Semigina, T., Boyko, O., Nazaruk, V. (2014) Social enterprising in Ukraine: quo vadis?

QuarterlyMarch2014Community-based

Social EconomyandCommunityDevelopment

Community-based Social Economy and Socio-Political Development

Tilting Toward Sustainable Community Development:The ‘Safe at Home’ Project

Sustainable Community Development:The Social Economy Basel as Example of Socialand Solidarity Economy Practice

InProject: A Collaborative Interventionin the Urban Community of Coimbra (Portugal)

Social Enterprising in Ukraine: quo vadis?’

Who Benefits from Community Development?

Working with Hildren and Youth Living in the Streets of Durban:Participatory methodologies

Social Workers: Front Line Actors for Disaster Risk Reduction

10

56

52

CONTENTS

14

Issue 7 Volume 3 2014

EDITOR’S NOTE

Welcome to the seventh edition of social dialogue05

PRESIDENT’S REPORT 06

COVER STORY

Comunity-based social-economy and socio-political development 10

FEATURESTilting Toward Sustainable Community Development: The ‘Safe at Home’ Project 14

Some Community Development Projects (CDP) Around the World 18

Sustainable Community Development: The Social Economy Basel as Example of Social and Solidarity Economy Practice 20

InProject:: a collaborative intervention in the urban community of Coimbra (Portugal) 24

Social enterprising in Ukraine: quo vadis? 28

Who benefits from Community Development?32

Social Workers: Front line actors for disaster risk reduction 36

Working with Children and Youth Living in the Streets of Durban: Participatory Methodologies 42

PEOPLE

Vishanthie Sewpaul 44

Lengwe-Katembula J. Mwansa 48

REPORTS

Global Insurance Companies Rally for Sustainability 50

Global Definition of the Social Work Profession 52

CAMPUS

Summary of Report from Laos 56

List of Conference 60

Backword 62

CREDITSIssue 7 Volume 3 2014 Social Dialogue

ManagementCommitteeAngelina YuenImmediate Past President of International Association of Schools of Social Work, Vice-President of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Tatsuru AkimotoPresident of Asian Association of School of Social Work; Director & Professor of Asian Center for Welfare Society in Japan College of Social Work, Japan

Akua BenjaminPresident of North American/ Caribbean Association of Schools of Social Work, Professor and Director of School of Social Work, Ryerson University, Canada

Helle Ingrid StraussAssociate Professor & International Coordinator of Metropolitan University College, School of Social Work, Denmark

Julia Mary WatkinsTreasurer of International Association of Schools of Social Work, Former Executive Director of Council on Social Work Education, USA

Nadkarni, V. VithalPresident of International Association of Schools of School Work, Professor and Founder Dean of School of Social Work, TataInstitute of Social Sciences, India

SocialDialogueispublishedbyTheInternationalAssociationofSchoolsofSocialWork(IASSW).Itisthe©copyrightofIASSWandpublishedonaquarterlybasisanddistributedworldwide.

Website:www.social-dialogue.comISSN:2221-352X

NoteAll articles contained in Social Dialogue, including letters and emails to the editor, reviews, and editorials, represent the opinions of the authors, not those of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), or any organizations with which the authors may be affiliated. The editors and management of IASSW do not assume responsibility for opinion expressed by the authors or individuals quoted in the magazine, for the accuracy of material submitted by the authors, or for any injury to persons or property resulting from reference to ideas or products mentioned in the editorial copy or the advertisements.

EditorialBoardPublisher: VimlaV.NadkarniEditorinChief: CarolynNobleManagingEditors: HillmingLi,AngelinaYuenExecutiveEditor: TimothySimExecutiveOfficer: CatherineCheung,HiuchingChan, CarolWang,ManhoCheung, NickyFung,AgnesYeungRegionalRepresentatives: VioletaGevorginiene,GidraphWairineProductionManager: MauriceKwanCreativeDirector: MarcoWongDesigner: VanessaKeiITofficer: ManChanChiefDevelopmentOfficer: MauriceKwan ChiefOperatingOfficer: MavisChan Accountant: FaustinaWong Forthereferencesofarticles,pleaseaccesstotheonlineedition.

Printingandlogisticssponsor RegalPrintingLimited 11/F Wyler Center Phase II, 200 Tai Lin Pai Road, Kwai Chung Nt Hong Kong. Tel. : (852)2552 2202 Fax: (852)2552 0700 Website: www.regalprintingltd.com.hk

Publishedby: The InternationalAssociationof Schoolsof SocialWork(IASSW)

Website: www.iassw-aiets.org

Producer IASSWFoundation RM. 1712, 17/F., Li Ka Shing Tower, The Hong Kong Polytechnic

University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong. Tel. : (852)3569 0902 Fax: (852)8148 2407 Email: [email protected] / [email protected] Website: www.iassw-aiets.org

From left to right: Strauss, Helle |Nadkarni, Vimla Vithal |Yuen Tsang Woon Ki, Angelina |

Akimoto, Tatsuru |Benjamin, Akua Lorna Claudetta Pamela |Watkins, Julia

Welcome to theSeventh Edition of Social Dialogue

EDITOR’S NOTE

This edition focuses on social enterprises and

community development projects from across the

globe. We have essays and case examples of local

community projects and social enterprises and their

aims and successes. Briefly social enterprises are

community based ventures by which people and

communities come together and use market–based

ventures to achieve agreed social ends. A successful

social enterprise has broad benefits, including:

creating wealth, creating or retaining jobs in the local

area, and increasing people’s skills and capacity for

employment. Key proponents of social enterprise

ventures offer their thoughts with examples of

successes in this edition.

Whereas social enterprises are businesses, community

development projects are mostly voluntary

partnerships with the community and government

supported services whose aim is to problem solve,

build community assets, skills and resources and

work for structural change towards more socially just

outcomes for that community. Some great examples

are described in these pages as well.

We have the usual reports and notices and people

profiles. The editorial team thanks all our interns

and contributors who have had worked to make this

edition as informative and inspiring as it is. Enjoy!

Carolyn NobleEditor in Chief

[email protected]

5April 2014 Social Dialogue

International Association of Schools of Social WorkPresident’s Report (June to Dec. 2013) for Third Executive Committee and Board Meetingheld in Thang Long University, Hanoi, Vietnam

IASSW Executive Committeeand Board Meetings

Second Executive Committee and Board Meeting Hosted by School of Social Work, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia(June 19–21, 2013)

The Second Executive Committee and Board meetings

were held at University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, from

July 19–21 2013. A symposium on “Against Social

Suffering: Social Work in Alliance with the People with

Disabilities in the Times of Crisis with a focus on Bodily

to Civic Disability” (July 17 and 18) was organized in

collaboration with IASSW, South East Europe Sub-Regional

Association and European Association of Schools of Social

Work. Dean Gabi Cacinovic Vogrincic, Professor Darja

Zavirsek and her School of Social Work team hosted the

symposium very graciously. There were highly stimulating

papers presented by faculty from schools of social work

in different parts of East Europe and some of the Board

members. The symposium material prepared by School of

Social Work, University of Ljubljana in the form of E-book

has been posted on IASSW website under `Publication’.

Third Executive Committee and Board meetings Hosted by School of Social Work, Thang Long University, Hanoi, Vietnam (January 18-21, 2014)This meeting was organized with the initiative of Immediate-

Past President Prof. Angie Yuen. Prof. Yuen had prepared

the ground for the meeting during the Stockholm world

conference where senior faculty from Vietnam had indicated

interest in IASSW organizing a faculty development

programme for the social work educators there.

IASSW thanks Prof. Le Thi

Quy, Director of the Institute

for Gender and Development

(INGAD), Hanoi, Associate

Professor Nguyen Thi Thuan (PhD), Acting President,

University of Labour and Social Affairs, and Dr. Thang Long,

Lecturer at Social Work Department, Thang Long University,

for their efforts to make this programme happen in Thang

Long University, Hanoi. The capacity building workshop

was designed, coordinated and managed by Janet Williams,

Chair of Capacity Building Committee in consultation with

Prof. Yuen, Prof. Quy, and Prof. Thuan. There has been

great enthusiasm on the part of our Board members who

volunteered to make presentations at the conference.

Launch of 'Indian Associationof Social Work Education'

One of the landmark events organised by Prof. Nadkarni

with the funding support of IASSW and the School of Social

Work, TISS was the consultation on `Revival of Association

of Social Work Education in India' on December 2-3, 2013

which was attended by 29 social work educators from

across the country and TISS. This was a much needed effort

in view of the fact that the earlier association had become

dormant for almost a decade. It also was in keeping with the

mission of the IASSW.

At the end of the meeting, the participants launched a new

association of schools of social work: `Indian Association

of Social Work Education' on 3rd December 2013 with

the formation of an Adhoc Committee. The detailed report

has been submitted to the Education Committee and Board

members.

6

PRESIDENT’SREPORT

Vimla V.NadkarniPresident, International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)

Participation in InternationalMeetings and Workshops

Keynote Speaker at the EmPeace LABS 2013 Prof Nadkarni, IASSW, presented the Keynote Address titled

“Social Work and Community Development" at the Inaugural

Function of the training programme: 'Empowerment for

Peace through Leadership in Agribusiness Sustainability

(EmPeace LABS) 2013' (October 19-36, 2013). The

participating youth hailed from Africa, South America,

Nepal and India. The EmPeace LABS is a project initiated

by University-Community Partnership for Social Action

Research (UCP-SARnet) of Arizona State University, USA in

partnership with Gandhi Research Foundation (GRF), and

the Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd (JISL) in Jalgaon, Maharashtra.

The First International Leadership Training Workshop

(EmPeace LABS 2012) was held in October 2012 and was

attended by 70 young community leaders from 13 African

countries.

CSWE- APM 2013Prof. Nadkarni attended CSWE-APM 2013 in Dallas, USA

from October 30 to November 3, 2013. She presented

updates on IASSW activities in the CSWE Board Meeting and

the meeting of North American and Caribbean Association of

Schools of Social Work (NACASSW). She participated in the

KAKI Advisory Committee Meeting, and also the UN Day/

IASSW Meeting which was organized on the request of the

US based UN representatives. She witnessed the launching

of the Manual on Human Rights by Terry Hokenstad, Lynne

Healy and Uma Segal, developed with funds from KAKI.

In the China Collaborative Meeting, she and Julia discussed

about the role of IASSW in evaluation of the project. It was

decided that this will be a participatory evaluation and the

US school faculty will send in their suggestions for the items

that should go in the evaluation. President also attended the

meeting on research that was initiated by a faculty member

from Fordham University.

Along with panelists Mark Rodgers, President of NACASSW(in

the Chair) and Dixon, Prof. Nadkarni presented an update

on IASSW at the Panel discussion on “International and

Regional Social Work Organizations Promoting the Global

Agenda”. As this was on the last day of the CSWE-APM, not

many participants attended the session.

Special Guest Speaker at International Conference on Water in MumbaiThe College of Social Work, Nirmala Niketan, Mumbai

organized an international conference on “Political Economy

of Water: A Social Work Response” during December 19-

21, 2013. Prof. Nadkarni was invited as Special Guest and

made a presentation on the Global Agenda at the opening

ceremony. The conference was attended by various national

and international delegates.

Representation onInternational Committees

Prof. Nadkarni serves on the Advisory Board of University-

Community Partnership for Social Action Research (UCP-

SARnet) of Arizona State University.

She is also member of the International Advisory Board of

the Global Institute of Social Work initiated by Professor

TAN Ngoh Tiong, Dean, School of Human Development

and Social Services, SIM University, Singapore. Prof. Terry

Hokenstad, Distinguished University Professor, Ralph S.

and Dorothy P. Schmitt Professor and Professor of Global

Health, Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, Case

Western Reserve University, and one of our active US based

UN representatives is the President of GISW.


Dissemination of President’s Updates

The last update (July to September) was circulated to

IASSW board members, IASSW individual and institutional

members through various Google groups.

The President’s report was also submitted for CSWE-APM

Board meeting and publication in the social dialogue

magazine. A report has been submitted to International

Social Work Journal for the “News and Views” section

which will be published in the next issue.

An article on “IASSW” has been written by Prof. Vimla

Nadkarni and Dr. Tetyana Semigina for the Int Encyclopedia

of Social and Behavioral Sciences 2nd Edition, Elsevier Ltd,

U.K. The article has been submitted to International Social

Work Journal and is under review.

Website Development

To make the website more attractive and reader friendly,

changes have been made in the icons and access to

information. The process of upgrading the website is

continuing. Profiles of each of the board members have been

posted on the website based on a template developed by the

President's office. The list of IASSW members (updated up to

2013) is now available on the website.

The PayPal facility is now available to all members desiring

to pay the fees for two years. The website manager is very

prompt in posting messages and links from time to time.

I thank Dixon Sookraj and Angie for working very closely

with Hillming to achieve this progress. Hillming has been

most responsive to our requests.

Social Networking

Interacting with IASSW on our sitesIASSW continued to be active on Facebook (http://www.

facebook.com/ IASSW.AIETS). The membership of the

Facebook site is growing. We have now more than 750

followers/members using that site. This has enabled us to

upload information on our activities, pictures and links of

IASSW members, at times during the process of the event

itself!

IASSW is also presented at Twitter: @IASSW_AIETS (having

around 180 followers) and at LinkedIn as ‘International

Association of Schools of Social Work’ (group)'.

IASSW Secretary Tetyana Semigina and Rashmi Pandey

Administrative Assistant of IASSW have been alert and

actively involved in the continuous uploading of new

exciting materials including books and updates of upcoming

events around the globe.

Enhancement of internal communication among IASSW members

Four Google groups were created for facilitating and

enhancing communication amongst IASSW members as

follows:

IASSW Board Members

([email protected])

Entire board members are included in this group

KK Group

([email protected])

All Vice presidents and Secretary is the member of this group

Individual members

([email protected])

All individual members of the IASSW are members of this

group

Institutional members

([email protected])

All institutional members of the IASSW are members of this

group

8

PRESIDENT’SREPORT

The Global Agenda Observatory is the mechanism for

monitoring and reporting on the implementation of The

Agenda Commitments.

The Indian states, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh and

the Far western region of Nepal were hard hit due to the

recent Himalayan flood devastation on June 16-17, 2013.

As a response, the Sustainability, Climate Change, Disaster

Intervention Committee of IASSW coordinated with schools

of social work in these regions to extend solidarity and onsite

help to the victims of disasters. The committee has prepared

a detailed proposal titled 'Building Knowledge and Skills

of Social Work faculty’. The proposal has been submitted

to the IASSW International Project Funding Committee for

their review and response.

Darla Spence Coffey, President, Council on Social Work

Education, Barbara W. Shank, Chair, Council on Social

Work Education Board of Directors, Mark E. Rodgers,

President, North American and Caribbean Schools of Social

Work, Shirley Gatenio Gabel Chair, CSWE Commission on

Global Social Work Education, formulated and signed a

letter which was circulated to the US school encouraging

to become members of IASSW. We sincerely, thank for this

initiative, IASSW Board approved the climate change policy

statement which is posted on the IASSW website. The

link is available at: http://www.iassw-aiets.org/%20board-

approved-climate-change-policy-statement

We most welcome your suggestions and feedback on this

report.

Mumbai 400 088, India

Email: [email protected]

Overview of Activities of the Committees

The IASSW Committees continued their specific

contributions during the last six months, the details of which

are available in the respective reports. The highlights are as

follows:

The Education Committee's guidelines for capacity building,

programme consultations and development of regional

resource centres were posted in November. The guidelines

for the development of Regional Resources Centers have

been circulated to the Vice-Presidents for feedback. Janet

Williams, Chair of the committee is working very closely

with colleagues in Vietnam Dr. Le Thi Quy and Dr. Nguyen

Thuan as well as Dr. Yuen for the international symposium

on social work education in Hanoi in January 2014. The

symposium will precede the IASSW Board meeting.

Four International projects were selected in the June 2013

Board meeting for IASSW funding covering collaborations

between Schools in New Zealand and Australia; Schools

in Norway, Sweden and Zambia; the USA and China. The

topics cover teaching international social work using online

technology, social work dialogue in teaching and practice

research, field education and collaboration in MSW

teaching and field education.

The Research committee is in the process of preparing a

draft/discussion paper for the IASSW General Assembly

(GA) 2014 for a possible statement about importance of

research and researcher education in social work and social

work education.

The IASSW members of the Global Agenda Steering

Committee are busy putting together the Sage publication

of International Social Work Journal on the Global Agenda

and the special report to be forwarded at the 2014 World

Conference on Social Work and Social Development.

The European Association of Schools of Social Work has

set-up the Global Agenda Observatory for the European

region, while other regional associations are in the process.


10

COVERSTORY

Comunity-based Social Economy andSocio-political Development

In times when the dominating economic system is increasingly

turning against societies and their weakest members, it has

become a necessity to rearrange the relationships between

social work and economy. Under such conditions, social

work must achieve more than merely to flank the market, it

needs to create and defend complementary and alternative

structures within civil societies. The socio-political issues are

highly complex. They imply the necessity for sustainability

and social development of the global society.

Social Work and the Economy - a Troubled RelationshipSocial movements for civilian rights enforced the socio-

political conditions that protect the working population in

Western industrialised countries against the societal risks it has

been exposed for the first time in history since the beginning

of the 20th century. The laying-down of socio-political rights

and professional social work with individuals, groups and

communities that emerged in consequence were a significant

step in the evolution of societies.

Recent scientific discourse on the relationship between social

work and economy has been limited to the requirements

of creating market-driven social services and the issue of

applying instruments and standards of business management

to social and health services. A comprehensive perspective

on creation and distribution of values in societies, on

participation of society's members in societal wealth it has

created, and on the positioning of social policy and social

work in this context, is blanked out. Even where more

recent socio-political programmes talk of supporting "local

economy", this does not also imply that they have given up

the outdated segregation of economic and social aspects. In

European states, the relationship between social work and the

economic system is largely reduced to accompanying and

complementary measures of employment policy, ensuring

employability and promoting "soft locational factors";

professional actors of social development do not interpret the

mission statement of promoting "local economies" by applying

the logic of communities and the people in a community, or

by applying the requirements of sustainable development, but

by applying conventional business development criteria. And

the process of creating options for independent development

needs to be supported through the instruments of social policy

and community development.10

Prof. Dr. Susanne ElsenFree University of Bolzano, Italy

(Photo from Wikipedia)

11

Social Economy in Communities - Idea and Claim Shaping sustainable social development raises questions

about the logic behind socially integrated economic activity

geared to maintaining the capacity for social, cultural,

ecological and economic evolution. Economic activity,

seen from this perspective, needs to be considered as driven

by the requirements of individuals and communities. It is

about quality of life, about the fair distribution of the values

created, about a self-determined life and our relationship with

nature. Every project with such a claim is contradictory to

the overpowering financial interests that rule the economy

and societies, and even people's thought patterns, today.

