Developing the helping relationship: Engaging with clients in different contexts

"Human service workers need more than just common sense. This book offers a comprehensive introduction to practice skills required across the human service sector. The authors use critical analysis to systematically outline the key stages of interaction with clients."--Libraries Australia "A thorough introduction to the core practice skills needed by social work and welfare professionals. Human service workers need more than just common sense. Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare offers a comprehensive introduction to practice skills required across the human service sector. The authors use critical analysis to systematically outline the key stages of interaction with clients: engagement, assessment, intervention and evaluation. Drawing on a strengths approach, they examine the skills needed for working with different types of clients: individuals, families and community groups. They also explore the dilemmas faced in daily practice, including the challenges of working with involuntary clients, clients from different cultural backgrounds, and clients in crisis situations. Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare provides a model of integrated practice which incorporates the key components of ideology, theory, phase, skill and context. Detailed case studies demonstrate how welfare services can be delivered in different contexts. Written by experienced teachers and practitioners from Australia and New Zealand, Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare is a practical and user friendly text for students and reference for practitioners"--Publisher website

Developing the helping relationship: Engaging with clients in different contexts

"Fully revised edition of this widely used introduction to the core practice skills needed by social work and other human service professionals. 'The main strength of the book is the consistency of its themes throughout the text.I would like to commend the editors of this book for the contribution it should make to practice teaching with social work and welfare' - Karen Heycox in Australian Social Work Human service workers need more than just common sense. Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare offers a comprehensive introduction to practice skills required across the human service sector. The authors use critical analysis to systematically outline the key stages of interaction with clients: engagement, assessment, intervention and evaluation. Drawing on a strengths approach, they examine the skills needed for working with different types of clients: individuals, families and community groups. They also explore the dilemmas faced in daily practice, including the challenges of working with involuntary clients, clients from different cultural backgrounds, and clients in crisis situations. Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare provides a model of integrated practice which incorporates the key components of ideology, theory, phase, skill and context. Detailed case studies demonstrate how welfare services can be delivered in different contexts. This second edition has been thoroughly revised and updated and includes new material on online services and strengths-based practice. Written by experienced teachers and practitioners from Australia and New Zealand, Practice Skills in Social Work and Welfare is a practical and user friendly text for students and reference for practitioners."--Publisher website

Nonprofit Boards in Australia: A Distinctive Governance Appoach

This article reports the findings into patterns of governance on nonprofit boards in Australia. The research surveys 118 boards, upon which serve a total of 1405 directors. The findings indicate that nonprofit boards can mimic some aspects of a shareholder approach to governance. But nonprofit boards, in the main, indicate priorities and activities of a stakeholder approach to governance. The features of `isomorphism' that arise largely stem from legislative requirements in corporate governance. Generally, nonprofit directors are influenced by agenda and motivations that can be differentiated from the influences upon director activity in the corporate sector. The study indicates that nonprofit boards prize knowledge and loyalty to the sector when considering board composition. The survey suggests nonprofits ``compensate'' for the demands placed upon them about fiduciary duty and due diligence responsibilities with the diverse intellectual expertise of non-executive directors. Nonprofit boards possess greater diversity than boards in the corporate sector; they include more women as directors than corporate boards and they include a greater proportion of directors from minority groups. While strategic issues feature significantly as a task of the nonprofit board, they distinguish themselves from their corporate counterparts by engaging in operational management. The findings indicate that, in the main, directors on nonprofit boards deliberate and operate in ways distinctive from their corporate counterparts. Such findings offer a contribution to the reform of Corporations Law in other countries and the likely consequence on boards outside the corporate sector.

Tensions, transisitions and triumphs : examining the transitional experience of fashion students between school and university

Joining any new community involves transition and adaptation. Just as we learn to adapt to different cultures when we choose to live abroad, so students learn the language and culture of an academic community in order to succeed within that environment. At the same time however, students bring with them individual learning styles and expectations, influenced by their prior experiences of learning and of life more generally. Some have excelled at school; others have come to fashion seeking something in which to excel for the first time. Commencing a degree in fashion design brings students into contact with peers and lecturers who share their passion, providing them with a community of practice which can be both supportive and at the same time intimidating.----- In Queensland where university level study in fashion is such a new phenomenon, few applicants have any depth of training in design when they apply to study fashion. Unlike disciplines such as Dance or Visual Art, where lecturers can expect a good level of skill upon entry to a degree program, we have to look for the potential evidenced in an applicant’s portfolio, much of which is untutored work that they have generated themselves in preparation for application. This means that many first year fashion students at QUT whilst very passionate about the idea of fashion design are often very naïve about the practice of fashion design, with limited knowledge of the history or cultural context of fashion and few of the technical skills needed to translate their ideas into three dimensional products.----- For teachers engaging with first year students in the design studios, it is critical to be cognizant of this mix of different experiences, expectations and emotions in order to design curricula and assessment that stretch and engage students without unduly increasing their sense of frustration and anxiety. This paper examines a first year project designed to provide an introduction to design process and to learning within a creative discipline. The lessons learnt provide a valuable and transferable resource for lecturers in a variety of art and design disciplines.