For courses in Group Social Work Practice Widely used by professionals, educators, and students in undergraduate and graduate courses in schools of social work throughout the world, this text presents a comprehensive, coherent, organized overview of group work practice from a generalist practice perspective. The new Ninth Edition, Global Edition, continues to include typologies illustrating group work practice with task and treatment groups at the micro-,meso-, and macro-levels. Thoroughly updated throughout, the new edition of An Introduction to Group Work Practice includes research on virtual groups, updated and deeper content on practice with treatment and task groups, the most current literature on working with reluctant and resistant group members, updated and expanded sections on working with individuals who have difficulty engaging in and sustaining work in groups, updated material on leadership and diversity, and thoroughly updated reference material and new content from evidence-based practice sources.

Life on the Malecon is a narrative ethnography of the lives of street children and youth living in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, and the non-governmental organizations that provide social services for them. Writing from the perspective of an anthropologist working as a street educator with a child welfare organization, Jon M. Wolseth follows the intersecting lives of children, the institutions they come into contact with, and the relationships they have with each other, their families, and organization workers. Often socioeconomic conditions push these children to move from their homes to the streets, but sometimes they themselves may choose the allure of the perceived freedoms and opportunities that street life has to offer. What they find, instead, is violence, disease, and exploitation-the daily reality through which they learn to maneuver and survive. Wolseth describes the stresses, rewards, and failures of the organizations and educators who devote their resources to working with this population. The portrait of Santo Domingo's street children and youth population that emerges is of a diverse community with variations that may be partly related to skin color, gender, and class. The conditions for these youth are changing as the economy of the Dominican Republic changes. Although the children at the core of this book live and sleep on avenues and plazas and in abandoned city buildings, they are not necessarily glue- and solvent-sniffing beggars or petty thieves on the margins of society. Instead, they hold a key position in the service sector of an economy centered on tourism. Life on the Malecon offers a window into the complex relationships children and youth construct in the course of mapping out their social environment. Using a child-centered approach, Wolseth focuses on the social lives of the children by relating the stories that they themselves tell as well as the activities he observes.

This book addresses a range of key issues concerning social work education, research and practice in India and Australia from a cross-cultural perspective. The respective chapters focus on specific areas of social work regarding e.g. the status and recognition of the profession, regulatory mechanisms, roles and functions of social workers in different settings, and issues and challenges faced by the social work community. The book shares valuable perspectives to help understand the culturally sensitive practice of social work in various socio-cultural, economic and political contexts in both countries. Given the scope of its coverage, the book is of interest to scholars, students and professionals working in the areas of social work, social development and social policy practice.

There are some things we just don't talk about. Things like sex, particularly when our sexuality is a matter of personal struggle. Things like the vulnerabilities of our pastors, who must maintain a fa?ade not merely of respectability but of moral and psychological superiority. We don't talk about things that make us feel insecure, that make us feel unsettled. But the nature of spiritual growth, even the story of Christian faith, is a matter of being unsettled from the comfortable compromises we've made and set on a course together toward wholeness and mutually supportive community. Pastor T. C. Ryan takes us on an unsettling journey through his lifelong struggle with sexual addiction, one that predated and pervaded his pastoral ministry--one which for far too long he faced in secrecy and isolation, separated from the brothers and sisters in Christ who were called to bear one another's burdens. Ashamed No More doesn't cast blame or argue for looser moral standards. It does, however, call us to the unsettling ministry that a God who is love calls us to--the unsettling grace that is the audacious gospel of Christ.

In the early morning hours of December 31, 2010, Dr. Cornelius H. Evans and his wife received a terrible phone call: their son, Bryant, had been shot and killed. The agonizing days that followed brought Evans face-to-face with the realization that evil had touched his family's life, sending him on a quest to try to understand the role evil plays in our world.

Deeply emotional and heartfelt, Surviving Evil in a Depraved Society offers insight into how Evans dealt with the loss of his son by analyzing the root of violence in America-evil. He examines various theories on evil and its origin, its effects on mankind, and how, according to the Christian belief, evil will remain a part of our society until Christ returns.

Evans also challenges ideologies, philosophical beliefs, and theologies on whether one can avoid evil elements. He demonstrates that we can be on our guard against inviting evil into our lives by spiritually guarding ourselves and raising our children with a strong moral foundation.

An eye-opening look at the face of evil, Surviving Evil in a Depraved Society offers hope for living in today's world.

This interdisciplinary volume examines the relationship between community resilience and family resilience, identifying contributing factors on the micro-, meso-, and macro-level. Scholars and practitioners focus on how community-level policies and programs facilitate the distribution of resources, assets, and opportunities that provide valuable assistance to families who are struggling or in crisis due to economic hardship, mental illness, and the effects of natural and human made disasters. Additionally, representatives of local government and community agencies on the "front lines" of developing policies and programs to assist families provide valuable context for understanding the ways communities provide environments that encourage and nurture family resilience. Among the topics covered: How cities promote resilience from a public health perspective Family resilience following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill Resilience in women from trauma and addiction Trauma-sensitive schooling for elementary-age students Developing family resilience through community based missions Resilience and the Community will be of interest to policy-makers, researchers, and practitioners seeking to facilitate the development of evidence-based resilience practices, programs, and/or policies for those working with families at risk.