It is about the preservation and sustainable organisation of

basics that people need in order to exist and live together in

communities.

Given a closer look, it shows that the term "community"

implies the goals, principles of coordination, and limits to this

kind of social economy:

1. The inextricable entity of use, creation, and

distribution of the material bases of life

2. Common property and the democratic use of

natural, economic and cultural resources

3. Shaping of socio-cultural life nexuses through

forms of vertical collectivisation based on

association and voluntary action

What we are seeking already exists - and has always existed

- in the shadow of the dominant economy, and it is currently

re-emerging all over the world. In the international discourse,

these approaches are drawing more public attention to

themselves as alternatives or complementary structures to

the current neo-liberal practice, which is increasingly subject

to crises. Regardless of their different forms and the different

contexts from which they have emerged, they show distinct

similarities and the attempts at conceptualising these make

it clear that they constitute real alternatives to the western

growth- and neo-liberal profit model and this is what sets

them apart from forms of management that are driven by

private capitalism.

A full examination of these potentials requires abolishing

prejudices, even within the critical left, and a serious

examination of the conditions of the success or failure of

collective economies. It is a demonstrable fact that, over

the last 150 years, it was not only the lobby of the capitalist

economy that rejected, drained or assimilated unconventional

socio-economic projects to promote self-determination and

self-government, but also the social democratic and Marxist

labour movements.

11

Self-Organisation and Socio-Political InnovationTwenty years ago, Jürgen Habermas (1985) commented as

follows on the situation of the welfare state: "In a situation

in which economic stagnation, increasing unemployment

levels and crises of public institutions can be related to the

cost of running a welfare state, the structural restrictions of

the compromise on which the welfare state is based and by

which it has been maintained can be felt” (p. 156) In such

a situation, the welfare state runs the risk of losing its social

basis, in the case that its (yet) gainfully employed contributors

turn against the claimants of its benefits, thus revoking the

welfare states' basic legitimation. If, under such conditions,

the welfare state was to lose its central reference point - labour

- it can no longer be about including this norm. The project of

a sustainable welfare state should exceed beyond introducing

guaranteed minimum wages in order to break the spell that the

employment market has cast on the life stories of all those that

are fit to work - also affecting the growing and increasingly

excluded potential of those who only stand in reserve. This

would be a revolutionary step, but not revolutionary enough.

Habermas adds that the advocates of the welfare state project

only ever looked in one direction: "The primary task was to

discipline abundant economic power and protect the life-

world of salaried employees from the destructive effects of

critical economic growth." But no attention was paid to the

legal and administrative means of implementation for the

programmes of the welfare state, which led to a practice of

individualisation of cases, levelling, and control, a practice

that separates, restricts, and supervises the claimants, forcing

them into a passive and conformist role.

Habermas emphasises that there is no alternative to preserving

the welfare state and developing it further, but this requires

a path-breaking combination of administrative power and

intelligent self-restriction in order to mitigate the destructive

effects of an interventionist state on its citizens' life-world. This

points to a formative social policy that enables and promotes

civil self-organisation. As long as social policy is "lined up as a

policy to create readiness for work, and every agenda item that

is identified arouses the institutionalised suspicion of abuse,

a change towards structural regulation means a reproduction

of the pattern of undersupply, exclusion and repression that

we are already familiar with (Cremer-Schäfer, Helga (2004):

It is true that unemployment should be the starting point for

any endeavour of socio-political reform. But unemployed or

poor people also need to be able to form a social movement

through collective self-organisation. As a matter of fact, none

of the employment policy measures that have been put into

practice in Germany since the 1970s were aimed at cooperative

April 2014 Social Dialogue

forms of self-help. These are intensely contradictory of the

systematic individualism of neo-classic economics. The social

security system of the welfare state centres on the redundant

and isolated individual. The ignorance towards approaches

of cooperative and mutual action, e.g. the foundation of

cooperatives with employment-related and social objectives,

and the fixation on individualised approaches to explaining

causes and intervention approaches are deeply rooted in the

history of the capitalist society. Solidarity and a diversity of

lifestyles and ways of utilisation are systematically rejected

and are perceived as a threat to particular interests (Altner,

Günther (2004)

Making individual provisions, taking care of oneself, and

acquiring wealth are - and always have been - highly rated.

Joint efforts to improve one's situation, on the other hand, have

never been - and are still not - desired. Instead, preventing

collective self-organisation is a recurring theme both in history

and in at present. "So long as the needy restricted themselves

to welfare work and other activities that were neutral towards

the system, such as work in friendly societies, they would

be - subject to a certain extent of supervision - tolerated.

Society-based initiatives took on a political character, though,

and now pose a threat to the existing balance of power and

ownership structure" (Wendt, Wolf Rainer (1995). The bans

on forming coalitions and on assemblies enforced in the late

18th century and in the 19th century forced such associations

to work in the underground, which, however, only increased

their internal cohesion. But today, as opposed to the former

workers' movement, there is no shared experience of

unbearable working conditions, which had previously led to

the formation of defensive movements and cooperatives for

economic self-help. This is a major problem for the growing

number of victims of the economic system, especially in

western industrialised countries, where problematic social

situations are individualised in the discourse and then

professionally worked upon. Shame and retraction are the

intended consequences of this, not the abilities required for

self-help and self-organisation (Munsch, Chantal (2003).

In western countries, socio-economic alternatives are

primarily run by organisationally skilled citizens. The

opportunities for self-help run along the demarcation lines of

social inequality, and in welfare states, the efforts in favour

of self-determined participation for disadvantaged people are

often opposed by the self-interests of those organisations that

claim themselves to be the representatives of the poor and

disadvantaged members of society.

The principles that characterise associations are the voluntary

basis on which they are formed, the solidarity between and

equal status of their members. As organisations based on

community, they can only serve to enhance freedom and

existential security in combination with social policy. The

latter provides the life management resources that individuals

can - but are not obliged to - incorporate in their action

strategies. These resources are a necessity, but the conditions

and barriers to accessing them need to be reduced.

COVERSTORY

Market place is an example for community based economy. (Photo from Community Economies)

12

(Photo from 3BL Media)

13

Social policy develops from collective attempts of coping

with social problems. When individuals who are affected by

the same conditions form associations, this generally bears

potential for political change. Today, just as it used to be in the

times of the beginning workers' movement, the capacity for

collective action is based being in the same situation together

and reflection upon it, and sharing a common interest to

change it.

This capacity is the historic legitimation of socio-political

movements, and it needs to be reactivated in view of the

current conditions of excessive capitalism and the tendency

towards the redundancy of human labour.

ConclusionEverywhere around the world, collective actors are opposing

the new economic mindset of expropriation, are defending

life's basic rights and bringing socially integrated forms

of economy to life as alternative concepts. They are part

of a new grassroots social policy, which will lead to social

change in the long run despite the strong resistance there is

to it. Today, in view of the changed conditions, all this is no

longer only about regaining political control of the powers

of market, or about protecting individuals and communities

from infringements through the market, but about developing

and maintaining forms of independent community-based

social economies as an integral part of the life-world.

Formative social policy would thus need to be based on the

following fundamental premises:

1. To protect social and ecological life interests, and

value these higher than ownership interests.

2. To enable socially productive participation by means

of self-organised activity based on commonality

and targeted at a social objective, as well as

participation in social and communication

networks across all relevant areas of society.

3. To take into account the social aspect as an integral

part of socio-economic solutions. Social problems

are not external to economy, and not be worked

upon as separate issues from economy.

4. Public spending should be organised in a pluralistic

and democratic organisations -

e.g. in multi-stakeholder enterprises - in an

effective and synergetic way.

5. Social local policy should use the available material

resources and social capital a way that is socially

productive.

6. Formative social policy should open up opportunities

for learning and experimenting with new approaches

to solving societal problems, especially in areas where

members of society are marginalised. It requires new

forms of organisations in the economic, education and

political administration systems.

7. It should be guided by the principle of a plural

economy that serves the satisfaction of human needs

and respects its ecological limitations.

8. It requires the possibility to generate resources

independently through activity in markets and

non-market economies geared at social objectives.

9. Against the backdrop of mass unemployment,

it is necessary to relieve people affected by

redundancy from the crushing fears for their existence

through providing guaranteed basic social care

13

(Photo from Sustainable Economies Law Center)


Rapoport (1968) observed that ‘both social work and art can

be conceived as instruments of social change’ (p. 144). The

‘Safe at Home’ art-based community development project

sought to revisit the transformatory potential of social work

as art (Schubert, 2012).

We have argued elsewhere that common ground was

evident between social work and community arts practice

when artists moved away from making objects and focused

on process, relationship and community (Gray & Schubert,

2010; Schubert, 2006). These commonalities are prevalent

in activism and social change (see, for example, Chandler &

Newmark, 2006; de Zegher, 1998; Lacy, 1995). While the

term socially engaged art is developing and remains porous,

essentially it refers to any ‘social interaction that proclaims

itself as art’ (Helguera, 2011, p. 1). The term social practice

is recent and signals the removal of any explicit reference to

art making (Helguera, 2011). It seems that as social workers,

influenced by constrained managerial work environments,

withdraw from activism as a mode of seeking social

change, a gap has opened and artists have stepped in (De

Bruyne & Gielen, 2011). This disciplinary blurring invites

a reconsideration of social work’s relationship to art and

social change, especially given the emerging perception that

social work and socially engaged art are interchangeable or,

at least, interrelated (Helguera, 2011).

Art celebrates uncertainty, and enables fluidity in

responding to social change. Social work’s preoccupation

with professionalism down the years has distanced it from

its potential connections with its art, though the so-called

‘Mother of social work’ Jane Addams connected with this

idea. Lydia Rapoport (1968) picked up Addams’ concern

with art, similarly linking it to social work’s ‘social purpose’

(p. 139). Rapoport (1968) reflected a broad understanding of

what art might be, drawing on the long history of exploration

FEATURES

Tilting Toward Sustainable Community Development:

The ‘Safe at Home’ Project

Mel GrayThe University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

14

Leanne SchubertThe University of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia

by philosophers, aestheticians, artists and art critics. For her,

art was ‘a process involving transformation’ (Rapoport, 1968,

pp. 141-142 emphasis added). She believed ‘the scientific

arts may be expressive of some larger social purpose’

(Rapoport, 1968, p. 142 emphasis added) hinting at art’s

socially transformative nature. Subsequent developments in

social work seeking to ground it in science missed a strong

connection between social work, art and social change.

As well, social work became embroiled in individualistic

definitions of art – in skills, relationship, meaning and so on

(Gray & Schubert, 2013). But, more recently, Weir (2009)

again signalled art’s propensity for social change via the

generation of ‘new awareness’. Applying this understanding

to violence, Weir saw the potential for art to assist in

‘bringing the violence to the surface, to the consciousness,

[which] may also aid our dealing with it’ (p. 122). She saw it

as a means to stimulate the social imagination.

Contemporary art literature on socially engaged art practices

resonate with the idea of art as a medium to stimulate the

social imagination – to envision ideas of social change. Here

art is also liminal – it is a threshold, a place of transition,

ambiguity and uncertainty – a process. Relational art sees

this liminal space as one in which people come together

in a context of intimacy, sharing and equality to engage

in mutual inquiry that brings about a sense of belonging

or community. As in social group or community work, it

is a space of unlimited possibilities for transformation

and change (La Shure, 2005). As a profession concerned

with social change, the possibility that art might lead to

transformation and change is an attractive idea for social

work, and one that has remained largely under-developed.

Against this backdrop, ‘Safe at Home’ was a multidisciplinary

arts-based community development project conducted in

Australia’s Hunter Valley during 2007-2011. The product of

a partnership between The University of Newcastle (UoN)

and Cessnock Anti Violence Network (the Network), it aimed

to raise awareness of, and challenge negative community

attitude toward, domestic and family violence (D&FV).

Conversations with community and Network members

generated ideas for potential artworks in the making of which

we sought to engage marginalised community members in

East Cessnock and give voice to their concerns. Ultimately,

the mix of artworks undertaken was contingent on the level

of funding received. The Network provided seed funding

and 13 grant applications to various funding bodies secured

a further $68,400 for the project. The following artworks

and events were created through the project:

． The cut out project (Domestic and Family Violence

– STOP! I don’t like it): This work symbolically

represented the children who had experienced D&FV

within the community.

． Posters and coasters campaign: This series of artworks

addressed community attitudes to D&FV – the posters

and coaters were distributed in licensed venues

throughout the LGA.

． Community exhibitions: Works produced during

the course of the project were made available for

exhibition, installed and temporal works documented.

． Safe Families day and activity book: This intervention

grew from the project’s growing connection with

Housing NSW who extended an invitation for Safe

at Home to take a lead role in the cut out project and

participate in a sausage sizzle at a local event.

． Art for the Park: This activity focused on connecting

with residents of the East Cessnock community,

engaging them with the project and gathering ideas

about the work to be created for the park within this

neighbourhood (See Figure 1)

． Hopscotch and Respect mosaics: These two

interventions aimed to extend our engagement

with community members in one of the statistically

more domestically dangerous neighbourhoods to

promote awareness of domestic and family violence

and its impact (Figure 2 illustrates the installation of

Hopscotch).

． Snakes and Ladders mosaic: This artwork aimed to

raise children’s awareness of domestic violence and

strengthen community networks (Figure 3 shows a

detail from this mosaic).


Though domestic and family violence was the Network’s

major concern, this issue was not raised directly by the

local residents. However, since ‘art allows you to see what

is really going on’ (Ruskin, in Crombie, 2007), this was an

ideal medium through which to engage the community

in the ‘Safe at Home’ project. The community’s concerns

centred on place-based issues. For example, residents

wanted a better path between the housing estate and local

school, to make it suitable for parents with prams and a

child in a wheelchair. Young people between the age of

14-18 wanted goal posts in the park as there was nowhere

to play football – and they inevitably ended up playing

in the street – but this was stalled by lack of support from

the local council. Many residents complained about noisy

unregistered dirt bikes and suggested speed humps, barriers

and police intervention. This was followed up with the NSW

police and led to a crackdown on unlicensed bike riders in

the area.

Many families expressed difficulties with involving their

children in organised sport and other activities due to

the associated costs. Subsequently, the Housing NSW

community development worker initiated discussions with

the local Police Citizens Youth Club for regular transport

to the estate to enable young people to take part in their

services and Youth off the Streets provided after school

activities in the neighbourhood.

There were ongoing concerns about vandalism in the

community by a particular child and family. The Housing

NSW community development worker initiated a series

of joint structured interventions with the Department of

Community Services that led to improvements in the child’s

antisocial behaviours.

The need for regular community cleanups and park

maintenance, including better management of the passes

for the local Council waste depot distributed by Housing

NSW led to negotiations with the local City Council to

support a local resident in regular park maintenance and

refuse collection.

An issue closely related to the high incidence of D&FV on

this estate was the high level of drug and alcohol use. This

was addressed directly through one of the Project’s artworks

– the Posters and Coasters campaign – to raise awareness

in licensed premises across the Cessnock local government

area (LGA).

Given the history of neglected concerns, where possible,

attempts were made to address residents’ issues either

directly through the ‘Safe at Home’ project or referral to

local agencies. The core artwork – the park installation –

was designed to strengthen community ownership of the

project. The artworks were created through a series of

workshops with community members facilitated by two

local practitioners and children were actively involved.

The permanent artworks stand as lasting reminders to the

community of the importance of being ‘Safe at Home’ and

free from violence.

16

FEATURES

Afterthoughts about the Who, What, When, Where, and

How of Arts-based Community Development

Who: We had to be clear about who constituted our

community. This project developed as a response to three

different communities: the Network, East Cessnock, and

the broader Cessnock LGA. Working across these differing

communities was complex and challenging with project

leaders constantly balancing competing needs and priorities.

Ultimately, the Network and East Cessnock community

constituted the who of the project.

What: The what was the Network’s agenda of addressing

D&FV. It led essentially to a health promotion strategy, using

art-based community development, to raise community

awareness of D&FV.

When: To achieve the goal of ‘safety at home’ required long-

term intervention beyond the time-limited ‘Safe at Home’

project. Since communities do not operate during business

hours, a perennial problem of community development

is how to support after-hours community activities – after

school, in the evening and on weekends. Hence key

activities to engage the East Cessnock community, such as

Art in the Park (see Figure 1), took place over the weekend.

Children were engaged through after-school activities and

the children’s drawings ultimately formed the main themes

of the large mosaic part installation (see Figure 2).

Where: This collaborative project required cooperation

between organisations, especially since there had been long-

standing differences of opinion as to whose responsibility

it was to maintain and improve the park in Alkira Avenue

where the pivotal artwork was installed.

How: To ensure worker safety, a buddy system was

implemented with two practitioners worked together at all

times. Besides working in partnership, shared leadership led

to a maximisation of outcomes through clear communication

and follow up of ideas, issues and concerns as they arose.

These community development action strategies were

supported by active media campaigning and were sustained

beyond the art-based agenda.

Though evaluating the impact of community development

projects, such as ‘Safe at Home’, is difficult in the short-term,

some attempt was made to assess whether these particular

arts-based interventions had any impact on community

attitudes toward DFV. For example, the posters and coasters

were found to have the greatest reach with 97.2% uptake by

the licensed premises that offered to take part in the project

(see Schubert, 2012).

Anecdotally the project was positively received on measures

of community engagement and social inclusion (Schubert &

Gray, 2013). It acted as a catalyst for action and involved

over 40 artists, community developers and social workers,

achieving benefits well beyond its stated remit of D&FV. Its

place-based focus enlivened the surrounding neighbourhood

and brought community members and children together

through the artworks. While the project was time limited,

the artworks endure to challenge the long-standing negative

reputation of the East Cessnock neighbourhood. Inclusive

community engagement, participation and recognition

of the interests of the different groups involved in the

project were essential to its success given this was a highly

process-oriented community development project (Sharp et

al., 2005). Inclusivity was ensured in a variety of ways: A

community door knock gathered a wide range of residents’

views and encouraged broader levels of participation as did

the posters and coasters campaign and cutout project. This

increased adult participation in, and the geographical reach

of, the project. These well-managed processes maximised

community ownership and empowerment (Sharp et

al., 2005). Community members came together most

successfully, at least in numerical terms, at two community

events (Schubert & Gray, 2013). A sense of community,

place, ownership and inclusion was most strongly present in

the creation of the installation works but this was primarily

with children, who were major participants in the project.

