Haya Itzhaky

Sociopolitical control and empowerment: An extended replication

Although much of the empowerment research and literature deals with the individual in his immediate environment, there is clearly a branch that focusses more on the wider community and sociopolitical empowerment. Zimmerman and Zahniser (1991) developed an integrative measure of sociopolitical control containing two indices—Leadership Competence and Political Control, and they reported three tests of their measure. This study reports the use of the measure, as well as the Bradburn Affect Balance Scale (Bradburn, 1969) and a measure developed for measuring a sense of Community Belonging. The Pearson correlations for these measures were compared with Pearson correlations for measures of participation and decision-making for two similar groups of activists in the same community; one group had been active for two years longer than the second group. The comparison shows statistically significant differences between the two groups. Not only are the sociopolitical control indices of Zimmerman and Zahniser found to be effective, but they and other community empowerment measures are shown to be sensitive to the passing of time and accumulation of experience.

Implications of Treating Family Violence for the Therapist: Secondary Traumatization, Vicarious Traumatization, and Growth

Our study dealt with the positive and negative implications of working with victims of family violence on therapists in terms of secondary traumatization, vicarious traumatization, and growth. In addition, we examined positive and negative changes that the therapists experienced in themselves, their lives, and their families as a result of their work. The research population consisted of 143 social workers employed in the field of family violence, and 71 social workers who were not employed in that field. Comparisons between the two groups were conducted for all of the research variables. The two groups did not differ significantly in levels of secondary traumatization. However, significant differences were found in levels of growth, as well as in levels of positive and negative changes that the participants experienced in themselves, their lives, and their families.

Battered Women in Shelters: Internal Resources, Well-Being, and Integration

This study examines changes in internal resources (empowerment and self-esteem), well-being (life satisfaction and hope), and integration in the shelter (participation and commitment) experienced by women at domestic violence shelters in Israel. The participants were compared at two points in time—1 week and 3 months after their arrival at the shelter. Small but significant differences were found in all measures, except those concerning participation in and commitment to the shelter and one of the empowerment components—the ability to accept help and take advantage of professional services.

Empowering the Disabled: A Multidimensional Approach.

This article explores empowerment among the disabled as a crucial element in promoting change among families and individuals who are at risk. Individuals with disabilities in Israel who provided volunteer work in organizations for the disabled were surveyed in relation to three components of empowerment: (a) family, (b) services, and (c) community. Three organizational factors (patterns of activity in organization, representation of the disabled and participation in decision-making) and two personal factors (self-esteem and mastery) affect at least one of the empowerment components.

Child sexual abuse and incest: community-based intervention

OBJECTIVE The primary aim of this article is to determine the effectiveness of community intervention in the case of child sexual abuse. The article describes and analyses an actual case in a small urban community in Israel. METHOD After several incidents of child sexual abuse, much of it incestuous, were brought to light in the community, they were discussed openly, contained, and punished. A community campaign, in which community activists as well as all the service providers were involved, was organized by community social workers. Individual, group, and community interventions were used. RESULTS The continuation of the abuse has been checked, and, so far, there is no evidence to suggest its resurgence. Community apathy to child sexual abuse seems to have been halted and reversed. The involvement of community residents, particularly the activists, has increased, and this appears to be the major factor in changed community norms toward child sexual abuse. CONCLUSION Implications of the individual, group, and community interventions are discussed. An integrated program of intervention practices is advocated to contain and prevent the incidence of child sexual abuse and incest.

Strengths and Pathological Perspectives in Community Social Work

ABSTRACT Current social work theory distinguishes between the traditional pathology-oriented perspective and the strengths perspective. This paper posits that the working model of community social workers is grounded in a strengths perspective, which, in relation to community work, is compatible with and supplementary to empowerment models, providing a methodological base for the values and practice of the macro method of social work. The current study aimed to assess the prevalence of each of these two perspectives towards community activity, and to examine the differences between them regarding the sense of empowerment and professional skills acknowledged by community social workers in Israel. The findings revealed that while the majority of community social workers adopt a strengths perspective in their work, they experience a greater sense of empowerment and of professional skills when adopting a pathology-oriented perspective.

Can social work intervention increase organizational effectiveness

Introduction In recent years, client participation in community organizations has re-emerged as a solution to many of society’s problems (Martinez-Brawley, 1991). Published work about this intervention covers case studies and research projects in Europe, Canada, America and the third world. The rich and developed literature regarding client participation (Bernstein, 1960; McDermott, 1975; Wandersman, 1979: Freedberg, 1989; Rothman, 1989; Spicker, 1990; York and Itzhaky, 1991; Bavely and York, 1995) has assumed that involvement makes for a more effective social work intervention, that is the higher the degree of client participation the more effective is the community organization. This assumption has yet to be tested empirically. Unfortunately, much of the literature on client participation and organizational effectiveness has not used variables such as sense of community belonging (CB). Bavely and York (1995) found that there is a correlation between CB and client participation, but they did not examine whether CB has a connection to organizational outputs as well. Since this research relates to social agency, we postulate such a correlation. This article will report the findings of a study that sought to examine the differences between clients of two models of Israeli community centres. In the first, the policy of the community centre

Developing Empowerment and Leadership: The Case of Immigrant Women in Israel

To help low-income women immigrants to Israel from Ethiopia and the former Soviet Union adapt, an interdisciplinary team prepared and conducted a community program whose goals were to empower the women and help them to become involved in the community and to become leaders. The outcomes of the project were favorable. All the women became involved in community activities, were empowered, and developed their leadership abilities and a sense of community belonging. Only their sense of policy control did not undergo any significant change.

Client Participation and the Effectiveness of Community Social Work Intervention

Client participation is a central value of social work, and it is generally assumed that inter vention involving clients will be more effective than that in which they are not involved. This article presents a study in which this assumption was tested empirically by questioning 200 senior workers in Israeli community centers as to the techniques of client participation they used in their work and the outputs in their centers. The assumption that client participation leads to effectiveness, at least in community social work, seems to be supported and suggests that community center staff should be trained and motivated toward working with their clients.

Promoting Client Participation by Social Workers

Abstract The article presents a study that examined the contribution of empowerment (personal, political, and abilities) and background variables (age, religiosity, and marital status) of social workers to promoting participation among two groups of clients: long-term residents of Israel, and new immigrants. The findings revealed that only political empowerment contributed toward promoting client participation among both of the groups examined. As for the impact of background variables, the findings indicated that gender (for long-term residents) and religiosity (for immigrants) contributed to promoting client participation only when there was an interaction with political empowerment. Background variables and maturity (in terms of age and marital status) also contributed toward promoting participation among immigrant clients. The article discusses the nature of empowerment and analyzes the relationship between empowerment of social workers and promoting client participation.