Moving Outside the Box: A Paradigm Shift Community Practice Strategies for the 21 st Century

1. Moving Outside the Box: A Paradigm ShiftCommunity Practice Strategies for the 21st Century Presented by Dick Schoech, Ph.D., Professor, UTA School of Social Work Francine Esposito Pratt, MSSW, LMSW-AP, Assistant Professor, Tarleton State University for Partnership for Stronger Communities April 30, 2010, at UT Arlington School of Social Work

2. Workshop Objectives • Examine the cultural shifts in the U.S. society and resulting implications for community practice • Develop an understanding of the emerging community practice tools, techniques, and strategies • Explore ethical issues involved in digital community practice • Examine the resources available to enhance community practice with technology. Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

3. Topics • Getting to know who you are • Describing the Cultural Shift • Emerging Practice Tools • Emerging Practice Strategies & Examples • Issues & Ethics • Resources • This PowerPoint is downloadable at www.husita.org (primers) Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

4. Workshop Participants • Who are you? • Why are you in this workshop? • What do you want to know? Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

5. Society: Cultural Shift • Traditional Neighborhood-based communities • Everything revolves around geography • Task = to develop issues/goals on which neighbors can agreed • Digital communities • Everything revolves around individual interests • Task = to link people around the globe with common interests to each other in a sustainable and passionate manner • The cultural shift is in going from: • Centralized to decentralized, e.g., (home/car is one’s office) • Hierarchies to loosely coupled networks--networks are more flexible and stronger than bureaucracies • Free access because users are valuable, e.g., fax, twitter • New funding schemes, e.g., Google, printers, etc. • Connectivity moving from 8-5 face-to-face to 24/7 always on wireless (phone, email, text messaging, etc.) Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

6. Emerging Tools • Cloud Computing = Microsoft Windows Live, Google (docs, groups, calendar, Wiggio-working in groups) • Facebook = social networking tool, Ning = create free social networks, e.g., http://iactor.ning.com/ • Twitter = quick message broadcast tool • Meetup = find like minded people to meet • MoveOn = massive issue based organizing lead by a few people • YouTube = posting of videos • Kiva = linking donors to those in need • Video Collaboration = Adobe Connect, Wimba, etc. Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

7. Example--virtual tool: Second Life-Virtual Ability Community For those with disabilities, Virtual Ability is their first, not their second life. Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

8. Demo of Webcam Meeting Room Demo of Adobe Connect is time permits and attendees are interested. Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

9. Emerging Practice Strategies Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

10. Emerging Strategies: Example Yesterday Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

11. Emerging Strategies: Example email with video link 24Sep09. Wow. Monday's Wake Up call was unbelievable - 2632 events in 134 countries, tens of thousands of phone calls crashing government lines, unbelievable creativity and diversity of events, directly reaching heads of state and cabinet ministers from Australia to Europe. Words can't describe it -- this video gets close: Click here to watch the video. The Wake Up call was covered by hundreds of major news outlets and made the evening news everywhere from Germany to New Zealand. Europe's environment chief praised "the mobilisation of so many people by Avaaz.org", the UK Prime Minister became the first major world leader to agree to our demand to go to Copenhagen and said that with "the pressure that can brought by organizations like yours...what people think is impossible can become possible". The Spanish environment minister called the action "extraordinary". World leaders have heard us. But as Tuesday's UN summit showed, one day of action won't be enough to get real progress on climate. We need to come back again and again, louder and louder, until we get a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty. We'll keep the pressure high through the TCKTCKTCK campaign until Copenhagen, with another global day of action on October 24th, and start planning right now for the LARGEST CLIMATE MOBILIZATION IN HISTORY ON DECEMBER 12th, in the final days of the Copenhagen negotiations. Avaaz is now 3.6 million members strong in 14 languages, in every country of the world. On Monday, our movement took a huge step forward -- we showed that we can not only send millions of messages to leaders or donate millions to worthy causes, but that in just a few days we can flood the streets and crash phone lines from Mexico City to Mumbai. If we stick together, anything is possible. With hope and excitement for the future,Ricken, Ben, Paul, Milena, Alice, Luis, Brett, Taren, Margaret, Iain, Pascal, Graziela, Paula, Benjamin, Rajeev, Veronique, Raluca, Julius, Yuri, Saravanan, Vladimir, Tihomir, Sam, Emma and the whole Avaaz team Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