In conclusion, ‘Safe at Home’s’ arts-based community

development approach succeeded in involving community

members at all stages of the project from gathering ideas,

planning, designing and gathering further contributions of

drawings, to the final design, creation and production of the

artworks. In taking this inclusive approach, the project was

able to use arts-based community development as a vehicle

for the creation of hope that change was, indeed, possible

and achievable.


North America - Urban justiceThe Community Development Project (CDP) at the Urban Justice Center strengthens the impact of grassroots organizations in New York City’s low-income and other excluded communities. We partner with community organizations to win legal cases, publish community-driven research reports, assist with the formation of new organizations and cooperatives, and provide technical assistance in support of their work towards social justice.

Our issue areas include: ．fair housing and anti-displacement ．workers’ rights ．consumer justice ．economic development ．civic participation ．access to affordable health care ．environmental justice

Harvard Kennedy School CDPThe Community Development Project (CDP) harnesses the academic and professional resources of Harvard University to facilitate civic engagement in economic development projects in underserved communities.

The CDP Consulting Team is made up of Harvard Kennedy School students. They are diverse in race, ethnicity, and cultural heritage, and all share a vision of America as a place where everyone has a chance to succeed. They are committed to making this vision of equal opportunity a reality. Most members of the team have a personal connection to communities in the South, and some have ties to the Delta in particular. The CDP Consulting Team was drawn to Greenwood and Baptist Town, Mississippi, because of a strong belief that the residents of Greenwood and Baptist Town are in a unique position to shape their community’s future. Together, the team will design a path to a better future for Baptist Town and for the broader community of Greenwood.

ProWorld is committed to empowering communities, promoting economic development, and conserving the environment by cultivating compassionate global citizens.

ProWorld matches professionals with community projects in developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. From building cleaner-burning stoves in Peru to empowering women in Thailand, participants make a real difference in local communities. For more than 12 years, ProWorld has offered unique internship opportunities in healthcare, environment and social-economic sectors. ProWorld has also created customized overseas programs for more than 70 American and Canadian universities and colleges.

ProWorld currently offers programs in Belize, Brazil, Ghana, Peru, and Thailand.

Current opportunities include: ．Community Development - install clean-burning stoves, build ceramic water filters, or construct schools ．Environmental and Wildlife Conservation - work in a national park, assist in water conservation, or plant trees to reforest depleted ecosystems. ．Education and Teaching - work as a teacher's assistant, teach English or educate teens on current social, health and environmental issues. ．Health Care - conduct field-based clinical, public health and research programs.．Youth Programs - assist with youth sports programs, work with after-school activities or volunteer in daycare centers ProWorld Social Development Internships ProWorld internship abroad programs allow you to gain valuable professional experience as you intern at a nonprofit, NGO or other local organization. Internships are specifically designed to provide you with professional experience. Internships are diverse and fascinating opportunities for career exploration.

Internship programs, which are usually 2-6 months long, allow participants to work on more in-depth projects. Spanish-speakers can help disseminate information about Andean traditional textiles and support and collaborate with existing communities of weavers in Cusco, Peru, while English-majors can write articles on local politics and human rights issues in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Proworld Custom Group Programs ProWorld custom group programs are for groups of 10 or more and include customized length and dates, pre-trip organizational support and materials, intensive on-site orientation, coordination and funding of group or individual development projects, group or homestay living with 3 meals per day, and daily staff support and contact. In addition, ProWorld can help with curriculum development and offers weekly adventure and cultural experiences.

www.proworldvolunteers.org/custom-groups

Latin America SOS Children Charity CDPSOS Children is a global charity, and for over 60 years they have been supporting children, families and their communities to flourish. They believe every child should belong to a family and grow up with love, respect and security. Prevent children ending up alone, abandoned or in institutions through our

SomeCommunity Development Projects (CDP)

Around the World

18

community programmes which support families in need.

When children can no longer live with their family, SOS Children charity provide long-term care and a supportive family environment in an SOS Children's Village.

Eastern Europe CDP in Bosnia supported by World BankThe Community Development Project will improve basic services, and facilities for low-income, and poor communities in under-served municipalities, as well as improve the governance, and capacity of local governments, in the delivery of services, through better partnerships in investment identification, and decisions.

http://www.worldbank.org/projects/P070995/community-development-project?lang=en

Western Europe Pobal CDP in IrishPobal manages the Local and Community Development Programme (LCDP) on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The programme aims to tackle poverty and social exclusion through partnership and constructive engagement between Government and its agencies and people in disadvantaged communities. The LCDP is the outcome of the integration of the former Local Development Social Inclusion Programme (LDSIP) and the Community Development Programme. It is now delivered primarily by Local Development Companies. It has the following goals, with particular focus given to the delivery of goals 2 & 3, each of which receive approximately 40% of programme funds: Goal 1 - Promote awareness, knowledge and uptake of a wide range of statutory, voluntary and community services Goal 2 - Increase access to formal and informal educational, recreational and cultural development activities and resources Goal 3 - Increase peoples’ work readiness and employment prospectsGoal 4 - Promote active engagement with policy, practice and decision making processes on matters affecting local communities

Sub-Sahara AfricaKenya Voluntary and Community Development Project

Company Overview: Kenya Voluntary & Community Development Project is a non-political, non-racial and non-profit making registered organization under the certificate number BON/S.H./4076. The organization spans across many issues all geared towards the interventions that improve quality of life in the Kenyan communities.

Mission:Increase the participation of beneficiaries in the planning and implementation of their initiatives in poverty alleviation and development activities such as economic infrastructure, health education, water supply and sanitation, agriculture and livestock production and environmental conservation

Boma CDPThe BOMA Project is a U.S. nonprofit and registered Kenyan NGO with a proven track record, measurable results and a transformative approach to alleviating poverty and building resiliency in the arid lands of rural Africa.

OceaniaScanlon Foundation CDP in AustraliaSupporting Parents - Developing Children' in the City of Hume in VictoriaThe Huddle' Learning and Life Community Centre in North MelbourneNational Community Hubs Project

Middle East , South Asia, East Asia and Southeast AsiaReach out to Asia(ROTA) CDPROTA's mission is to extend that assistance into Asia - where it's strategic geographic location gives it a unique opportunity to support its neighboring countries as they overcome developmental difficulties. In addition, more than 60% of Qatar's own expatriate community is of Asian origin, giving ROTA added insight and understanding of the needs and cultural norms of the Asian people.

UNOPS The South-East Asian Community Access project (SEACAP) CDPThe South-East Asian Community Access project (SEACAP) is a transport initiative aimed at developing the knowledge base needed to improve the access of rural communities to social and economic opportunities.http://www.unops.org/english/whatwedo/UNOPSinaction/Pages/South-East-Asian-Community-Access-Project.aspx

UN-HABITA regional office for Asia and Pacific CDPThe United Nations Human Settlements Programme, UN-HABITAT, is the United Nations agency for human settlements. It is mandated by the UN General Assembly to promote socially and environmentally sustainable town and cities with the goal of providing adequate shelter for all.

http://www.fukuoka.unhabitat.org/projects/index_en.html


20

IntroductionThe social and solidarity economy (SSE) can be understood

as a kind of counter-culture, counter-economy, and expanded

democracy. It challenges the conventional societal and

economic system. It is rooted in democratically run companies,

and creates a totally novel understanding of the social bond

and connectedness in our society. The organisational basis for

it can be conceived as a cooperative, democratic network of

businesses and civil society organisations interested in and

willing to pursue local, socially and ecologically sustainable

development.

Operationally, such a network would have to deal with the

following type of questions:

1. How is it possible to stop the outflow of resources

from the network?

2. How is it possible to increase the inflow of

resources from outside the network?

3. How can the the network grow through internal

growth, e.g. by organizing a certain credit volume

within the federation?

4. How can economic and socio-cultural integration

be encouraged for the federation to attract outsiders

to join?

Of course, various courses of action can answer to the above

questions, depending on the SSE’s point of departure and the

social and political setting within which it is embedded.

Basically, the SSE approach can be summarized as follows:

It does not aspire to keep pace with growth driven

“industrialism” of multinationals, it rather seeks to get away

from it. It will seek more qualitative over quantitative growth.

It is more labor intensive and pays lower wages, it aims at

building communities making individuals independent of

those with concentrated privately owned capital.

It does not seek to abolish the market economy, but rather to

find relative protection from it and build resilience against its

blackmail and extortions.

It emphasises resources – not deficits – people have,

particularly in those who have been labelled as lacking

resources by traditional labor markets.

It does not seek to divide up communities but to expand them

by pooling resources for mutual use.

It aims not for a short term, but for a long-term synergetically

derived existential security for an ever increasing number of

people

Sustainable Community Development:The Social Economy Basel as Example of Social and Solidarity Economy Practice Isidor Wallimann, Maxwell School, Syracuse University

20

FEATURES

(Photo from Google)

21

The Social Economy Basel:An example of PracticeAn example of such an effort is the Social Economy Basel

www.sozialeoekonomie.ch. It saw its beginning with the

Social Economy Association (SEA) founded in 1996. With

its membership and a one member one vote system the

association strives to build a prototype of SSE. The idea

is similar to that of “biotopes” which represent attempts to

preserve bio diversity amidst and against the odds of industrial

society and agriculture damaging bio diversity. The SEA

Basel mission is to contribute to social, local and ecological

sustainability on a local and regional level. Its growth is

kept at an “organic” level so as not to depend on top down

outside funding. Human resources and funding needed for

administrative tasks and growth emanate in grassroot fashion

bottom up from “the movements”.

The Institute for Social EconomyThe SEA Basel – being the first of its kind in Switzerland –

immediately began to cooperate with other similar attempts

and likeminded organisations in Germany, France and

Luxembourg in starting the Institute for Social Economy. Some

activities were joint efforts, for others the SEA Basel was acting

alone. The purpose was to

．Inform the public about social economy and

its potential in handling present and future problems

of development

．Offer public courses and conferences on issues

pertaining to SSE

．Give interviews and offer statements on SSE to mass

media, and to encourage research and publications

concerned with SSE and its development

Social Integration for GrowthOne way to generate social integration is for the federation to

issue its own hour based currency which facilitates exchanges

between individuals within the SSE network. With very few

resources, the federation can implement an exchange and

trading center for its and outside actors. A simple market web

page or paper can for all participants list supply and demand

and, thus, summarize all exchange possibilities. All members

of the exchange and trading circle start at no cost to them

with a certain number of hours to begin exchanging. Thus,

adults and children can provide services to each other, pay

for them in hours, and even move on to paying for goods

in hours if they so wish. In such exchange circles all have a

greater range of exchanges available than would otherwise be

the case without the exchange circle. Finally, it takes but time

and some skill to participate in such exchange circles. This is

a labor time not capital based approach to enhance both SSE

growth and cohesion.

For the same purpose, currency backed alternative local

money may be issued by the federation. Alternative Money

is bought with “official” money – and can under certain rules

be exchanged back into “official” money. Using alternative

money can be made more or less compulsory for firms and

indivduals within the federation. If desired, individuals and

firms outside the federation may also be encouraged to

participate. Participation may also be promoted by selling the

alternative currency at a discount given certain conditions are

met. As alternative money circulates, some of the “official”

money with which alternative money was bought can be

invested in the SSE network and, thus, is a form of credit.

In this sense, all who purchase and use alternative money

also promote the SSE at no cost to them. As with the hour

based currency, the “official money” backed currency, too,

contributes to SSE cohesion and growth.

(Photo from Google)

Sozialoekonomie website.(Photo from Schweizerischer Konsumenten Verband)


22

Over the years, the network cooperative and/or the social

economy association have provided collateral coverage for

network members, grant loans and microloans to them, start

small new for profit businesses, and not for profit movement

organisations. The latter often have a food policy and urban

agriculture focus www.urbanagriculturebasel.ch . Investments

have been made in neighborhood solar energy plant run by

one network member. Social cohesion and SSE development

is enhanced by a newsletter, the SSE fair, time based exchange

circles and a Swiss Franc backed alternative currency.

Alternative Currencies of theSocial Economy NetworkTo enhance social cohesion and give marginalized individuals

an instrument for social integration and fringe income, a LETS

type time based exchange system was started in 2000, then

another one in 2005. Both operated well but were dissolved

after about 2 years because too many participants had life

circumstances changed.

In 2002 the Swiss Franc backed alternative currency BNB

(GoodNetworkVoucher) was launched. In a pilot phase it

was first tried only among members of the Social Economy

Network Cooperative. Subsequently, it went public in 2005

to include individuals, businesses and NGOs outside the

coop network. Some 120 firms and non profit organisations

presently accept the BNB. In so doing they receive free

publicity. Participation is free of cost. The BNB is valid for

3 years, when bills in circulation can be exchanged free of

charge for the new series. There is no penalty when BNBs

do not circulate within a given time. All circulation is based

on ideational movement energy and cooperation. Due

to cooperation with the neighboring social economy in

Mulhouse (France), the BNB can be exchanged against the

French SOL – and inverse – being used in the Alsace social

economy network.

The BNB can be bought by anybody with Swiss Francs.

Members of the network coop and their membership may

purchase the BNB at a discount of ten percent. The BNB can

be exchanged back into Swiss Francs at a small loss to cover

expenses. Swiss Francs not needed for liquidity are used for

loans to network coop members, or is invested in renewable

local energy production. To further stimulate the social

economy, loans are/can be made in BNBs or be paid back in

BNBs. Loans made are usually interest free.

The Social EconomyNetwork CooperativeIn 1998 when SEA founded the Social Economy Network

Cooperative starting with already existing worker self managed

firms and civil society movent organisations. Membership is

open only for organisations. Each network coop member has

one vote irrespective of its size. Organisations with various

legal forms are accepted as long as statues guarantee the one

member one vote principle, and that members may decide

over employment practices and the use of surpluses. For

profit or not for profit organisations may be federation coop

members. As a result, the network cooperative is composed

of a combination of commercial and civil society. Especially

the latter are grounded in new social movements such as the

social justice, the environmental and the women’s movement.

The network cooperative also considers civil society

organisations as socially necessary producers of public goods

– mostly information, education, politics and culture. In Basel,

therefore, they are part and parcel of the SSE even though the

value of their production – though real and socially necessary

– cannot not be monetized, as is true for other public goods.

In terms of growth the Social Economy Basel and its network

coop is kept in an organic growth pattern that does not depend

on outside funding.

The Social Economy Network Cooperative aims to:

．Enhance the social, economic and political cohesion

among network members

．Build a local platform for moving towards local, social

and ecological sustainability, and to politically mobilize

social,economic and political forces towards this goal

．Promote the exchange of goods and services among

members of the network

．Promote the exchange of goods and services between

the network and firms, organistions and individuals

outsite the network

．Locate new markets and social movement spaces

and to establish new businesses and civil society

organizations

．Organize collateral guarantees for bank loans to

federation members

．Make micro loans for federation members, small coop

start up businesses and new civil society organisations

．Engage in sustainability enhancing investments

．Issue alternative currencies

22

BNB BonNetzBon (Goodnetwrok Voucher)

FEATURES

23

Concluding RemarksNot all political systems have civil society well developed.

As a result, it can be expected that new social movements,

too, are not as prevalent in such societies. Equally, the coop

movement and tradition may not have had much traction

in some societies and economies. Furthermore, sustainable

local development may be an objective for rural areas – not

for a small urban space as is the case for the Social Economy

Basel. Typically, new social movements have a lower density

in rural compared to urban spaces. Alternatively, cities might

be huge metropolitan spaces. In such situations, SSE might

follow a “Plan-B”, a modified local chambre of commerce

approach. Under “Plan-B”, a network coop could nevertheless

be envisioned for various small local businesses and NGOs

intent to move towards sustainable social and ecological

development on the local or regional level. The same could

also be conceived as a possibility for a segment or sector

of a metropolitan area (somewhat like the neighborhood

housing construction and habitat coops in 19th and early

20th Century European Cities). Nationally or internationally

mobile companies would be excluded from membership in

the network cooperative for reasons articulated above. Many

SSE guidelines and strategies outlined above would still hold,

however. Their operationalization and application would

follow a similar pattern, though some different outcomes,

uncertainties or risks might have to be considered.

One goal is to make self produced energy units backing

the BNB and move away from Swiss Francs as the currency

backing the BNB. Another goal is to combine the BNBhours

exchange system with the Swiss Franc backed BNB. This

would allow for a very low level entry path into the the social

economy Basel exchange system. I would require only time

and skills, no financial resources, and provide participants

with the option of exchangeing BNBhours for Franc backed

BNBs leading to a wide range of products and services

commonly not available for a BNBhours exchange circle.

The Surplus Value theAlternative Currency BNBGiven the Social Economy Basel system as it is conceived and

practiced, the BNB has a significant surplus value. The BNB

．Is locally and democratically controlled money

．Does not leave town or the region

．Cannot be used for speculation

．Helps in fighting undesirable global competition

．Connects people interested in promoting local

development for sustainability

．Provides identity for those interested in local

development towards sustainability, and allows them to

display this identity

．Serves as a general symbol for local development and

the transition towards sustainability

．Strengthens social movement energy for local

development towards sustainability

．Supports local business and NGOs ideationally and

commercially as they support local development

towards sustainability

．Can consciously be spent in support of Social Economy

Basel efforts to bring about sustainability

．Generates funds for loans to federation NGOs

and businesses working for local development towards

sustainability

．Generates funds for new start up federation NGOs

and businesses working for local development towards

sustainability

．Generates funds for investments in local renewable

federation coop energy production

．Entails and teaches an alternative understanding of the

nature and role of money

．Stands for an economy embedded in society, not for a

society dominated by the economy

23

BNB BonNetzBon (Goodnetwrok Voucher)(Photo from Polymer Bank Botes of the World)


and friendship. Ultimately, it was intended that students

developed a sense of democratic participation, an active

belief in the person’s and community’s abilities and in the

positive contribution of working collaboratively.

