Marcia B. Cohen

The power of the people: Homeless protesters in the aftermath of social movement participation

Research on homelessness and recent social movement literature nave focused little attention on protest movements among the homeless and very poor. Indeed, most writing in this area concludes that this population is disempowered and disenfranchised. In this article, the impact of a “tent city” protest on homeless participants is analyzed through an ethnographic study based on interviews and participant observation with street people three years later. The authors suggest that local social movements can have a significant impact on low income peoples access to material and non-material resources. Differences and similarities between poor peoples movements and middle-class movements are also examined.

Training in Tandem: Co-Facilitation and Role Modeling in a Group Work Course

ABSTRACT There is a growing consensus in the literature that co-facilitation can be effective if it is well planned and characterized by close communication among co-workers of equal status. The authors of this article discuss their experience co-teaching a group work course. They examine the potential of co-facilitation in a classroom setting for role modeling an effective group co-leadership relationship to students and for contributing to the professional development of teachers. The article also explores the phenomenon of the co-facilitator relationship mirroring the developmental stages of the group.

Gender and Groupwork

Part One 1. Groupwork Through Gendered Eyes 2. Gendered Theory as a Platform for Groups 3. Mapping the Practice Issues 4. Womens Groups and Stages of Group Development from a Relational Model 5. Political Dilemmas in Pro-feminist Groupwork with Men 6. Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Trans Groups 7. Experiences with Gender in Groups for Children and Young People 8. Intersections of Gender and Race in Groupwork 9. Older Womens Issues and Empowerment Orientated Groups 10. Groupwork with Caregivers 11. Disabled People and Groupwork 12. Homelessness 13. Health Part Three 14. Synthesis

Group Work Practice to Advance Social Competence: A Specialized Methodology for Social Work by Lang, N.

This valuable new book articulates a practice theory for group work with what the author terms “socially unskilled” and “socially noncompetent” populations. The author develops a specialized group work methodology to enable less skilled clients to participate in and benefit from social group work participation. The book’s basic premise is that there are populations whose social skills are so severely impaired that they are unable to participate in groups facilitated in accordance with the widely recognized mainstream model of social group work. Hence, the author suggests, there is a need for a paradigm shift to a specialized group work methodology geared to the needs of socially unskilled individuals. She then proceeds to develop such a specialized methodology adapted to the reduced functioning level of less competent clients. This, in turn, enables these individuals to benefit from the social skill–building experience of group work. Thus, through the development of a specialized group work methodology for socially impaired individuals, those very people who are in the greatest need of the benefits of group experience can participate in group life. The author achieves this ambitious goal through a very clear and comprehensive theoretical development of a specialized group work methodology. The book is very well organized. The introduction carefully lays out the scope of the book which then flows in a consistent fashion throughout. Part One explores the concepts of social competence and noncompetence and examines the relationship of social competence to group work participation. Lang identifies the defining characteristics of socially less competent populations and does an excellent job of teasing out the similarities among diverse groups of people she categorizes as being prone to social noncompetence. These groups include, among others, normally developing presocial young children, members of families with alcoholic parents, members of families with mentally ill parents, mentally ill adults, emotionally disturbed children, and people whose social functioning is impaired due to physical and/or developmental disability. These disparate populations are classified in relation to a typology of normative and variant social functioning and a typology of aberrational interactional patterns. The underlying commonality among