12. Emerging Strategies: Example Facebook Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

13. Emerging Strategies: Example Meetup Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

14. Emerging Strategies: Example MoveOn Dear MoveOn member, Last week, over 100,000 MoveOn members stood with Dawn Smith to demand that CIGNA cover the treatment for her brain tumor. CIGNA had been denying Dawn's requests for two years, but when she went public, with the help of MoveOn members across the country, CIGNA reversed course. They took the first step toward resolving Dawn's case—agreeing to pay for the test she needs to determine her treatment plan. By reversing their denials, CIGNA made it clear that they didn't think their decision would stand up to public scrutiny. But they didn't offer any explanation for all the previous denials. And they didn't guarantee that they'll approve the next step in Dawn's treatment. And for all we know, they're still doing this same thing to thousands of other people whose stories haven't caught national attention. That's why Dawn is insisting that CIGNA explain the policies that led them to deny her care for so long. And—for herself and all the others who are suffering—she's demanding proof that they're changing those policies so this never happens again. Dawn recorded a short message for MoveOn members. Can you watch the video and then add your voice to a statement of support? http://pol.moveon.org/dawnsmith/?id=17338-646969-JFATfqx&t=5 Since Dawn went public, we've heard from hundreds of others who have been hurt by CIGNA. The stories range from simply frustrating to absolutely heartbreaking. If you or someone you know has been denied needed coverage by CIGNA, or by another insurance company, please share your story with us at: http://pol.moveon.org/healthcare/survey/?id=17338-646969-JFATfqx&t=6 Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

15. Issues • How to Develop Trust • People also have ‘animal instincts’; face-to-face meetings provide individuals opportunities to ‘sniff’ each other out, but on-line meetings miss cues that can be identified in-person. • Finding the Right Blend of Solutions • Meet-Up helps people to identify based on interest; then pursues organizing by holding geographic location meetings based on common interests to get people physically together (identify people on internet and get them together using classic techniques), once this is accomplished, on-line organizing can be more successful. • Access to the Digital World • Moving from desktop to cell phone, but access is expensive; digital inclusion is difficult to achieve (i.e. information is power, technology is access to information, then people who have no access—as a result of lack of access to technology—have no power); access takes time, money, training (time: if you work two jobs, difficult to get on-line to meet) and connectivity—band-width (internet access) • How to Develop Human Expertise in Agencies • A technology staff person who can assist organizational staff in the use of technology (perhaps a person from the younger generation who has literally grown-up using technology) • Others?? Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

16. Community Organizationand Ethical Practice • Conflicts of interest associated with financial transactions • Dual relationships with community residents • Choice of tactics used by the organizer • Situations in which the organizer’s values conflict with the preferences of the constituents or employers • Concept of informed consent • Use of Tech for tech sake discarding the risks • Tech makes problems harder to find so they can be much bigger when discovered Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

17. Other Emerging Tools & Resources • Netbooks & cloud computing • Mobile computing = smart phones • Content management system (CMS) = user developed knowledge repositories (wikipedia) (wikihow) (drupal) • GPS/GIS = geographic information & mapping • Webinars & video = treat video/pictures like data (YouTube) (podcasts) • Online guides = work you through how to do something • Interoperability = globally linking of agency information systems • Online volunteering and fundraising • FOSS (free & open source software), MYSQL, open office Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

18. Support Group built on NING Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

19. New Resources: Conferences Other conferences like NTEN, etc. Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

20. New Resource: Community Tool Box Greetings from the Community Tool Box, a freely available resource for supporting your community change and improvement efforts. This is a special edition of the CTB eNewsletter, providing links to free online tools and supports for implementing the Strategic Prevention Framework in your community. While the emphasis of the Strategic Prevention Framework is primarily on youth and preventing substance abuse, the framework can be adapted to other community issues and populations. We hope this blending of the 5 stages of the Strategic Prevention Framework with online how-to supports is helpful to your work.  As always, we welcome you to link to or share these resources with others. Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

21. Opportunities for Social Work Communities of Practice • What issues in your agency/practice can benefit from community organizing using new concepts and tools? • Small group discussion • Large group processing • Consultation from presenters Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt

22. References • Digital resources: • NTEN Nonprofit technology network • TechSoup for technology support and products for agencies • HUSITA (HUman Services Information Technology Applications • Hardina, D. (2004). Guidelines for Ethical Practice in Community Organization. Social Work, 49(4), 595-604. • Hardina, D., ed. (2000). Innovative approaches for teaching community organization skills in the classroom. Florence, KY: Routledge. • Reisch, M. & Lowe, J. (2000). ‘Of means and ends’ revisited: Teaching ethical community organizing in an unethical society. Journal of Community Organizing, 7-1, pp. 19-38. • NASW/ASWB Technology Standards • Journal of Tech in Human Services Community Practice Strategies, Schoech & Pratt