Presenting InProjectThe InProject is the designation of a community intervention

project developed by a group of students of the 1st study

cycle in Social Work along with the professors Helena

Neves Almeida and Joana Guerra under the curricular unit

of Planning and Project Management. This project was

linked to the first Festival of Social Crochet, under the Plan

for Equality and Citizenship of the City Hall of Coimbra,

Portugal in partnership with the Observatory on Citizenship

and Social Intervention (OCIS - Observatório da Cidadania e

Intervenção Social), established in the Faculty of Psychology

and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra.

The primary goal was to create a real opportunity for students to

voluntarily participate in a project of community intervention

with features that are not usually under the paradigms of

current public social policies. That is, it was intended to

participate in the design and implementation of an innovative

project and promoter of social change, in order to solve a

problem or an existing social need, experimenting new forms

of association and building partnerships in the community

where they exist. This was a methodological challenge because

the core promoter of this project was to build empowering

relationships and new support networks that acknowledge

nonmaterial resources like creativity, commitment, affection

InProject: A Collaborative Interventionin the Urban Community of Coimbra (Portugal)Helena Neves Almeida, Joana Guerra

24

FEATURES

InProject team: students, professors, residents and traders of the intervened street with the local government officials and Faculty’s Dean. (Photo from InProject (From author))

"Fernandes Tomás” street after InProject(Photo from InProject (From author))

"Fernandes Tomás” street after

InProject (Photo from InProject

(From author))

InProject: A Collaborative Interventionin the Urban Community of Coimbra (Portugal)

Ties Binding the Project:The Starting PointStarting from a reflection on the current problems and needs of

the portuguese society, InProject team felt strongly motivated

to address the problem of aging, and specially draw its

attention to social isolation of seniors living in urban contexts.

The phenomenon of aging as a social phenomenon went

beyond the private sphere of the family and became a complex

and multidimensional challenge that concerns the whole

society. The care for the elders, most often based on family,

cannot only be framed in the implicit family love, because

many times these ties do not exist or are fragile or careless.

The seat of the attention to the elderly is responsibility of all

and for all.

Be old or older does not mean belonging to a homogenous

group with standardized attributes and needs. It must be

recognized the differences and have them as a starting point

because to get old alone is not the same to get old in the

family, or is not the same to age in rural or urban contexts,

or is not the same to get old isolated or surrounded by

neighbors, is not the same to get old at our own home or in

an institutional environment or is not the same to age with a

sufficient retirement or to live with low benefits, it is not the

same to age in a community that cares and involves or in a

community that segregates and excludes.

Being a senior is to belong to a very heterogeneous group

whose common denominator is age. And it is important to

make sure that is advantageous to prepare this natural phase

of life in order to ensure that it is experienced in a positive way.

The components that make old age triumphant are health,

functional ability, good cognitive and physical functioning and

a high commitment to life through interpersonal relationships

and active participation in society. Participating in activities

that involve interaction with different generations allows the

exchange of knowledge and the rediscovery of skills and

capabilities that are no longer so present in everyday life.

So, InProject supported active aging through fundamental

principles like intergenerational solidarity, democratic

participation and affective relationships between

people and the place where they move and live. To place

these principles in motion, InProject developed a plan of

action which ensured a strategy based on activating personal

resources and creating alliances. To do so, and recalling

the general framework of InProject which is the 1st Festival

of Social Crochet, we forged alliances among seniors,

neighbors, traders and local government in order to plan

an artistic intervention in the street. Just like an open sky

gallery. Students and seniors conceived this intervention with

umbrellas made in crochet. The idea was to suspend them

in a street to symbolize the act of “protecting” the seniors

from social isolation, even when they live in central and busy

geographical areas. So the first activity was to study better the

features of the chosen street. “Fernandes Tomás” is the oldest

street of the town and over the years has decreased its young

resident population and increased the number of the elders

residing alone. It was a good field to work

The Process of Activating ResourcesWe contacted with dwellers and traders of this street to propose

the placement of umbrellas. They had a great response to this

challenge. And together we had a common goal: by the 4th

of July (Coimbra’s Holiday), the street where they live and

work would be transformed into a special art place. Students,

residents of the street, traders, local government align efforts

to make this activity come true. To support the production

of fifty umbrellas made with crochet art we created distinct

activities: brief lectures to publicize the project to the student’s

community, with the consequent request for umbrellas; we’ve

made one intergenerational workshop to learn how to do

crochet and one seminar to present the project to the entire

community. At the same time we visited and talked

to people of the street many times. Everybody shared

knowledge and experiences of life.

25



Ending with SuccessThe umbrellas were designed by each person who

wanted to participate. We had the collaboration of social

work students and teachers, friends, families and senior

residents of Fernandes Tomás street. And, on the 3rd of

July, InProject collaborators participated in the setting of

the exhibition in order to be inaugurated in the next day

by the Mayor and Faculty’s Dean. The exhibition was

composed by fifty four umbrellas and remained in the

street until August 31 in accordance to the timetable of

the 1st Festival of Social Crochet. Residents and traders

became cicerone’s exposure, explaining to tourists and passers

the symbolism of the umbrellas. The street became busy, the

windows more often occupied with lively conversations and

cafes became busiest.

The media, through newspapers and television programs,

blogs of tourism, gastronomy, photography blossomed one of

the oldest streets of the city and used it as a reference that

shouldn ́t be missed during the summer of 2013.

The umbrellas made with crochet produce cheerful, colorful

and artistic effects which translate moments of sharing and

warmth created by people of different generations involved

in this initiative. Everybody contributed to transform a

commonplace into a special symbol of intergenerational

solidarity. Residents, costumers, tourist, passers-by circulated

through a street that normally was not part of their way or

usual tourist track or path.

26

FEATURES

Results of the intergenerational workshops

(Photo from InProject (From author))



Final ThoughtsThe inherent creative attitude in designing innovative solutions

in social intervention constitutes a procedural guideline

reference to participatory methodologies. In this context,

the term "bricolage" becomes the keystone. It translates

the knowledge of weaving social ties, the art of composing

the leads that are given as non-existent or ruptured, using

relationships of proximity with the actors involved in the

social abb. It consist of taking advantage of opportunities

of the environment and of the human and social resources,

combining them persistently and continuously "everything is

possible" in the action; to assess the constraints it focuses on

the power of communication, the value of solidarity and the

goals that guide the construction of hope.

Following this logic, the resources, in its instrumental

dimension, are subordinated to the goals and are no more than

integrated elements of a participatory intervention strategy -

its individual and collective dimensions intersect without loss

of identity. Each person, each individual context is worthy

and doesn’t dilute in the geographical, social, economical

and cultural collective, but also cannot turn off the context in

which the inter-societal relations express themselves and gain

meaning. In a participatory logic, there’re no absurd ideas.

Ideas are its “feed” because they allow to explore senses, to

evaluate opportunities and constraints, to cruise information,

to share knowledge and to create synergies to social

alternatives. The InProject is an example of operationalization

of this concept and how an idea evolves and changes into a

project. A team of young students, available to think of an

unstructured idea and give it some sense, took the challenge

and went to the field to confront and to build their skills in

relation to the others: the population, the political, economic

and social actors. The team discovered the power of word,

teamwork and networking, the potential of participatory

methodologies. From the experience excels the value of

individual and collective motivation in training processes.

Without it all paths become difficult and sometimes painful.

It was possible to revert the data to the community in a

public meeting with the desideratum to provide the necessary

visibility of this initiative and contribute to the assessment of

the impact on people's and community’s lives, integrating

InProject into the roadmap of best practices about teaching

and learning through the articulation between the University

and the surrounding community. One of the products of this

activity was a video about the experience developed, referred

to the European Association of Schools of Social Work that

this College (FPCEUC) is a member. It was worth the

challenge and the entire path followed and performed with

and for all.

27




28

Social Enterprising in Ukraine: quo vadis?’The article will address the specific features of social enterprising in Ukraine, as well as provide an in-depth into local social enterprises’ activities. Some considerations will be provided re: the training needs of local social work

academics to enhance their curriculum with social enterprising.

How it Started During last decades social entrepreneurship (SE) as a

component of social development social work (Midgley

& Conley, 2010) has become an important force in solving

social issues, elimination of disproportions between social

and economic development and achieving of sustainable

development in different countries. Development of this new

model of business becomes especially relevant in Ukraine,

as it is a relatively young independent state (until 1991 it was

a part of USSR) and it is yet at the stage of forming pervasive

and efficient market economy, legislative base, as well as

civil society institutes. In such socioeconomic situation

many citizens are unprotected while facing global and local

challenges. Thus it is very important to find and implement

new efficient forms and methods to address emerging social

issues (namely, unemployment, low level of living and others)

like SE.

In fact, all the enterprises by the organizations of disabled

people (with deaf impairments, blind and others) which

have been working in Ukraine since 1991, according to the

National Law ‘On the Basics of Social Protection of Invalids

in Ukraine’ could be considered social ones. Additionally,

civic society organizations, caring about diversification of

the profits sources, used to create commercial projects or to

become the founders of commercial organizations which,

in their turn, transferred part of the profits to the founder.

However, the phrase ‘social enterprise’ was not used in fact.

Since 1994 the main providers of the SE concept in Ukraine

were donor organizations, international projects and foreign

funds which suggested Ukrainian non-profit organizations

to apply basic principles of SE as one of the tools of their

financial stability. Thus, since that social entrepreneurship has

been considered in Ukraine as an entrepreneurship of not-

28

National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy

Tetyana Semigina(Ph.D, MSW)

Professor of the School of Social Work, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla

Academy (Ukraine)Email: [email protected]

Vasyl Nazaruk(MA)

Director of the All – Ukrainian Resource

Centre for Social Enterprise Development ‘Social

Initiatives’Email: [email protected]

Oksana Boyko(MSW)

Seniour Lecturer, School of Social Work, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla

Academy (Ukraine), Email: [email protected]

FEATURES

The Centre covers the following four main areas of activities:

1) analytic (research of social enterprising in Ukraine and

abroad; exploring the best SE practices; analysis of financing

and training opportunities for SE); 2) information (creating

and maintaining the web portal on SE; disseminating the

studies and educating on SE; holding regularly the national

forum for Ukrainian SE); 3) education and training (trainings

and workshops, consultations and advice for SE; practice

placements for students at SE; e-training via web portal);

4) cooperation (promoting SE amongst all the stakeholders;

legal initiatives; support developing draft national strategy for

SE development in Ukraine; international projects).

The special webplatform was created for the Resource Centre

‘Social Initiatives’ – ‘Social Entrepreneurship in Ukraine’

(http://www.socialbusiness.in.ua/). The first in Ukraine

electronic database on social enterprises is places at this web

platform along with the updates on social enterprising

in Ukraine and relevant best practices. The first attempt was

made by the Centre to collect data on SE in Ukraine and

on training opportunities – below there are published by it

resource guides.

The Current Profile ofSocial Enterprises in UkraineTo analyze the situation with the SE in Ukraine and to

disseminate the best practices within the country, in early

2013 there was the study conducted by the School of Social

Work of the National University ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’ and

the All-Ukrainian Resource Centre for Social Entrepreneurship

Development ‘Social Initiatives’. The study was held within

the frames of the Social Enterprise Development Project by

the Consortium support.

The core criteria for respondents’ selection was availability

of the social enterprise features, non-dependently of

the sizes of enterprise. Firstly, the activity should be

profitable independently of the area and type of the

organization activities (production or services). Secondly,

the enterprise should have identified social aims which

should be documented. Finally, democratic governance and

reinvestment of profit into enhancement of activities and\or

on achieving identified social goals should be present.

Contact details of social enterprises were provided by the All-

Ukrainian Resource Centre for Social Enterprise Development

‘Social Initiatives’, some of the contact details were taken

from the open sources. In total, 41 social enterprises from

12 regions of Ukraine returned the filled in questionnaires.

Though, these are not all the social enterprises of Ukraine,

however, based on this small sample, some general features

of local social entrepreneurship might be analyzed.

2929

for-profit organization which profit is used for implementing

organization mission statement or statute goals.

SE in Ukraine started its development on a system base (i.e.,

as a certain form of business) since 2004, when the UCAN

program conducted a range of trainings and provided grants

to civic organizations to establish social enterprises. Then

the British Council hold an initiative in Ukraine in 2010

and successfully transferred its best experience of social

enterprising. As the follow-up, it has created the Consortium

‘Social Enterprise Development’ which included itself, East

Europe Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers in Ukraine,

International Renaissance Foundation (and Erste Bank. The

above consortium has implemented the international program

on training and experience exchange in this area, supported

establishing four social enterprising resource centres in

different regions of Ukraine, provided grants and soft loans to

social enterprises.

In February 2013 East Europe Fuundation and DTEK (the

privately-owned energy company) have launched the new

social project aimed to created local economic development

agencies in four oblasts and to disburse costs for social

enterprises establishment and development. The activities

would promote small business development and increasing

the number of workplaces for vulnerable layers of population.

In Ukraine the notion and the core of SE itself have not

been legalized yet. In some normative documents only few

issues are mentioned related to SE. Use of the term ‘social

entrepreneurship’ is purely tied up with donor programs.

Currently the first steps are made to initiate its legalization in

Ukraine. Thus, in April 2013 there was a draft Law submitted

‘On Social Enterprises’ to Parliament of Ukraine, but it was

rejected due to the large number of significant comments to

be considered.

The All–Ukrainian Resource CentreTo promote SE development in Ukraine, there has been the

All-Ukrainian Resource Centre established at the base of

the School of Social Work of National University of Kyiv-

Mohyla Academy (SSW UKMA) in September 2012. The

School provides permanent support to it with the staff,

students, volunteers to ensure its enhanced activities and

wide coverage of different stakeholders. The project itself has

been implemented in cooperation with the civic organization

‘Youth Centre on Social Sphere Transformation Issues ‘Socium-

XXI’ established in 1998 by the graduates and lecturers of the

SSW UKMA. Creating the Resource Centre was financially

supported by the International Renaissance Foundation and

East Europe Foundation.

National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy


30

financing social enterprises are their own investments (41%),

credits (20%), grants (15%), civic organizations (14%), other

resources (12%) – costs from the budgets (public and local

budgets, charity, donations).

There have been the challenges analyzed faced by Ukrainian

social enterprises the most frequently. Firstly, this is the lack

of resources, mainly financial ones. Secondly, high and unfair

competition with commercial organizations, as due to the

lack of the SE notion in the local legislation, 54% of the SE

has to compete with local business organizations. However,

another 46% does not feel the competition as the services

they provide are unique and specific, thus the competition

is low or almost lacking. Thirdly, lack of the notion of social

entrepreneurship in national legislation results into difficulties

with the tax administration system and facing permanently the

lack of loans at privilege conditions. As principally important,

the difficulties are mentioned with the local authorities

support and community support, as well as low community

awareness on social entrepreneurship which results into the

lack of knowledge of the SE status and its core ideas. Another

challenge identified was corruption while purchasing services

by public structures. One of the core challenges were local

authorities support and community support due to the low

awareness of the SE status and its idea.

Introducing Social Entrepreneurship into Academic Setting Having noted the growing interest to education on SE issues

across the different stakeholders in Ukraine, the School

of Social Work of the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla

Academy in cooperation with the All-Ukrainian Centre for

Social Entrepreneurship Development ‘Social Initiatives’

initiated discussion in academic environment on possible

ways for introducing social entrepreneurship in higher

educational institutions of Ukraine.

The initiative was supported by the British Council in Ukraine,

and the two days workshop ‘Teaching social entrepreneurship

in higher educational institutions’ specifically for academic

audience was held by Frier Spreckley (UK) on February 26,

2013. At the end of the workshop the focus group was held at

the School of Social Work of the National University of Kyiv-

Mohyla Academy, by its staff to identify possible options for

introducing SE into the Ukrainian academic setting.

The 14 participants – lecturers from higher educational

institutions – interested in SEand committed to its development

in Ukraine, specifically, in academic setting, were the focus

group participants.

While in-depth analyzing of the data presented, it should be

mentioned that the enterprises engaged into production, cover

the following areas of activities: souvenir production, light

industry (clothes sewing), producing juice and agriculture

products, development and design of devices and tools for

special group of clients (for blind and deaf people), producing

food. Such social enterprises mention as a commercial

component selling goods at the market. Social goals of

enterprises engaged into production of goods include work

with such groups of people like disabled persons, women

and children – home abuse survivors, children-orphans,

pensioners, children-graduates of boarding schools. But

for clearly identified groups, social goal of such enterprises

include alcohol and drug abuse prevention amongst youth,

creating workplaces for people who need social rehabilitation,

planning and organization of public services and enhancing

the cultural level of the community.

Those enterprises dealing with service provision are engaged

into the following areas: education and personal development,

micro financing, hippotherapy, selling second hand clothes,

consultations, sport clubs and sections for children activities,

mass media, nursery and non-school education, tourism,

active leisure, polygraphy, marketing activities, health care,

furniture repair, medicine care, graphic design, selling

decorative and applied arts products, tire repair service.

While speaking about the sizes of Ukrainian social enterprises,

local enterprises are quite similar to the foreign ones – almost

all social enterprises which participated in the study are small

as an average number of staff at the social enterprise does not

exceed three persons.

In terms of governance democracy at the Ukrainian

social enterprises, specifically, making decision on profit

redistribution, though at most social enterprises this decision

is made collectively (66%), one third of the social enterprises

which are mainly limited liability companies (LLC) or

physical person – entrepreneur have non-democratic model

of making decisions, decisions are made by one person at

such enterprises.

For the SE successful activities there is a need for the local

authorities support. The study evidenced that larger part of

social enterprises feels the support from the authorities –

like support in funding the projects, assistance in providing

benefits for the facilities rent, advertisement areas and others.

In terms of community support – most social enterprises (78%)

feel the community support, especially in those cases when

the community is aware of the enterprise social goals (27%).

While analyzing the main sources of SE financing, due to

the lack of governmental support, the most popular form of

30

FEATURES

3131

are supported by international donors and implemented in

relevant projects, via resource centres created.

The study held in 2013 by the Resource Centre in cooperation

with the SSW UKMA, evidenced that, due to the lack of legal

notion of SE, social enterprises act in different organizational-

legal forms in Ukraine. The most popular form is the SE

activities at the base of civic organization in cooperation with

the physical person-entrepreneur, as well as exclusively at the

base of civic organization. Social goals of enterprises engaged

into production of goods and other activities may include

work with such groups of people like disabled persons,

women and children – home abuse survivors, children-

orphans, pensioners, children-graduates of boarding schools.