In this book, the authors outline how policymakers in advanced countries have moved away from exclusive reliance on the public sector in social service delivery, towards a more multi-faceted approach that seeks to combine the strengths of public agencies, private firms and voluntary organizations. This development raises interesting and complex questions concerning the comparative advantages of these respective groups in the delivery of goods and services. The Political Economy of the Voluntary Sector adopts a comparative institutions approach to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the government, market and voluntary sectors as alternative instruments for implementing social and economic policies. The authors examine existing market failure, government failure and supply-side models of non-profit organizations before proposing a new leadership theory of the voluntary sector. They then explore the interface between the voluntary sector and the development of social capital. The book culminates in an investigation of appropriate public policy approaches towards the voluntary sector. This book will be warmly welcomed by academics, students, and researchers working on alternative methods of public policy program delivery, primarily from the disciplines of economics, political science and public administration. Practitioners drawn from the public and voluntary sectors, as well as public policymakers in governments from around the world, will also find this accessible book of great interest.

This book explores the social-emotional learning (SEL) movement in the United States and the current situation in schools that both supports and impedes the infusion of programs and strategies that actually work for children and adolescents. The volume describes overarching issues to include what the term evidence-based should mean as well as the confusing and sometimes ill-advised proliferation of programs that become components of the many barriers to the success of the SEL movement. The book examines why it may be necessary to take a step back when considering nonacademic interventions in schools. This book explores the need to - and the process of - vetting interventions before trying to implement them in the classroom. In addition, the volume examines the various frameworks and standards involving SEL to shape a thoughtful approach that makes a difference in each student's academic success. It offers a scientific approach to selecting brief, easy to implement SEL strategies for school psychologists, teachers, and related mental health and educational professionals. The book describes each strategy in detail and addresses how to use these strategies, when to use them, and for whom they are likely to work. The volume concludes recommended implementation and dissemination strategies. This book is a must-have resource for researchers, clinicians/practitioners, and graduate students in child and school psychology, educational psychology, social work as well as all interrelated sub disciplines.

God uses people daily to communicate His fragrance and message to us. Too often we don't check to see what aroma or impression we are leaving for others to see, hear, or smell.

After visiting someone's home or before checking out of a motel, or when moving, we double check to make sure we haven't left anything behind. Even criminals check to make sure they haven't left any clues at the crime scene to identify them.

A story reminded me of this. A robber thought he had committed the perfect crime. He assumed he left no clues behind. But he didn't count on someone remembering how he smelled. The smell he left behind was what helped convict him.

Yes, we leave something everywhere we go. Stuart Holden reminded a young man moving from a boarding house of this fact when the young man said, he was just double checking to make sure he wasn't leaving anything behind. "There's one thing you will leave behind, young man, your influence."

Assessing, Diagnosing, and Treating Serious Mental Disorders uniquely provides information that is useful across mental health, psychopathology, practice, and human behavior and development classes, particularly for psychopathology and advanced mental health practice courses. DSM-IV-TR diagnostic criteria is provided for each mental disorder discussed in the textbook. This book represents a new wave of social work education, focusing on mental disorders as an interaction among neurobiology, genetics, and ecological social systems. Edward Taylor argues that most all mental disorders have a foundation within the person's brain that differentially interacts with the social environment. Therefore, how the brain is involved in mental disorders is covered far more comprehensively than found in most social work textbooks. However, the purpose is not to turn social workers into neuroscientists, but to prepare them for educating, supporting, and where appropriate providing treatment for, clients and families facing mental illness. Entire chapters are dedicated to explaining bioecological and other related theories, family support and intervention, and assessment methods. To help students conceptualize methods, the book includes specific steps for assessing needs, joining, and including families in mental health treatment decisions. Methods for helping families become part of the treatment team and for providing in-home interventions are highlighted. Throughout the book, readers can find helpful outlines and illustrations for how to understand, assess, and treat mental disorders.

The number of children living in families with incomes below the federal poverty level increased by 33 percent between 2000 and 2009, resulting in over 15 million children living in poverty. Some of these children are able to overcome this dark statistic and break the intergenerational transmission of poverty, offering hope to an otherwise bleak outlook, but this raises the question-how? In Fostering Resilience and Well-Being in Children and Families in Poverty, Dr. Valerie Maholmes sheds light on the mechanisms and processes that enable children and families to manage and overcome adversity. She explains that research findings on children and poverty often unite around three critical factors related to risk for poverty-related adversity: family structure, the presence of buffers that can protect children from negative influences, and the association between poverty and negative academic outcomes, and social and behavioral problems. She discusses how the research on resilience can inform better interventions for these children, as poverty does not necessarily preclude children from having strengths that may protect against its effects. Importantly, Maholmes introduces the concept of "hope" as a primary construct for understanding how the effects of poverty can be ameliorated. At the heart of the book are interviews with family members who have experienced adversity but managed to overcome it through the support of targeted programs and evidence-based interventions. Student leaders provide unique perspectives on the important role that parents and teachers play in motivating youth to succeed. Finally, professionals who work with children and families share their observations on effective interventions and the roles of culture and spirituality in fostering positive outcomes. Excerpts from these interviews bring research to life and help call attention to processes that promote hope and resilience. This book will be invaluable for policymakers, educators, and community and advocacy groups, as well as scholars and students in family studies, human development, and social work.