bardach (as cited in Chever, Clifton, & Hogan, 2005)
For our next #macrosw Twitter chat, we’ll be focusing on collaboration as an example of macro social work practice. As you may know, I conducted a long-term, qualitative evaluation of an interagency collaboration program called Charlestown Connects for my dissertation. The Charlestown Connects program sought to improve community outcomes via interagency collaboration between local government and nonprofit agencies. Building on a prior evaluation, this study examined how the processes involved in the Charlestown Connects interagency collaboration evolved and long-term intervention effects. Using qualitative interviews with program stakeholders and observations of community meetings sponsored by Charlestown Connects, this study provides guidance on improving interagency collaborations for social workers and others engaging in community work. Major findings include the impact of interagency collaboration relationship building, an examination of factors and processes that helped grow and sustain the collaboration, and implications for the role macro social work may play in leading community infrastructure rebuilding efforts in the future.
Questions for discussion:
- How can macro social workers make an impact in our communities?
- How do we engage modern social workers in community practice work?
- How can social workers help rebuild community communication infrastructure?
- What resources do you need to get more involved in community work?
Resources:
- Alameda County Public Health Department (2004). A handbook for participatory community: Assessments experiences from Alameda County. Retrieved from: http://www.livingknowledge.org/livingknowledge/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/3-AC-01-Participatory-community-assessments.pdf
- Bronstein (2003). A model for interdisciplinary collaboration. Social Work, 48(3),297-306.
- Cheever, K., Clifton, R., & Hogan, A. (2005). The best and the brightest: Fostering innovation and community involvement in small Colorado communities. The Innovation Journal: The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 10(1), 1–15.
- Polivka (1995). A conceptual model for community interagency collaboration. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 27(2), 110-115.
- White House Neighborhood Revitalization Initiative
Chat partners:
- Association for Community Organizing and Social Administration (ACOSA), @acosaorg
- Network for Social Work Management (NSWM), @TheNSWM
- Social Work Helper, @deonahooper
- University at Buffalo School of Social Work, @ubssw
- University of Southern California School of Social Work, @mswatusc
- The Macro Social Work Student Network, @MSWSN
UPDATE: Complete chat archive here! Here are some chat highlights:
https://twitter.com/Aaron_Guest/status/454433852438880256
https://twitter.com/DanaWhiteSW/status/454434525850783744
https://twitter.com/jessicalebeau/status/454438478499962880
UPDATE: More chat highlights here:
TWITTER #MacroSW Chat – Jobs gleaned 4-10-14
Karen Zgoda, LMSW 
How does one participate? Is it open or closed to anyone other than the partners?
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Hi Sunya please join us it would be awesome to have you participate! To chat, log in to Twitter on Thursday night at 9pm EST, search for hashtag #macrosw , and include #macrosw in your replies so we can see your conversation. Do you need any other information in order to participate?
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This will be my first Twitter chat! Will it be hard to find the group via hashtag? Do I need to practice somewhere first? 🙂
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Oh sweet! This link gives a good overview of what’s involved: http://janetfouts.com/how-to-participate-in-a-tweet-chat/
To get a sense of what the Twitter chat feels like, check out one of our #macrosw chat archives: https://storify.com/MSWatUSC/macrosw-chat-recap-3-13-14
Hope to see you there! 🙂
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Karen,
Thank you so much! I look forward to the 24th.
I am trying to understand this landscape (such as why am I using my own wordpress account to communicate now instead of gmail?) I still have so much to learn in the technological landscape. I hope to have material to reference on the next chat. My Goodness! How did you keep up with all the voices?
Take care,
Sunya Folayan
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Thank you Sunya!! You caught on to Twitter fast and it was so great to learn about you and your work! I’m kind of waiting for all the technologies to merge into one thing because they sure could talk to each other better lol
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