Training on SE issues is at its beginning development stage

in Ukraine. It’s mainly related to absence of legal base,

lack of common agreement on what SE is in Ukrainian

context, lack of qualified trainers /lecturers and developed

courses (academic and non-academic), as well as to the low

community awareness.

However, activities of civic organizations promoting SE

ideas, collecting and disseminating data and best practices,

conducting training and workshops for all those willing to

establish SE; the first initiatives of Ukrainian academic staff

on exploring the content and format of SE education across

the world and on initiating introducing special courses/

theme blocks in higher educational settings; development

of resource centres and other evidence that there is a great

potential in Ukraine for active development of training and

education for social entrepreneurs.

In most cases it would be difficult to introduce SE into

academic activities as a separate discipline/course, however,

it might be an optional course for students (preferably for

Master Degree students), as it is very difficult to change the list

of mandatory disciplines in the curriculum. When speaking

about social workers, it should be taken into account that their

education standards are not approved yet. Thus it is possible

to advocate the issues of introducing the SE course into the

education program for social workers.

The most realistic perspective for most of the participants was

introducing SE as a theme block/module of existing course/

discipline - as this would not require formal approval by the

management of higher educational institutions

It would be easy to introduce it as an optional course as this

would require making changes into existing curriculum and

programs. This would enable organizing mixed groups of

students from different faculties and specialties (managers,

social workers, sociologists, marketing specialists, economists

etc.). Their specific knowledge in their own areas would

assist better implementation of projects, making practice

assignments, as the very issue of social entrepreneurship is

interdisciplinary itself. In such format it would be possible

to involve practitioners and actual social entrepreneurs into

teaching.

The other suggestions were the following: as topics for the

course papers, BA and MA diploma papers, students’ papers

submitted for academic competitions; as a training course in

the centres for advancing qualification or as a direction for

postgraduate education; within the framework of activities of

the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, other organizations.

Ukrainian lecturers listed a range of needs they feel to enable

introducing SE into their academic settings, namely: relevant

literature and– materials supported by practice; educating

them on SE theory and interdisciplinary issues; preparing social

environment to teaching new topics, including informing the

management of higher educational institutions; involving

local community of social entrepreneurs into disseminating

information on SE in mass media, at different events;

presenting local best practices of SE to wide community.

ConclusionsFor Ukraine the SE is a new and under-studied issue.

Implementing social functions, social services provision by

commercial structures or small production at the base of social

organizations (namely, those issues which are understood as

SE) in Ukraine is not welcome by the state very much and is

not supported by current legal base. Whereas the SE ideas

Kiev City, Ukraine


32

Who Benefits fromCommunity Development?Johannes Bertelsen and Rikke PosborgJohs Bertelsen: University of Copenhagen, European Litterature, mag.art.

Rikke Posborg: Social worker from School of Social Work in Copenhagen. Has edited and published several articles and books

within the social work and policy area.

Students Settlement, where we have both been employees for a longer period.

Christian Students Settlement (here after the Settlement) was established in 1911, influenced by an English model- Toynbee Hall in East London established in 1884. Toynbee Hall was neither concerned with providing emergency assistance in the shape of clothing and food, nor to inculcate the poor with a moral lifestyle. Samuel August Barnett, the founder of Toynbee Hall, rather engaged university students to work with the local communities. They were to live at the settlement and initiate various social and cultural events for the inhabitants in the poor quarters. The students would gain knowledge of the life in the quarters and the poor would be educated. These were two conditions that in the long run could benefit society.

The Settlement tried to implement this English concept in the district of Vesterbro, one of Copenhagen's working-class neighborhoods with a population of approx. 80,000 people. The founders were clergy, academics and the staff was voluntary students who were invited to stay in the settlement while they participated in outreach social work, mainly meeting the district's children and elderly. Later, the families and the educational work in the broad sense became an important objective of the work of the Settlement.

In Denmark, community work has been part of social action and social work since the end of the 19th century. For many years it was not the authorities but private philanthropic, often Christian organizations who took the initiative to develop an important charity work in the cities' poor working-class neighborhoods. Community work at the time was not designed as an educational tool, but consisted mainly of quite elementary relief assistance which aimed to alleviate poverty from the worst consequences in terms of lack of housing, food and clothing. Only 100 years later in the 1970s , in the light of inspiration from English social workers, Danish social workers began to develop actual teaching methods for community work and development. At this time the society changed radically from a very class divided industrial and rural society into a modern welfare state with equal democratic and educational opportunities for all citizens. This development, based on a very rapid technical and economic development, not only meant new opportunities for education and prosperity for every citizen but it also meant the risk some citizens or communities being lost in the rapid development and end up being marginalized without the opportunity to benefit from this development.

Christian Students SettlementIn the following, we give an example of this development through a description of the private organization Christian

32

Copenhagen, DenmarkVesterbro , where the Christian Student Settlement tried to implement this English concept of Toynbee Hall.

FEATURES

33

Listening to stories like the above case, the Settlement decided to take a broader approach to the problem. This action was called “Housing Action of Vesterbro”. Its aim was to convince the municipality to engage in renovation of some of the oldest blocks in the neighborhood and in other equivalent slum areas of Copenhagen. The Housing Action was build on the direct experiences from the living conditions for thousands of children and young people in the overcrowded, dark and damp flats in the streets of Vesterbro. The action for better housing was a specific fight against poor living structures and was as such aimed to help a whole neighborhood to better living standards. But the Housing Action did not enjoy a broader engagement from the working class people of the neighborhood. On the other hand the Housing Action was supported by a broader range of middle class people all over Copenhagen. Even though the whole community was no fully supportive, the Settlement’s engagement and leadership in the fight for better housing led to a stronger identity as a social political advocative organization, on the top of the everyday work with clubs and communities for children and families. As a consequence of the project The Settlement added community development to its portfolio.

New Times - New Identities 2Danish society was characterized by powerful technological and economic development in the second half of the 20th century. This also helped to change people’s lives socially and culturally. Production conditions changed, and so did the jobs which had hitherto been linked to the old industrial society. There was an overall increase in welfare with new opportunities to participate in community life both educationally and to participate in democracy. For working class people and the working class neighborhoods, this was both an opportunity and a challenge. Women’s increased participation, employment and educational opportunities especially was difficult for the male-dominated working class culture as women found new ways of learning and of participation.

The development was characterized by two different currents. For the strong and well-educated, especially women, the development meant emancipation and new opportunities. For the weak citizens without education and work, often men, the new times led to loss from well known social and cultural norms and previous work artisan work. Possessing skills no longer needed in the newly emerging workforce meant that these citizens became marginalized and unemployed. This situation presented new challenges for community work. Earlier you had been able to relate to a rather homogeneous audience in the form of a clear working class culture with clear standards and rules. Now you would have to deal with more individualized communities with no given standards

New Times - New Identities 1As mentioned, the teaching methodology for community work or community development was not yet fully developed, so the group was finding its way in this type of engagement with the local communities. The target was a working class population who had emigrated from the provinces in need of basic social support to their daily lives and in need of information and education so that they could establish themselves with an independent identity and an understanding of their new role as working in a big city. Community work based on voluntary students, was a meeting between two different classes of society, academics and workers, but it was also a challenge for the Settlement as to how the organization should position itself in this meeting and with subsequent interactions.Would the development of society and thus also the local community go through service of Christianity? Or should the Christians and academics show solidarity with the working class and the socialist movement, who had great influence in the working class neighborhoods in the early 20th century. Because of the very poor living conditions of the workers, both in terms of economics, housing and working conditions, it became quickly clear to both management and staff of the Settlement that efforts should focus on the material living conditions. The idea of giving the community an ethical and moral boost was it was agreed completely dependent on a tangible boost of workers' material situation.

Until the end of the 1950s community work of the Settlement consisted of a combination of social assistance and support to working families internally in the community and an externally fight - in the medias and in political meetings and conferences – to get the public authorities to have attention in the poor living conditions that characterized the working class neighborhoods.

An example of this was Vesterbro Housing Action.

The Housing-Action in the 1950sBack in the 1950s words like ‘tied to condemned houses’, ‘slum’ and ‘overpopulated apartments’ were everyday words that described the housing situation in Vesterbro with severe social and health problems in the everyday life of the children as well of the adults in the community.

Many births in a family could be a burden for the elder children in a family. One worker tells how it became her duty to take a stillborn baby to the graveyard and how, after the mother had given birth to 11 children, an older brother got angry with their father asking why he did not to care to use protection. They slept 6 children in a tiny and crowded room. The family had for many years lived in different small flats in Vesterbro with limited heating (Fris Laneth 2011).


34

An Interpretation and Understanding TaskHere the project staff creates the in-depth interpretation and understanding of local social and cultural situation. A little schematic analysis can be done on 4 levels:

a) Mapping of objective living conditionsb) Knowledge of reactions and handling conditionsc) Insight into local culturesd) Understanding the impact on the subjective level

The interpretation level is very important to develop a learning process that provides security for the individual participant.

A Dissemination and Communication TaskBased on the analytical work there is an important communication and dissemination task for the project manager. In this process you have to deal with important motivational and learning work, bonding internally in the community and an important bridge building outwardly towards the rest of society.

Creation of New Practical ContextsHelping citizens to move from non-simultaneity of concurrency is a step by step process that requires the possibility that individuals may move at a pace similar to the citizen's resources and psychosocial situation. It is therefore important that at a practical level we work towards creating employment and community opportunities that meet the individual's situation.

Due to the development of society as mentioned Vesterbro had ended up in a marginalized situation. Almost all shops in the neighborhood side streets by now had closed down. As an educational tool to help people for a stepwise approach to the regular labor market we therefore decided to take over the closed shops in a street and to furnish them with purpose, which partly could provide new facilities for the community and also could create new learning and jobs for the unemployed citizens.

and where there was a further marginalization as a result of the exit of the more resourceful citizens to other parts of the city.

Everyday EducationOne can also say that the community was overtaken by events and the time and that the remaining citizens therefore came to base their social and cultural life of non-simultaneity living conditions.

The immediate symptom of the new situation of the community was that more and more citizens were unemployed and a spread of a general despondency.

From being a neighborhood with local pride and strong community norms, the neighborhood was now marked by abandonment and behavioral problems especially among the youth in the form of alcohol and drug abuse and crime. We therefore considered that there was a need for a broader effort that could help people to catch up with and become familiar with the society they, due to lack of resources, had been disconnected from.

We could see that it was not enough to qualify citizens educationally to meet society's educational requirements. We had also to help to improve the quality of everyday life in the community, so that people and the local communities could regain a strong identity and self-esteem. Based on the special experiences and resources of the citizens in the neighborhood, we would work to develop new communities and tasks that could enable people to match the demands of the society.

Methodically, this concept is based on three main tasks:

Slum in the Borgergade-Adelgade neighbourhood of Copenhagen in 1950s(Photo from Wikimedia Commons)

FEATURES

(Photo from stockfreeimages.com)

35

After several months of negotiation the Settlement succeed to convince the authorities to accept that the service which the Settlement offer the kids of the neighborhood cannot always fit into the boxes of a municipal administration.

The case show the tendency to day: It is harder for volunteer organizations to get public funding in providing and setting up social help and support in close contact and cooperation with and for marginalized groups of citizens and at the same time to stand on our freedom to be a critical and alternative voice.

The Settlement has chosen to ride on two horses. The one with activities based on volunteers and independence of municipal authorities. The other with activities paid by the municipality, in a contract based upon outsourcing and public tendering, as clubs, job training programs, educational programs for migrant women and mentorships.The Settlement’s role in community development is today framed by a partnership, set up by the municipality, in the local areal renewal of central Vesterbro, in which the Settlement is a board member.

Individualization ChallengesCommunitiesOne track in this development is, that the municipality has taken over tasks and services, which the Settlement, together with the local citizens, started up on a volunteer basis and which today is fully paid and central managed by the municipality.

Another track is the Settlement’s focus on developing social economic enterprises, based on the market, private customers and volunteer support from the civil society. And on more individualized services as the social counseling office, offering legal aid, case management, psychotherapy and debt counseling, run by a large group of volunteers with professional background and coordinated by 5 paid employees. These developments meet a demanded need among marginalized and poor citizens, whose chance to get a relevant and needed help from the public job centre or social services are poor.

The Side Street ProjectPrior to the establishment of the stores we made a survey of community residents to hear what features they wanted in stores. This led to the opening of the following stores:

．A cafe with inexpensive everyday dishes．A laundry with hair salon , at this time there was no bath in residents' apartments．A bicycle workshop．A care and charity shop for vulnerable families．A pottery workshop．An organic store．An Internet Café

The Side Street project was opened in 1986. Today, 28 years later it still exists www.sidegaden.dk while the community Vesterbro today has changed completely character. After a thorough renovation in the 90s, it is now one of the city's most trendy neighborhoods inhabited by journalists, artists and academics. However, there is still a residual group of marginalized people, especially among immigrants and citizens with mental and social problems. For these citizens, the Side Street Project is still a good tool to either enter the labor market or to have a meaningful employment outside the actual labor.

Including the Excluded?The millennium called for a new public management in the social services which the Settlement and the Side Street Project could play an important role within the business community in the municipality. Not only in the establishment of the clubs for children and teenagers, but also in the activities concerning helping people back to or into job market, in which the shops in the Side Street Project had been very successful. And the kids clubs had likewise been able to bond with groups and individuals among the teenage girls and boys in the neighborhood, and keep them away from the streets and in to the clubs.

For decades the municipality have given full economic support to the Settlement’s clubs for the kids and young people and to the free range and outreaching activities done by volunteers and paid employees. A major part of the children, mainly girls and boys from migrant families, did not pay a fee, and the Settlement sought private funding to cover these children’s fee - a practice that had lasted for years. For a time the municipality wanted to change routine in collection of membership fees, and wanted to centralize this collection instead of letting the club take care of these themselves through their contact to the parents or through private funding. So the municipality mailed the payment slips direct to the parents and consequently parents and kids announced that they had to give up membership, as they could not afford to pay the fee.


In low income countries, where disaster risk is greatest,

such persons mostly lack social security of any kind and are

thus particularly at risk to disasters . Social workers are

often powerful advocates of better development policy. They

witness daily the interaction between the most vulnerable and

their environments and usually complement their social work

with community organization, lobbying and political action

for positive social change.

UNISDR strives to use the accumulated knowledge on disaster

risk reduction, to date, to provide guidance and support for

the preparation and deliberations of the upcoming Regional

Platforms and meetings for DRR1 upon which the future post-

2015 framework will be built -through the formal preparatory

process for the 3rd World Conference for DRR (Sendai, Japan,

14-18 March 2015).

This paper outlines where a greater contribution by social

workers would have a favorable impact on the quality of this

ongoing work and of the new post-2015 framework for DRR

that will soon emerge. Social workers are uniquely placed to

IntroductionThe United Nations General Assembly requested the United

Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) to

facilitate the development of a post-2015 framework for

disaster risk reduction (DRR). Consultations of all stakeholders

started in early 2012. These consultations, in combination

with UNISDR reporting mechanisms, growing literature and

relevant General Assembly deliberations provide a wealth of

knowledge and guidance for the further development of the

post-2015 framework for DRR.

One of the lessons being learned from these processes is that

policy on DRR, whether global, national or local, needs to

draw more on the experience and insight of those most at risk.

DRR will only be well achieved by including and hearing the

voices of those who represent the most-at-risk populations,

by their active participation, and by ensuring transparency to

them of what is being done at higher levels of Governments.

Social workers worldwide assist the individuals, groups and

communities of the poorest and vulnerable to disaster risks.


Margareta Wahlström,

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction

36

FEATURES

growth but has also led to a massive increase in hazard

exposure, as new private and public investment have been

concentrated in hazardous areas, such as cyclone and tsunami

prone coastlines, flood prone river basins and in earthquake

prone cities. Intensive risk has accumulated in hazard-exposed

areas and is now transmitted around the world through global

supply chains, representing a systemic global economic risk

for business, governments and society at large.

Social workers in whatever society are active in most of their

communities, promoting problem solving, social change and

the empowerment of people to enhance their well-being.

Professional social work is focused on problem solving

and change, wherein social workers act as change agents,

addressing the complex interactions between people and their

environments. Social workers address the barriers, inequities

and injustices that exist in the society, responding to crises

and emergencies as well as to everyday social problems. With

the poor being the most vulnerable to disaster risk, DRR has

become fundamental in the social worker’s daily dynamic,

help to represent the interests of the poor and most vulnerable

in the development of the framework, and their advocacy and

active participation is vital to its successful implementation.

Post-2015 Disaster Risk Reduction and Social Workers As the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA 2005-2015) draws

to a close, and in developing the post-2015 framework for

DRR, it is important to recall progress towards its achievement

to date. On the one hand, many countries have made

some progress across all HFA Priority Areas. In particular,

an improvement in development conditions in many low

and middle-income countries, including an enhancement

of capacities in early warning, disaster preparedness and

response, have contributed to a downward trend in mortality

risk, at least for those weather-related hazards where early

warning is possible.

However, disaster-related economic loss and damage

continues to increase. Economic globalization has spurred


Margareta Wahlström,

UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction


The Opportunity at Hand The elaboration and adoption of the post-2015 framework

for DRR comes at a critical time, when two other major

instruments that are relevant to the increase and management

of risk are under discussion, namely climate change and the

post-2015 sustainable development agenda and goals.

This synchronicity is a major opportunity to define and agree

upon an overall cohesive, coherent, and as much as possible

harmonized post-2015 paradigm. This should enable the

management of the risks inherent to development and that

manifest through disasters, climate change and variability,

financial and economic crises, and other consequences

for the economy, society and the environment. From that

perspective, climate change mitigation and adaptation need

to be seen as part of broader risk management strategy.

Challenges in managing risk have been well tested in practice

at local, national and regional scales through the experience

of HFA implementation. The post-2015 framework for DRR is

hence, in a strong position to introduce the necessary changes

to enhance current risk management practices in development

planning and investment -a guiding tool for supporting

the successful implementation of the future sustainable

development goals and the climate change agreement.

Managing risk effectively requires action from a variety of

actors of local, national, regional, and global as well of a

especially in developing and low-income countries.

