Background Information

Macro social work practice shares common characteristics with other generalist social work interventions. The macro client system refers to organizations, large groups of clients or families receiving similar services, or other community-level change initiatives designed to benefit many people in the community. Macro-level interventions can include community organization, program development, community advocacy, coalition building, political engagement, and a host of other efforts designed to address societal injustices such as racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, poverty, religious intolerance, and other issues affecting the entire community. The model for proposing community change that we present in this module includes the generalist practice model of engagement, assessment, planning, intervention, termination, evaluation, and follow-up combined with the organizational theory of planned change. The planned change process considers environmental forces as well as organizational and community structure (such as material and human resources), identifies change goals, partners with the organization and community to create a change strategy, and implements that strategy.

1. In your textbook, Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities, read Chapter 1, “Introduction to Generalist Practice with Organizations and Communities.”
2. Download the Practice Exercise Worksheet: Steps in the Planned Change Process.pdf file. On the worksheet, do the following:
   1. Define each of the phases in your own words. For example, how do you understand the definition of engagement?
   2. In your own words, describe the intended purpose or goal of each phase. For example, what does the social worker intend to achieve in the assessment phase?

 Book Citation: 

Kirst-Ashman, K., & Hull Jr., G. (2018). Generalist Practice With Organizations and Communities (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.