Social workers almost always combine their efforts to help

individuals and groups with more holistic community

organisation and social and political action to impact social

policy and economic development. Social workers are

especially powerful policy advocates because they are the

front line workers who know the face of poverty, hazards,

exposure and vulnerability better and are thus best placed to

help design better policies to promote its risk resilient socio-

economic development policies and programmes. They see

daily the vulnerability to disasters of the most disadvantaged

members of societies and communities. Their beneficiaries’

homes, livelihoods, access to health care, clean water, schools

and other services are all particularly at risk.

Poorly planned and managed urban development,

environmental degradation, poverty and inequality and weak

governance mechanisms continue to drive rapidly-increasing

loss and damage associated with extensive risk. This has

devastating impact on exposed and vulnerable low-income

households. Extensive risk is increasing even in countries and

areas that are not exposed to major hazards, highlighting how

both development and disaster risk reduction have not been

sustainable and effective; this is particularly detrimental to

low income communities.

The creation of a more resilient humanity and environment

requires strong international and local commitment, and

goodwill to engineer the necessary changes to current

development practices, processes and patterns. Policy and

action need to go beyond the reduction of existing risk

and prioritize the prevention of new risk accumulation.

Risk management must be part of sustainable development

policies and practices in order to tackle existing challenges

and seize potential opportunities.

Such policies cannot be successfully developed without the

strong and active input of those working closest with the

populations most affected. Those working in the front lines,

and their community organizations, are highly effective

activists for change in development policies that affect the

poor. Moreover, they are often among the flag-bearers for that

degree of political influence (usually modest) that the poorest,

most disadvantaged in their societies manage to wield.

38

FEATURES

Expected Outcome, Strategic Goals and Priorities for Action The reduction of disaster loss and damage per se, as an

outcome of the existing HFA, reflects a vision of disasters as

external events and DRR as a sector that protects development.

The expected outcome of the post-2015 framework for DRR,

therefore, should not be described only in terms of reduced

loss but rather in positive and aspirational terms such as secure,

healthy, wealthy and resilient nations and communities.

This would create a direct and mutually reinforcing link to

the SDGs and specific targets. At the same time, it would

increase the political and economic imperative for managing

disaster risks, changing the perception of investment in risk

management as an additional cost to one of an opportunity to

create shared value.

To achieve this outcome, the post-2015 framework for DRR

needs to embrace three complementary and strategic goals,

namely: 1) risk prevention and the pursuit of development

pathways that minimize the accumulation of disaster risk to

the future ; 2) risk reduction, i.e. actions to address existing

disaster risk; and 3) strengthened resilience, i.e. actions that

enable nations and communities to absorb loss and damage,

minimize disaster impacts on the social and economic aspects

of individuals and communities and sustain development

gains.

Accordingly, the priority areas of the post-2015 framework for

DRR needs to be defined in terms of critical public policies

that address disaster risk in publically owned, managed or

regulated services and infrastructures, and in the environment,

but also that regulate or provide incentives for actions by

households, communities, businesses and individuals.

In order to make progress towards the expected outcome

and strategic goals, public policies on risk management need

to be underpinned by appropriate governance frameworks

that incorporate actions not only by national and local

public and private nature. Given the varied nature and scale

of action, legally binding instruments and policy instruments,

while necessary, are per se, neither sufficient nor suitable to

provide detailed regulation and guidance. Indeed they need

to be complemented and articulated by voluntary and explicit

commitments and actions by stakeholder groups – such as

community leaders, social workers, local governments,

parliamentarians, business, and science groups – who want to

assume the leadership and responsibility and thus contribute

positively to managing the risk inherent to development. These

commitments, often discrete and unnoticed, are emerging

and deserve full appreciation and recognition as a significant

contribution to the post-2015 framework for DRR.

Against this background, a number of interlinked and mutually

reinforcing elements and questions emerge as instrumental

to effectively manage risk, and need to be captured in the

overall outcome of the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk

Reduction.

The post-2015 framework fordisaster risk reduction Countries and stakeholders have indicated that the post-

2015 framework for DRR needs to: build on the experience

from Hyogo Framework for Action, be practical and action

oriented, strengthen accountability, be relatively short, and

capable of addressing future natural and technological risk

scenarios, hence far reaching. The post-2015 framework for

DRR should also build on the inheritance of experience and

principles enshrined in the preceding frameworks.

The enhancement of clarity in responsibility, accountability

and monitoring of implementation may benefit from moving

to a framework structured around specific and strategic public

policies, which can be complemented by stakeholders’

commitments.

Overall, the identification of the substantive elements of the

post-2015 framework for DRR may be guided by a question:

considering that managing risk may require a variety of

instruments and initiatives at local, national, regional and

global level-what is it that is currently missing or unclear, but

which, if agreed upon by the specific means of an global non-

legally binding framework, would enable more effective risk

management?

Each stakeholder group, including social workers and

community organizations, should take this question as their

entry point to ensure their perspective fully enriches the

emerging framework.


Although formally not part of the post-2015 framework for

DRR, the voluntary commitments should be compiled and

recognized as part of the overall outcome of the Conference,

and in particular in the political declaration of the World

Conference, due to their value in guiding implementation

and cooperation. To be practical and actionable, voluntary

commitments should provide targets, indicators and means

of verification and commit to periodic self-assessment of

progress.

The Political DeclarationThe political declaration of the World Conference is

indispensable to give guidance on

a number of crucial points, in particular on how the overall

outcome of the Conference needs to be interpreted, and

how its components are connected. It is important that the

Political Declaration build on the deliberations of the regional

platforms, in which representatives of civil society have

participated, in order to ensure harmony between global and

regional levels and specificities.

Proposed substantive elements for consideration in the

political declaration include welcoming and appreciating

the significance of the stakeholders “commitments”, as an

essential sign of leadership, goodwill, needed cooperation

and concrete action to articulate and implement the post-

2015 framework for disaster risk reduction. The importance of

enhancing accountability at local levels may also be stressed.

governments but also by civil society, the private sector, the

science and academic sector and others.

Social workers, represented as they are in most of the

communities whose members are most at risk of disasters and

usually working with the very most vulnerable members of

those already vulnerable communities are a key additional

group of stakeholders whose contribution to this governance

approach will have important significance in the post-2015

effort to reduce disaster risk, worldwide.

Already agents of change in these most high-risk communities,

the commitment of social workers to ensuring that their efforts

to assist the most-at-risk are not literally washed away will

surely make a considerable difference in the daily lives of

those who could benefit the most.

The voluntary commitments of stakeholders The consultations have called for a strong participation by civil

society including social workers, science, local authorities,

local communities, media, business, and others in the

development and implementation of the post-2015 framework

for DRR. Moreover, the implementation of the HFA has been

enriched, enhanced and accelerated by the development

of voluntary commitments, plans, actions, and monitoring

tools by key stakeholders such as the private sector’s “Five

Essentials for Business in Disaster Risk Reduction”, and the

local governments’ “ten essentials” and “self assessment tool”

to make cities resilient.

The formulation of more voluntary commitments at the

regional and global levels by all stakeholders through the

Regional Platforms, and their integration into the Conference’s

overall outcome will constitute an enriching and powerful

drive for the implementation of the post-2015 framework for

disaster risk reduction.

In particular, the voluntary commitments would represent

the proposal by stakeholder groups for concrete actions to

implement the post-2015 framework for DRR at regional

and/or global levels. They would constitute an expression of

leadership, provide a very solid basis for the implementation

of the post-2015 framework for DRR, and indicate how all

stakeholders could work together and generate the necessary

shift “from shared risk to shared value”, captured in the 2013

Global Assessment Report on DRR.

40

FEATURES

Of particular value would be the development of voluntary

commitments by social workers in the different regions

to be agents of change for disaster risk reduction in their

communities. Such a commitment would be heard loudly

in hundreds of thousands of the most disaster-affected

communities around the world and would no doubt be

recognized in the political declaration to be made at the end

of the 3rd World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction, in

March 2015.

ConclusionThe emerging post-2015 framework for DRR takes much

greater account of the importance of different groups of

stakeholders. Social workers’ contributions are increasingly

recognized for their front line quality, informing policy

development and implementation based on daily experience

working with those most vulnerable to disaster risks.

There is great potential for social workers to be more involved

than ever in the global, national and local movements to

reduce risk and build resilience. The coming new framework

for post-2015 work is the current focus of attention, particularly

the World Conference for DRR to be held in Japan in March

2015.

In the year that remains before the conference, social workers

and their organizations could contribute, importantly, to the

refinement of guiding principles, as well as goals and priorities

for disaster risk reduction post-2015.

Social workers need to be well represented in the coming

Regional Platforms that will discuss and refine understanding

on the issues mentioned in this paper. Social work, while

universal, is highly adapted to the culture, history and

circumstance of each nation and locality, thus the Regional

Platforms will provide at least a region-specific context in

which to discuss the issues.


Working with Children and Youth Living in the Streets of Durban:

Participatory Methodologies

One of the major concerns that arose in our early work with

them was the recurring report of abuse, and about being

rounded up and removed from the streets, especially during

major events, by the metro police. We tried to advocate on

behalf of the children and youth by having meetings with the

City officials.

When I was the Chair of the Local Organising Committee for

the 34th IASSW congress that was held at the International

Convention Centre in Durban in 2008, I was informed that

as I objected to children being removed from the streets

“the ball was in my court” – that I had to do something to

ensure the safety of the delegates. This presented a dilemma. I

understood the need to protect delegates while being acutely

aware of the need to respect the dignity and rights of the

children in the process. After much thought and sleepless

nights, the idea that sparked was to use the strengths of the

experiences of the children and youth living on the streets,

and get them to be our friends and ambassadors. We thus

combined an exceptionally successful global conference

with social responsibility as we trained and engaged the

children as ushers, street helpers, and workshop and plenary

presenters. So normalized is their experience of discrimination

and exclusion, that they had anticipated that they would be

treated differently from the conference delegates. For months

afterwards they spoke about “eating the same food as all the

important overseas professors”. Given that the rubbish bin

is one of their resources on the streets, this was an amazing

experience for them. The youth, Thulani, who was the

respondent to the keynote speaker at the Opening Plenary

session, was found crying the following day. On enquiring,

he said: “Vishanthie, I am crying not because I am sad but

because for the first time in our life, I feel we are being treated

like human beings”. He proceeded to say: “It may be too late

This article describes extensive and

intensive research & SW intervention

with children and youth living on

the streets of Durban over a 10-year

period. The work was made possible

through funding from the South African-

Netherlands Partnership for Research and Development

(SANPAD) and the National Lotteries Board in South Africa.

The human resource capacity was, and continues to be

provided by different groups of social work students who

complete their field practicum through the project under my

supervision and guidance.

While we began with using participatory methodologies to

understand the children’s and youth’s views about services

available to them, the focus of research and intervention

evolved over time. We undertook intervention research,

informed by critical theory that asserts that research must

be used for emancipatory purposes and to engender socio-

political change. We integrated multiple focus group meetings

that were mixed and separate for boys and girls; their drawings

depicting life on the streets; narratives of their journeys onto

the streets and the transitions made; narratives of experiences

of living on the streets; skills training and capacity building

in specific areas; income-generation; extensive casework and

therapeutic group work; and photographic documentation of

their experiences of life on the streets.

FEATURES

42

Vishanthie Sewpaul

(Photo from Urban Times)

Thulani’s desire to prevent young children from migrating

to the streets was echoed by others. After several hours of

consultation with the youth and supervision with the students

the idea that emerged was to produce a video that to be

used with children at risk. Social work teamed up with the

Department of Performance Arts at the University, and based

on the narratives of the youth produced a video where the

central message is: STREET LIVE IS DANGEROUS, IT HURTS

AND IT KILLS. The youth living on the streets act in the movie.

The video is available on:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqKxyPlevVIGA23lo-

iLVUA

The video has, and continues to be, used in schools in an

effort to undertake primary preventive work, particularly in

impoverished township schools. The most recent workshop,

on 25 February 2014, was with a group of learners from eight

schools. During the schools-based workshops learners in

small groups address the following questions and report back.

We combine the education with fun that appeal to learners

• What are the major problems that people in your

community experience?

• What are the resources that exist in your community?

• Who are the people that you can go to if you need help?

• Do you think the video will help prevent children from

leaving home to go and live on the streets?

The responses of the learners and teachers are exceptionally

positive; all ask for more of such education and all recommend

that it be more widely implemented in other schools. Formal

research into this is being undertaken.

for us but what can we do to prevent young children from

coming to the streets”. Unfortunately, Thulani died two years

later while trying to defend a younger child on the street.

The accounts of experiences of abuse and violence by the

metro police were dismissed as anecdotal and unreliable, and

we were frustrated about NOT BEING HEARD. As politicians

and policy makers tend to take numbers and statistics more

seriously, we undertook a survey on the experiences of life on

the streets. In accordance with our participatory ethos, the

small groups that we were actively engaged with, helped us to

develop the survey instrument through several brain-storming

sessions, to gain entry to the broader population of children

and youth living on the streets and to collect the data. Upon

analysis of the quantitative data we fed back the results to

them and asked them what they wanted to do with the results.

The graph reflects that a large majority was physically and

verbally abused and just over a quarter was sexually abused

by authorities that were supposed to protect them.

They decided to hold a workshop with all service providers and

relevant stakeholders. They visited each of the organisations,

hand delivered the invitations (drawn up with assistance of the

students – Ingrid, Chris, Emma and Sithembele), and explained

what the workshop was about. They found the experience very

validating and empowering. At the workshop, we sat back as

they served as Programme Directors, poignantly conveyed

messages of their experiences and what they thought should

be done. The media was present to highlight their concerns,

and recast them as ambassadors rather than as enemies.

43

Durban, South Africa (Photo from Layover)

Respect the dignity and rights of the children(Photo from Wordpress)

(Photo from Urban Times)


44

How Long Have You Been Involved in Social Work Education in Your Country? What Were Your Career Goals When You Started Your Work?

I began teaching at the then University of Durban-Westville

(UDW) in 1986. When I began my social work degree

and upon graduation my key goal was to be the best social

worker I could be and to make a difference in the lives of

people. Such a desire was borne out of my background.

I come from humble beginnings having lost my father

when I was five months of age, raised with six siblings by

my mother, who was a domestic servant. Growing up as

a child, the only capacity in which I knew Whites was as

master and servant, with my mother reinforcing the message

that Whites were to be respected as demi-gods. My personal

biography and growing up under apartheid, where the

message of black inferiority was reinforced in the broader

political domain, left me with a deep sense of inferiority and

internalised oppression, which I was consciously taught to

work against with the aid of Freirian-Gramscian strategies as

part of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa.

My biography has a profound influence on my choice

of emancipatory pedagogical, research and community

engagement strategies, and the human rights and social justice

issues that I choose to pursue. Challenging and confronting

structural determinants - such as race, class, gender, sexual

orientation and geographic location - of poverty, inequality,

exclusion, discrimination and marginalisation remain my

raison-d’etre for becoming a social worker. It is as much the

engine that steered me into social work, as it is the engine

that keeps me there.

I managed to get to university against the odds and I am now

a Senior Professor in the School of Applied Human Sciences

at the University of KwaZulu Natal (UKZN), Durban, South

Africa. UKZN is the outcome of two merged institutions,

the former UDW, a designated ethnic Indian university that

I studied at during apartheid and the former University of

Natal (UN), an historically privileged White university that

I was not allowed to study or work in. I began teaching at

the UN in 1992 and reached the ranks of Professor in an

institution that I was previously barred from on account of

the colour of my skin. In 2013, I was the 1st runner up for the

Women in Science Award (Social Sciences and Humanities)

by the Ministry of Science and Technology in South Africa,

and over the years I have gained national and international

recognition. It is a narrative of hope that I share with my

students and other people that I work with, most of whom

share similar backgrounds of disadvantage to mine. I

believe, as Steven Frayne says, that success is determined

by opportunity meeting preparedness ... perhaps with a bit

of serendipity.

I did not set out to have a career in academia, and I am

essentially a social worker at heart. However, having passed

the Master of Medical Science (Social Work) with distinction,

I was encouraged to apply for an academic post and was

successful with the first interview that I had. With academia

I have managed to balance my direct practice goals with

those of research and teaching, and with regional and

international engagements, and I have a far broader reach

than if I had remained a social work practitioner. As a social

work academic I have been involved in the cutting edge of

policy development in social work education and practice

Vishanthie Sewpaul

PEOPLE

44

45

in post-apartheid South Africa, and I have always been

involved in direct practice, having done work in the areas

of mental health; addictions; grief counseling; infertility and

reproductive technology; adoption; HIV/AIDS and work

with children and youth living on the streets. The latter

constitutes my current community engagement initiative,

which I describe in this volume.

How Long Were You Involved in IASSW and What on Reflection was Your Contribution?

I have been involved in IASSW since 2000. I was initially

elected to represent the Association of South African Social

Work Education Institutions on the IA Board. I served

two terms in this capacity and was subsequently elected

as member-at-large. Since becoming President of the

Association of Schools of Social Work in Africa, I serve

on the IA Board as one of the Vice-Presidents. I served as

Chair of the Nominations Committee; the Katherine Kendall

Awards Committee; Co-chair of the Global Standards

Committee on Social Work Education and Training; Chair of

the Local Organisng Committee for the IASSW 2008 Global

conference, and I am the current Co-chair of the Global

Social Work Definition Committee.

Why, in Your Opinion, Has Been the Most Memorable Experience/Achievement of IASSW During the Period of Your Involvement?

My most memorable experiences have been co-chairing the

Global Standards Committee and organizing the IASSW 2008

Global conference that took place in Durban, South Africa.

The former provided invaluable lessons on: negotiating

diverse and competing geo-political and professional

interests on a global level; the importance of listening to

diverse points of view; and attempting to integrate them into

a coherent whole. Given the diversities of opinions, arriving

at consensus was no easy feat. I had to think of creative ways

of formulating a document that would be specific enough to

have salience, yet broad enough to be applicable across the

globe. It was an exercise that heightened my capacity for

critical reflexivity, as I contemplated the potential influence

of my own subject position; the possibility of reinforcing

Western hegemony despite my overtly stated goal of working

against it; and anticipating the potential pitfalls of developing

the Global Standards.

Organising the IASSW 2008 in Durban was one of the

biggest risks that I had ever taken, and constituted one of

the main challenges of my professional life. The success of

the 2008 conference reflected the power of vision, believing

in what one wants to achieve, setting one’s goals, and

taking every reasonable step - in the face of huge resource

constraints - to realize them. I remember the first publicity

that I had to organize for at the Adelaide conference. In the

absence of funds all that I could do was personally produce

laminated bookmarks, just to imprint in people’s minds that

the conference was to take place in Durban four years down

the line. The narrative of the road to a successful conference,

that combined academia with a social responsibility

initiative, a fabulous fun-filled beach party, and one that

generated a handsome profit, is not within the scope of this


PEOPLE

46

volume. The experience reinforced my belief that ideas do

change the world, and that it takes a team to do so! The two

women events-organizing team, that the Local Organising

Committee worked with, reflected the power of excellence

and technical skills. While we shared the vision, the dreams

and the clear objectives, they had the networks, the strategies

and technical know-how to make things happen.

During the course of my involvement in IASSW I had the

pleasure of seeing an organization become more inclusive

to represent the voices of colleagues from the Global South.

This was due primarily to the leadership of Professor Lena

Dominelli, the then President of IASSW. Lena expanded

access to resources to facilitate greater attendance and

participation on the Board, and she validated people of

colour and what they had to offer. It was a pleasure to work

with a colleague who lived by the values and principles of

non-discrimination, inclusion, fairness and justice that she

wrote and talked about. I remain indebted to her for the

role that she has played in several areas of my professional

development. Lena epitomes validation, as one of the

most important empowerment strategies of the social work

profession.

IASSW has had a number of achievements over the past

few years: the production of the Social Dialogue, which is

a comprehensive magazine with wide-scale online reach;

the successful work of the Census Committee and the

production of the Directory of Schools of Social Work; the

Global Agenda which has been widely supported, with

the setting up of observatories in different regions and the

production of a special edition on the first major theme of the

Global Agenda; the Global Standards that were followed by

a number of academic publications, which generated much

debate, and which is being used to benchmark institutional/

national standards against; and the current review of the

Global Definition via a period of lengthy consultation.

Tell Me a Little About the Way Your Involvement / Contribution in IASSW Has Influenced Your Personal and Professional life, If At All?

It has been an affirming and validating experience; it

certainly contributes to enhanced status and prestige for

all Board members. Being nominated and elected to an

international Board, presumes a high level of expertise.

This need not necessarily be true as there are a number of

factors that determine who gets to be represented on the

IASSW. There are several outstanding colleagues, across

the globe, who do not get to sit on international boards. I

am no smarter than them, but unfortunately the positions

on the board, in themselves, tend to get rarefied, and those

sitting on international boards come to be seen as sources of

authorized truths. It is this perception that one has to guard

against, as this might lay the foundation for authoritarianism

and potential abuse of power of international NGOs.

Through my engagement with IASSW, I developed enduring

professional links and cherished friendships with colleagues

across the globe, which are invaluable. These were made

possible through participation in the IASSW Board meetings

and conferences. While some of my greatest reward and

recognition came through my work on the IASSW, it has

also been the source of disappointment on different levels.

On a personal note, I had twice been nominated for the

presidency of IASSW. The first time I lost by 19 votes to

a colleagues from China and the second time by seven

votes to a colleague from India. While I recognize the geo-

political spaces within which IASSW operates, such political

understanding does not preclude the experience of painful

disappointment, and a bruising to the ego. I am no less a

person for having tried; it is unfortunate that we set up win-

lose processes and subscribe to the same language, when we

know that the world will be a better place in creating a win-

win for all. Such is our taken-for-granted assumption about

46

47

the relationship between liberal democracy and justice

that we do not reflect on its potential pitfalls in respect of

the individualistic competitiveness that it generates and

on structural constraints on choices. I accept that life is

about taking risks, that nothing great is achieved by being

mediocre, and that we need to have the courage to walk

into and through our fears. There is, as our late great Nelson

Mandela, proclaimed no virtue in playing small.

How Important Or Significant Are International Organisations in Social Work? What, If Anything Should Be There Focus As It Moves Forward?

Despite the diversities of social work across the world and

the undoubted power of context in determining the content,

process, strategies and outcomes of social work education,

research and practice there are some core shared aspects

to social work. It is these shared realities, and a common

identity that international organisations in social work help

to affirm. Their import is both pragmatic and symbolic, and

IASSW’s achievements are substantial as reflected above.

The weight of a statement, standard or definition is perceived

to be far more powerful and legitimate when claimed at

the global level, than if they were declared at the local

level. These can be seen in the formulation of the Global

Standards; the Global Agenda; the Global Definition; and

the IFSW and IASSW Statement on Ethical Principles. The

potential pitfalls of these, are that they become valorized and

the gold standards against which all else is measured. Yet,

neither the processes nor the outcome of these documents is

politically neutral. They reflect geopolitical power relations

and hegemonic discourses and practices that are reproduced

through international NGOS. As members of the Board we

need to become more reflexive about our potential role

in reproducing hegemonic discourses and geo-political

power; our possible complicity in reinforcing neoliberal

commodification of education as we proceed with external

reviews of programmes and the setting up of regional hubs

of excellence; our possible cultural reproduction at the

expense of protecting the fundamental rights of persons; and

our relative silence in the face of the growing online sale

of social work qualifications, driven by the profit motive.

While the participation of the IASSW in the United Nations

is appreciated and the roles of the IASSW representatives

on the UN are lauded, the role of the IASSW, particularly

in relation to the organizing of the UN Social Work Day

needs more critical interrogation. It has remained primarily

an elitist event designed mainly for students and colleagues

from North America, with the voice of colleagues from the

Global South being marginalised. There are core issues with

regard to poverty, inequality, racism, classism, sexism and

neoliberalism where it is morally indefensible to exclude the

voices of colleagues from the Global South.


Dr. Lengwe-Katembula J. MwansaProfessor, University of Botswana, Botswana

How Long Have You Been Involved in Social Work Education in Your Country? And What Were Your Career Goals When You Started Your Work?

I have been involved in social work over 30 years mainly

teaching and organizing. My initial career goal was to

become a practitioner in social work but later on this goal

changed when I was awarded a fellowship by the University

of Zambia as a Staff Development fellow to study for a

Masters in Social work and later on obtained a PhD in 1986.

Since then I have been teaching and organising.

How Long Were You Involved in IASSW and What On Reflection Was Your Contribution?

I was involved in International Association for Schools

of Social Work (IASSW) for almost ten years (IASSW). My

first contact with IASSW was in 2000 when I was chosen

by the Association of South Africa Educational Institutions

(ASASWEI) then Joint University Council (JUC) to revive

a regional social work organization for Africa which had

become moribund for quite some time. After a great deal of

consultation and preparation, I spearheaded the formation of

a continental body which was named; Association of Schools

of Social Work in Africa (ASSWA). It was launched at a 6th

Pan African Social Work Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Africa

at a 6th Pan African Social Work Conference (at a combined

conference) organized by the International Federation of

Social Welfare 10th – 14th April, 2005. I was elected as the

founding President of the Association of Schools of Social

in Africa. By virtue of my

position as a regional

(Africa) President, I also

became a Vice President

of IASSW. The revival

and eventual success of

ASSWA could not have

happened without the generosity of the members of interim

committee (2000-2005) and the executive members (2005-

2010). They were extremely committed and inspirational

to the cause of ASSWA and spared no effort to do their

best. I am greatly indebted and grateful to them. Among

other achievements is the establishment of a repository for

ASSWA’s materials at the University of Witwatersrand. This

will greatly facilitate research and custodianship of materials.

We also established a website and regional bodies (chapters)

to ensure visibility and growth

Why, In Your Opinion, Has Been the Most Memorable Experience / Achievement of IASSW During the Period of Your Involvement?

The most memorable experience was the launching of

ASSWA in Nairobi, Kenya in 2005.

For a long time, schools of social work in the Africa region

have had no official forum for discussion of strategies for

capacity building, the exchange of ideas on education and

training; strengthening the pedagogy or sharing experiences

in common issues such as HIV/AIDS, NEPAD, orphanhood,

domestic violence, and poverty which impact significantly on

PEOPLE

48

the very fabric of life on the continent. There has been no plan

of action for concerted efforts to develop relevant curricula,

or regional standards, and thus professional training which

perhaps did not respond to the emerging issues of individual

countries, region or the continent in a timely fashion. So the

formation of ASSWA was a momentous and proud occasion

which marked a new chapter in the life of social work on the

continental. Africa then came back to the IASSW fold after

a considerable absence from the international scene. Today

the organization is alive and I believe working well.

Tell Us a Little About the Way Your Involvement / Contribution in IASSW has Influenced Your Personal and Professional Life, If At All?

My participation in ASSWA and IASSW gave me a rare

opportunity to interact with great scholars, women and men

of tremendous vision and courage in Social work who were

inspired by a sense of social justice and making the world

a better place. I also came to appreciate the dilemmas and

challenges of African development and the dire need for new

leadership. Like numerous observers of Africa have indicated,

and for me with a great sense of humility and admiration

of our founding fathers of the continent especially those

associated with the attainment of political independence,

Africa needs a new crop of leadership. The people of the

continent can only ignore the question of leadership in

Africa at their own peril. I have also come to realize the

imperatives of developing capacity among educators in

order to respond to the needs congruent with emerging

issues affecting African societies. It is also necessary to

facilitate ongoing communication and the development of a

network of educators and trainers in the field of social work

operating through formalized channels of access.

How Important or Significant Are International Organisations in Social Work? What, If Anything Should Be There Focus As It Moves Forward?

International organizations are extremely significant in terms

of Exchange of ideas, new technologies, and information on

curricula and essential aspects of tertiary level education

and training of professional social workers. Social work is an

enterprise found in various environments and it is interesting

to learn how other professionals are employing social work

enterprise to evolve solutions to human needs.


50

REPORTS

Global Insurance Companies Rally for SustainabilityPeter Noble is the chief corporate governance officer for TAL Dai-ichi Life Australia Pty Limited, the second largest life company in Australia. He has been with the company for six years after spending his earlier career practicing law with international law firms.

He obtained his Comm LLB from the University of New South Wales and at the moment is an Adjunct Associate Professor in Law at University of New England. He is married and has three adult children.

In his free time, he runs a small cattle property and is an amateur organic garlic grower. He also maintains an interest in the meat processing industry, his family business, sitting on the Board of the Australian Meat Processors Corporation.

On November 13, 2013 the inaugural Annual General

Meeting of the Principles of Sustainable Insurance (PSI)

was held in Beijing. The members of the PSI, who are large

Insurance companies, account for about 12% of Global

Written Premium.

The fundamental premise of sustainability is that a business

or any organisation for that matter will be more sustainable

in the long term if it takes account of, and responds to,

environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and

opportunities . . . hence the term “sustainability”.

The PSI was formed in Rio+20 following 6 years of negotiations

among leading insurers around the world. The PSI is part of

the United Nations Environmental Program Finance Initiative.

The PSI is governed by a board which reports to the members

in General Meeting. Earlier in the week the direction of the

PSI was set by the board which was subsequently adopted by

the members in the form of a vision and purpose.

The vision is of a risk aware world, where the insurance

industry is trusted and plays its full role in enabling a healthy,

safe, resilient and sustainable society.

The purpose is to enable the global insurance industry to

better understand, prevent and reduce environmental, social

and governance risks, and better manage opportunities to

provide quality and reliable risk protection.

The PSI contains four principles which are set out below:

Principle 1Each member will embed in its decision-making environment,

social and governance (ESG) issues relevant to its insurance

business.

Principle 2Each member will work with its clients and business partners

to raise awareness on ESG issues, manage risk and develop

solutions.

Principle 3Each member will work with governments, regulators and

other stakeholders to promote widespread action across

society on ESG issues.

Principle 4Each member will demonstrate accountability and

transparency in regularly disclosing publicly its progress in

implementing the principles.

50

Sustainable world(Photo from Red Hot Marketing Blender)

51

Global Insurance Companies Rally for Sustainability

For most companies the issues raised by Principle 1 are

thought to be quite difficult especially where the ESG matters

run into Commerciality. There is a reticence therefore by

corporations to embrace the Principles.

However, the issue of Society and Commercial pressures was

considered at one of the breakout groups during the UNEP

FI Round Table sessions held on Tuesday and Wednesday

November 11 and 12. To bring the Initiative alive in this session

especially since the Round Table was held in Beijing, China,

a reference was made to three leading stories in the Chinese

Press that morning. Human Rights is an often misunderstood

term but it , in a business sense, does encompass, for example,

the culture of an enterprise as well as the effect on others in

society by the enterprises’ activities.

The first was a story which dealt with the rapidly increasing

admissions in the casualty departments of Beijing’s hospitals

due to the rising pollution. The second was a story noting that

Chinese corporations were becoming less productive because

employees were less engaged.

Modern enterprises are now seeing the need to respond

to environmental and social issues because people are

demanding that they do. In Beijing’s casualty department you

can see these issues playing out. The responsibility for cleaner

air lies widely.

In Australia we are finding that new employees are attracted

to enterprises with a clear societal agenda and prefer one with

such agenda to one without.

Surprisingly for the Chinese in the session and some other

nationalities they had not considered that employee

engagement was part of an ESG agenda.

The third article which was the lead story of the day concerned

the results of the Communists Party’s third plenum. Clearly the

Party had called out in its decision making more transparency.

Governance in the ESG sense is about the right information

to the right people for the right decision at the right time.

Transparency is critical in this process.

As part of the development of the Strategy the Board of the

PSI conducted a survey to determine what were the 5 most

important issues facing the Insurance Industry globally.

The top 5 global issues as ranked by respondents were:

1. Adaptation and resilience to extreme weather events

2. Mis-selling and treating customers unfairly

3. Insurance access and affordability

4. Trust and reputation

5. Regulatory risks

With these issues in mind the board decided at the AGM to

bring the Initiative alive and approved the Global Resilience

project.

This project was chosen as the first for the Initiative because

research has found that for every dollar spent in disaster

mitigation activity ten dollars are saved in disaster relief and

repairs.

So the project is a policy leadership initiative for natural

peril disaster resilience and safer communities. The aim of

this project is to implement national engagement strategies

which support mitigation investment for countries vulnerable

to natural perils.

Adaptation and resilience to extreme weather events is the

1st priority ESG issue for the insurance industry to address

globally.

The key outcome would be, in countries exposed to the risk

of natural perils, that resilience and pre-disaster mitigation is

moved to the centre of government policy.

It is pleasing to see the large insurers moving positively to

securing a better future for us all.


REPORTS

52

Global Definition of the Social Work Profession

Social work is a practice-based profession and an academic

discipline that facilitates social change and development,

social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of

people. Principles of social justice, human rights, collective

responsibility and respect for diversities are central to social

work. Underpinned by theories of social work, social

sciences, humanities and indigenous knowledges, social

work engages people and structures to address life challenges

and enhance wellbeing.

The above definition may be amplified at national and/or

regional levels.

CommentaryThe commentary serves to unpack the core concepts used in

the definition and is detailed in relation to the social work

profession’s core mandates, principles, knowledge and

practice.

Core MandatesThe social work profession’s core mandates include facilitating

social change, social development, social cohesion, and the

empowerment and liberation of people.

Social work is a practice profession and an academic

discipline that recognizes that interconnected historical,

socio-economic, cultural, spatial, political and personal

factors serve as opportunities and/or barriers to human

wellbeing and development. Structural barriers contribute to

the perpetuation of inequalities, discrimination, exploitation

and oppression. The development of critical consciousness

through reflecting on structural sources of oppression and/or

privilege, on the basis of criteria such as race, class, gender,

disability, culture and sexual orientation, and developing

action strategies towards addressing structural and personal

barriers are central to emancipatory practice where the goals

are the empowerment and liberation of people. In solidarity

with those who are disadvantaged, the profession strives to

alleviate poverty, liberate the vulnerable and oppressed, and

promote social inclusion and social cohesion.

(Photo from Sydney Adventist Hospital)

52

53

The social change mandate is based on the premise that social

work intervention takes place when the current situation,

be this at the level of the person, family, small group,

community or society, is deemed to be in need of change and

development. It is driven by the need to challenge and change

those structural conditions that contribute to marginalization,

social exclusion and oppression. Social change initiatives

recognize the place of human agency in advancing human

rights and economic, environmental, and social justice. The

profession is equally committed to the maintenance of social

stability, insofar as such stability is not used to marginalize,

exclude or oppress any particular group of persons.

Social development is conceptualized to mean strategies

for intervention, desired end states and a policy framework,

the latter in addition to the more popular residual and the

institutional frameworks. It is based on holistic biopsychosocial,

spiritual assessments and interventions that transcend the

micro-macro divide, incorporating multiple system levels and

inter-sectorial and inter-professional collaboration, aimed

at sustainable development. It prioritizes socio-structural

and economic development, and does not subscribe to

conventional wisdom that economic growth is a prerequisite

for social development.

Principles The overarching principles of social work are respect for the

inherent worth and dignity of human beings, doing no harm,

respect for diversity and upholding human rights and social

justice.

Social work embraces first, second and third generation

rights. First generation rights refer to civil and political

rights such as free speech and conscience and freedom

from torture and arbitrary detention; second generation to

socio-economic and cultural rights that include the rights to

reasonable levels of education, healthcare, and housing and

minority language rights; and third generation rights focus

on the natural world and the right to species biodiversity and

inter-generational equity. These rights are mutually reinforcing

and interdependent, and accommodate both individual and

collective rights.

A social worker listens to and learns from Indigenous peoples around the world, acknowledging their indigenous knowledge. (Photo from Convention on Biological Diversity)

(Photo from Google)


In some instances “doing no harm” and “respect for diversity”

may represent conflicting and competing values, for example

where in the name of culture the rights, including the right

to life, of minority groups such as women and homosexuals,

are violated. The Global Standards for Social Work Education

and Training deals with this complex issue by advocating that

social workers are schooled in a basic human rights approach,

with an explanatory note that reads as:

Such an approach might facilitate constructive confrontation

and change where certain cultural beliefs, values and traditions

violate peoples’ basic human rights. As culture is socially

constructed and dynamic, it is subject to deconstruction and

change. Such constructive confrontation, deconstruction

and change may be facilitated through a tuning into, and

an understanding of particular cultural values, beliefs and

traditions and via critical and reflective dialogue with members

of the cultural group vis-à-vis broader human rights issues

KnowledgeSocial work is both interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary,

and draws on a wide array of scientific theories and research.

‘Science’ is understood in this context in its most basic meaning

as ‘knowledge’. Social work draws on its own constantly

developing theoretical foundation and research, as well as

theories from other human sciences, including but not limited

to community development, social pedagogy, administration,

anthropology, ecology, economics, education, management,

nursing, psychiatry, psychology, public health, and sociology.

The uniqueness of social work research and theories is that

they are applied and emancipatory. Much of social work

research and theory is co-constructed with service users in

an interactive, dialogic process and therefore informed by

specific practice environments.

This proposed definition acknowledges that social work

is informed not only by specific practice environments

and Western theories, but also by indigenous knowledges.

Part of the legacy of colonialism is that Western theories

and knowledges have been exclusively valorised, and

indigenous knowledges have been devalued, discounted,

and hegemonised by Western theories and knowledge. The

proposed definition attempts to halt and reverse that process

by acknowledging that Indigenous peoples in each region,

country or area carry their own values, ways of knowing,

ways of transmitting their knowledges, and have made

invaluable contributions to science. Social work seeks to

redress historic Western scientific colonialism and hegemony

by listening to and learning from Indigenous peoples around

the world. In this way social work knowledges will be co-

created and informed by Indigenous peoples, and more

appropriately practiced not only in local environments but

also internationally. Drawing on the work of the United

Nations, the IFSW defines indigenous peoples as follows:

．They live within (or maintain attachments to) geographically

distinct ancestral territories.

．They tend to maintain distinct social, economic and

political institutions within their territories.

．They typically aspire to remain distinct culturally,

geographically and institutionally, rather than assimilate

fully into national society.

．They self-identify as indigenous or tribal.

Source: http://ifsw.org/policies/indigenous-peoples

REPORT

54

REPORT

(Photo from canstockphoto.com)

(Photo from UptownRadio)

55

Practice Social work’s legitimacy and mandate lie in its intervention at

the points where people interact with their environment. The

environment includes the various social systems that people

are embedded in and the natural, geographic environment,

which has a profound influence on the lives of people.

The participatory methodology advocated in social work is

reflected in “Engages people and structures to address life

challenges and enhance wellbeing.” As far as possible social

work supports working with rather than for people. Consistent

with the social development paradigm, social workers utilize a

range of skills, techniques, strategies, principles and activities

at various system levels, directed at system maintenance and/

or system change efforts. Social work practice spans a range of

activities including various forms of therapy and counseling,

group work, and community work; policy formulation and

analysis; and advocacy and political interventions. From

an emancipatory perspective, that this definition supports

social work strategies are aimed at increasing people’s

hope, self-esteem and creative potential to confront and

challenge oppressive power dynamics and structural sources

of injustices, thus incorporating into a coherent whole the

micro-macro, personal-political dimension of intervention.

The holistic focus of social work is universal, but the priorities

of social work practice will vary from one country to the

next, and from time to time depending on historical, cultural,

political and socio-economic conditions.

It is the responsibility of social workers across the world to

defend, enrich and realize the values and principles reflected

in this definition. A social work definition can only be

meaningful when social workers actively commit to its values

and vision.

(Photo from I (heart) School Counseling)

(Photo from canstockphoto.com)

(Photo from UptownRadio)


56

I. Background information about Laos: The Lao People 's Democratic Republic or Lao PDR has a

socialist system of government. Laos is a landlocked country,

bordered by China, Vietnam, Thailand and Cambodia. Laos is

rich in natural resources and has a long culture and tradition.

Laos is one of the poorest countries in the region despite

the rapid growth of trade particularly in the areas of mineral

resources and hydro-electricity with its neighbors. Lao

population is 6.5 million people consisting of over 40 ethnic

groups. The education system is still developing.

II. 1995 to 2005: The groundwork (10 years): A. 1995-1997: Working informally as a volunteer at Children

Culture Center (CCC) in Nong Buathong village in Vientiane

capital with children and youth and local volunteers. I

consciously applied social work principles: respect the local

people, accept them, their culture, habit, the way of doing

things. We started with small activity. I saw the potential in

Summary of Report from LaosBui Thi Xuyen, MSWSocial work supervisor, Church World Service (CWS) 047 Saphanthong Road, Ban Saphanthong, Sisatanak districtTel: +856-21-313-837 Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

children, youths and adults. I saw the local resources both

human and material. I set the expectation low, I encountered

some youth problems and tried to find some ways to help.

These direct services were very valuable building trust for

other work I had opportunities to engage in later.

B. 1997 -1998: Beginning with a training team with joint

funding from Save Children Fund UK, UNICEF and Church

World Service a three month course in Social work and social

issues was started focusing on, Children in Especially Difficult

Circumstances (CEDC),Child Rights, Child labor, human

trafficking issues. The course was called " Core Skills Training

on CEDC for 30 government staff of four agencies " from the

Ministry of Labor and Social welfare, the Lao Women’s Union,

the Lao Youth Union, Trade Union and two police officers in

Vientiane capital. Later this course were also held in 2 regions

in Southern and Northern provinces of Laos.

C.1998- I help to establish the Donkoi Children Development

Center in Donkoi village of Sisatanak district of Vientiane

capital focusing on after school programs in a public primary

school as a pilot project to be an example to show how a

56

CAMPUSCAMPUS

57

Summary of Report from LaosBui Thi Xuyen, MSWSocial work supervisor, Church World Service (CWS) 047 Saphanthong Road, Ban Saphanthong, Sisatanak districtTel: +856-21-313-837 Email: [email protected] / [email protected]

professional social worker could work in a school setting and

as a place for the trainees of the Core Skill Training course to

come and practice. The cultural aspect was very important, I

started "where they are", the first activity is a carpenter’s club,

then a garden club. Then a weaving club and rice planning

and harvesting activities all followed.

D. 2001-2004: Other Children Development Centers in two

other districts: Nahay center, Udomphone center, Phonsinuan

center in four primary schools were developed with similar

philosophy, methods and activities according to the availability

of material and human resources. My role is the social work

supervisor and I also help with fund raising.

I introduced basic social work to other organizations such as:

the Gender and Development Group, and the Health Youth

Center. I introduced the after school activity model to many

other groups, to International NGOs and their government

counterparts such as Norwegian Church Aid (NCA) for their

counterparts in the provincial education offices and schools

in Savanakhet, and Northern provinces, to the deaf school, to

the blind school and to the hospital for orthopedic patients in

National Rehabilitation Center.

E. 2004-2005: I worked with the National Drug Rehabilitation

Center (Somsanga) in Vientiane Capital with 700 drug abusers

at the request of UNODC and the Center's authority. Most

of the residents are youths from 17 years old to 35 years old.

Together with a psychologist, I introduced social work,child

rights, family therapy to doctors, nurses and police officers

and worked directly with drug abusers with many creative

methods from meditation to writing to art and craft. We also

worked with families of drug abusers.

III. 2005-2008: Introducing Social work subject to the Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) National University of Laos (NUOL): A. Preparation period:

With the experiences of working in The National Drug

Rehabilitation center, I realized long-term university training

is needed. I invited lecturers to see a 'model' of an after school

activity program in a public primary school in the Donkoi

Children Development Center, so the FSS's lecturers could

see how a professional social worker worked. After that the

20 faculty members of FSS and the Vice presidents of NUOL

also visited the National Drug Rehabilitation Drug center to

observe how we work with drug addicts.

Then a presentation of Overview of Social work was held at

Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS) National University of Laos

(NUOL). Other activities followed introducing social work

books and attending the meeting of FSS when the lecturers

were planning a curriculum for Bachelor of Sociology and

57

Social Development (BSSD). During this time, the idea of

bringing in the foreigners to teach was not feasible, so I let it

go to wait until they were ready. I consciously respected their

capacity and their culture.

B. How I become social work advisor of FSS:

The FSS asked permission for me to be the social work

advisor of FSS where we helped set up the library, working

with students and mentoring some young lecturers. At first,

a Training of Trainers (TOT) workshop in Social work, a very

basic one week long course "Introduction to Social work ",

was held for 20 lecturers of FSS run by me and my social

work student who studied social work in Vietnam. Together

with the FSS I helped to organize two conferences to

introduce the BSSD curriculum to the whole university, to

all the government ministries and to the wider international

community in Vientiane, Capital of Laos.

Our organization (Church World Service - CWS) had the

opportunity to provide scholarships to 16 Social work students

in the very first course of the BSSD, 1 scholarship for one

lecturer to the Philippines to study a Master of Social Services

and Development (MSSD). Later we funded three other young

lecturers to attend a short course in International Community

Development in the Philippines. Each year I continued to raise

funds to bring lecturers and SW students to Vietnam to attend

the World Social Work Day and study tours in social work

agencies. The dean of FSS also went to the Open university in

HCMC in 2006.

We offered children’s centers and other social work centers

as Field work placements to BSSD program.

In 2007, the first social work subject " Introduction to social

work” was taught at FSS by a social worker who graduated

from the Open university in Vietnam and a young lecturer of

FSS whom I had mentored

C. 2008: I stopped working at FSS, but I continued to support

FSS in different ways such as introducing the organization

Save Children Norway (CSN) to work with FSS. It supported

FSS with more scholarships for lecturers to study social work

and community development in Thailand and with funds for

the field work program as well as activities to strengthening

the knowledge of the UN Convention of the Rights of the

Child. CWS continued to facilitate and sponsor study trips

to Vietnam for lecturers and SW students and graduates,

accepting social work students as volunteers and interns

(Field work) in the Child Development Centers in our school

settings. CWS continued to give scholarships and mentor

many social work students who volunteer at child centers/

school, hospitals and disabled centers.

D. In 2010 FSS upgraded the BSSD to a full department called

Social Work and Development (SWD).


58

CAMPUS

agencies where they have the opportunity to be good

supervisors if they can be equipped with field instruction

courses and exposure trips to other good universities in the

region.

Another opportunity is advocacy for more public

understanding of the roles of social workers, so that, when

social work students graduate, they will be placed with

appropriate positions and duties.

An alumni association of social work graduates would give

opportunity for former students to come back and be proud

about their alma master.

This alumni has a great potential to organize a national social

work day, so social workers will have chance to come together

and learn from each other, support one another like this day

in VN. Thanks to Madame Nguyen Thi Oanh who started this

day 16 years ago, now it becomes a tradition for VN social

workers. A Social Work Day alive and thriving like today will

inspire students, young and old social workers. We do need

each other, don’t' we?

On 25 March 2010, VN has issued the very important national

policy (Decree 32) in recognizing social work profession with

the code of Social work practice 2012 -2020 by the prime

Minister Office. In July 2012 another policy of "Developing

Social Work in Health Sector 2012-2020 " by the Ministry of

Health is another milestone for social work profession that we

all will treasure for social work history in Vietnam. How these

policies are being implemented in VN is a great opportunity

for all of us to learn from and hopefully Laos will examine and

perhaps could use the Vietnamese example.

For Those Universities Already Have a Big Numbers of SW Graduates: In the process of social work practice, we always talk about

evaluation in the course of implementation, I think it will

be beneficial if we can have opportunities to reflect and to

plan for future so we can have better curriculum, teachers

and students and eventually better social work graduates to

provide better services to our countries.

FSS also introduced a Master’s degree program on Sustainable

development. Many students in this course are vice chiefs of

Districts and many hold key positions in many ministries. I

think it is good for future social development students to do

field work under the supervision of these officials

Since 2010, each year about 80 students have graduated with

BSSD (Bachelor of Sociology and Social Development). As

of September 14, 2013 there are about 419 Social workers /

development workers in Laos who received a 5 year training

at FSS, NUOL.

IV. Where Do the BSSD Graduates Work? I can only say where those work for whom CWS provided

scholarships and a few more, but not the whole population

of 383 graduates.

Some are working in hospitals, in resettlement in remote areas

in the central of Laos, some are working with issues of anti-

human trafficking in International organizations, several are

working with Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare; some are

working with a street children project of another International

organization; some are with disability centers. Four are

actually working with the FSS and one with the Personnel

Department of NUOL. Several are with the Ministry of Home

Affairs. The newest place where two BSSD work graduates

have the opportunity to work is in the National Commission

for Mothers and Children (NCMC), the special program

under the Prime Minister Office of Laos. The challenge is that

those who work in all the places mentioned do not yet have

professional social work supervisors.

I have heard that many graduates did not find social work job

or ended up doing other work.

VI. Some Personal Views If I May: It is very good that Laos now has social work education at the

national university level.

There are some constraints, but opportunities for improvement

are possible, such as for including more social work subjects.

Some case work, group work and community work courses

need to be introduced. The field instruction manual that is

being prepared has potential for more qualified supervisors.

Those students, who have graduated, are working in various

58

59

For New Universities Who Wish to Offer Social Work Course for the First Time: VN now has many social work experts in theories and many

also have rich experiences and very dedicated practitioners,

so maybe we could take advantages of these educators to help

in curriculum planning and developing.

Another opportunity is investing the existing lecturers to go

out to learn social work at direct service level and also in

high levels of social administration and training, or recruit

new social work graduates and have experienced professional

professors to train them and mentor them.

In my experiences for Asian schools of Social work for

Bachelor level, I think a curriculum with GENERIC focus is

more practical and with LOTS of FIELD WORK in necessary.

The new breed field Instructors do need to be nurtured,

mentored and supported

I would think quality needs to be emphasized in social work

training, therefore training to produce a small numbers of

good social workers is preferable to bigger numbers of Social

workers who are not so good.

We also should remember that students often look up at

lecturers and supervisors as role models therefore we need to

equipped ourselves with good knowledge, skills, dedication

and a strong code of ethics. If there is passion that will be

great because we need to motivate, to inspire the students so

they can go out to practice what they have learned and stay in

the profession and find rewards and happiness.

It would also be beneficial if we can send students out to do

volunteering work even when they are in first year. If they

have not got a paid job after their graduation, encourage them

to do volunteer work until they get the job that get pay.

For All of Us in General: Due to passion and dedication, we do have some burnt -out

social workers sometime, so we may like to think or plan

for sabbatical or other incentives for social workers to avoid

burn- out among social workers.

You might think of how to network and introduce your SW

59

graduates with government agencies such as Ministry of

Social Welfare and Labour, Health, Education, Justice, and

private agencies including business/companies each year.

Advocating for the presence of social workers in these offices

is an important job of the university.

In a country with strong culture and Buddhist culture such as

Laos, we need to pay attention to their philosophy of 'bo pen

nhang' (no problem), their calmness, their 'taking it easy ' and

use the cultural 'tools' in education and social work training.

For example, I work in a school setting, a drum is a must for

each school as drum is always used in festivals, celebration

where Lao dancing is inspired by the rhythm of the drum and

it make everyone very happy. The 'bacci' (tie cotton string

ceremony in praying for best) is often used in our workshops.

We may like to use this in therapy, in solving social problems.

For professional growth and to help each other as well as

quality practice, and to protect of social workers, a National

Association of Social workers should be the next step. Slowly

we can also join the International Federation of Social Workers

(IFSW), International Council of Social worker (ICSWS), the

Asia Pacific Association for Social Work Education (APASWE),

the International Association of Schools of Social work

(IASSW).

VII. Some Suggestions for New Social Work Graduates: Please remember social work is a profession to enhance the

quality of life, so if the first job available is not a 'social work

job' or not even related to SW, take it! And be a good social

worker in that setting to help enhance lives of the people

around you, your office, your companies. Who knows you

maybe become a personnel director of a huge company later.

Please carry the "National Policy of March 25, 2010" with

you all the time when you go to apply for a job. If there is

no job for you, offer to become a volunteer. Show them how

good you are. I think if you are good they cannot reject you

any more!


List of Conferences

60

BackwordIn the morning light we hear again

The rhythms of life still throbbing on.

Yet all of us march to different beats.

Some point to a better, brighter day,

A new millennium when the times are righted

And the bugs will bite no more,

Others see more somber scenes

Where war and famine plague the land,

Smog smears the finest views

And forests will all be lost and gone.

But like other festivals held in our town

Bouddi 2000 assures us all

That life is here to be affirmed

That guts and fortitude still abound

And laughter and love can still be found

In the houses all around.

We are everyday heroes

We have known: times of sickness and times of health,

Times of poverty and times of wealth,

Times of joy and times of grieving,

Times when life had little meaning.

We have stood face-to-face with death

And now we value every precious breath.

We are not observers of the spectacle of life

From the remote bleachers of some Olympic stadium.

We are not viewers of life on a television screen.

We are not voyeurs of the lives of the rich and famous.

We are voyagers on our own odyssey.

We are readers of the maps and signs.

We are mediators of meanings.

We are creators of culture.

We are carvers of new symbols.

This we know:

The elements, plants, animals and people

Are players in a drama in which we all have a part,

Which is written and acted every day,

Which is filed with songs of pain and joy,

Which goes on and on ‘till the end of time

When the whirling world will spin no more.

So here we live in Everyplace

Not the centre of the world

And in Everyplace the world goes around

And around and around and around,

And Everyplace deserves a space

Where trees and flowers grow

And you can watch the sun and birds

Present their morning show

And at your individual theatre in the round

Join in the drams and the comedies

The vision and the sound.

And Everyplace can be….

A Sacred Place.

This is the place where the world turns around!

This is the place where the world turns around! This is the place where the world turns around! (First published in New Community Quarterly, 10(3) 39:35)

62

IASSW Membership

If you would like to join IASSW Membership, find out more at:

http://www.iassw-aiets.org/categories-and-fee-structure

Project Funding − Call for Proposals

IASSW Grants for Projects in Social Work Education

IASSW invites proposals for projects, designed to advance social work education

internationally. Grants of up to US $4.000 are available for proposals that can be

expected to contribute to the implementation of the IASSW Mission Statement,

and to the enhancement of cooperation among schools of social work world-wide.

This is continuous aspect of IASSW activities but the final submission date

for the next round of bids is 30 of November 2014.

Proposals with filled Cover page (can be downloaded from IASSW Websire)

for Project Application should be sent by e-mail to: [email protected],

with a copy to the IASSW office: [email protected]

For more information and guidelines for submission, visit:

http://www.iassw-aiets.org/project-funding

Subscribe to Social Dialogue

If you are interested in subscribing to printed version of Social Dialogue,

please contact us at [email protected]

Ads with Social Dialogue

If you would like to reach out to our readers around the globe

by advertising in Social Dialogue,

please contact us at [email protected]


Website: www.social-dialogue.comFacebook: www.facebook.com/Social.Dialogue.Magazine

Published by:

Semigina, T., Boyko, O., Nazaruk, V. (2014) Social enterprising in Ukraine: quo vadis?

Documents

Transcript of Semigina, T., Boyko, O., Nazaruk, V. (2014) Social enterprising in Ukraine: quo vadis?