SWK 115 Community Resources
Spring 2005
M 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.
Two hours or more Blackboard/community work per week
Location: L Building conference room
Instructor: Sheri Narin
Office: L130
Office Hours: Posted by Office Door
Phone Number: (336) 599-1181 Ext. 424
E-mail: narins@piedmontcc.edu
Course Website: http://courses.piedmontcc.edu/
Faculty Website: http://www2.piedmontcc.edu/faculty/narins
Textbooks:
Tropman, J.E. (1997) Successful community leadership: A skills guide for volunteers and professionals, Washington, D.C.: New York: NASW Press.
Barsky, A. E. (2000) Conflict resolution for the helping professions, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Other Required Materials: A large three-ring binder is required. Section dividers will also be required.
Course Description: This course introduces community resources essential to social work practice. Emphasis is placed on awareness of and the interaction with community service personnel. Upon completion, students should be able to identify resources and assess critical community needs. This course is a unique concentration requirement of the Social Services Concentration in the Human Services Technology Program.
Classroom - 2 Lab - 2 Clinic - 0 Credit - 3
Prerequisite/Corequisites: SWK 110 or permission of the instructor.
Course Objectives:
1. Student will identify at least 25 community resources and give detailed descriptions of the services available at these resources.
2. Student will develop and maintain an easily usable community resource notebook about these resources.
3. Student will identify the steps necessary to write a grant. Student will demonstrate an understanding of these steps through writing a mock grant.
4. Student will identify needs and problems in the local communities and match resources to the needs.
5. Student will identify physical location of at least 5 community resources and describe the process of getting assistance at this site.
6. Student will demonstrate at least three skills in conflict resolution through role plays and assignments.
Evaluation
A combination of in class and homework assignments, notebook evaluation, profile postings, blackboard postings and grant development and presentation will comprise the basis of evaluation for this course. Evaluation will be based on an accumulative point system with a total of approximately 2000 points available. Total point value is subject to change.
Homework
You will be given several homework assignments. Assignments are to be turned on the due date and at the beginning of the class period due. See policy below on late assignments.
Notebook
You will maintain a three-ring binder with information from each community resource about which you learn. Information will be filled out on a profile form and each agency will have a separate area of the notebook (separated by dividers). Information should be neatly written and easily readable. Working effectively in the community depends on building relationships with other professionals in the community. Thus, personal contact with agency representatives is important.
You will be responsible for contacting agencies and arranging interviews on your own. You will have a list of agencies and should do at least five interviews every three weeks for a total of twenty-five interviews done on your own by the end of the semester. Every time your notebook is collected, there should be five additional profiles, plus profiles from anyone who comes to the class. The interviews may be done in person or by phone but must be done by you, not copied from someone else. You may arrange for several students in the class to meet with someone to interview them at the same time. You can choose any of the twenty-five agencies from the attached list. If you have another agency at which you would like to do an interview, please contact me first to get permission. There may be some agency representatives who will be coming to the classroom.
Notebooks will be collected approximately every three to four weeks. Grades will reflect accuracy and presentation of information as well as completeness and neatness. Misspelled names of agency representatives or agencies and other inaccurate information will result in loss of points.
Notebook Postings on Blackboard
You will also responsible for posting a note each time you complete a profile. You will see a forum for each month and each time you complete a profile, you will need to post a note saying 'Profile # 1" (or whatever #), and in the message, post when you did the interview, with whom you spoke, whether the interview was in person or by phone, and one interesting thing you learned from that interview. If several of you interviewed the same person at one time, each person is still responsible for posting a message. Profiles should be posted within three days (including weekends) of your interview. Late notebook postings will lose 1 point per day.
Discussion Board Postings
Each week, you will respond to one or two blackboard questions. They will generally be related to readings in Successful Community Leadership. You access this by
Each set of blackboard responses will be given a grade. Late responses will not be graded Your response will answer the initial question. If the question asks for an opinion, you will not be graded on the content of your opinion, as long as you can back up your opinion (Explaining why you feel or think that way, including what experiences/knowledge led you to that conclusion). Answers are expected to be well thought out and in full sentences. An example of an appropriate answer is: ?I think that these services exist because of this event (be specific) and this problem (be specific). These services are valuable because...??
You will respond to two of your classmate?s answers as well for each question. Your response to their answer will indicate agreement, disagreement, or further thoughts that your classmate?s answer provoked. An example would be, ?I disagree with your answer because of this point, and wondered if you had thought of this further point??
Students are encouraged to start discussions by replying to other students? responses to your answers.
Questions should be answered each week by 8:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Your response to other students should be posted by Sundays at 8:00 p.m. Some weeks? questions may be posted ahead of time; please do not answer questions any more than two weeks ahead of
due date.
Discussion Board Answer Grading Policies:
a. Clarity
b. Specificity
c. Usefulness to student (will it help the student to get a better grade on next discussion question?)
d. Balance - does the feedback point out strengths in the discussion as well as areas of weakness?
e. Helpfulness - Does the feedback provide resources to assist student in further research?
The following is an example of ?A? quality work. The discussion board question was, ?What do you think are the most common mistakes made by social workers working in child protective services? What causes these mistakes to be made? How can these mistakes be avoided or reduced? Remember to consider the role of other agents or agencies in these decisions and the multiple party responsibilities in these situations.? The student?s answer is below:
I believe that some of the most common mistakes made by social workers working in child protective services are: ?misidentifying serious cases, wrongful removal of children, inaccurate and incomplete data entry for tracking abuse and neglect and monitoring children in foster care, not establishing relationships with the families to make the necessary decisions, and hurting the children that they are supposed to protect.? I read an article that didn?t speak too favorably about child protection workers, but I believe the points made are very real. The article states that low salaries, high turnover rates, and staffing shortages put pressure on the remaining staff members of the agencies; this causes insufficient time for workers to establish relationships with the families and make the necessary decisions to ensure safe and stable permanent placements for the children. The heavy caseloads breed errors in documentation of case information. Another mistake is the unnecessary removals ? misidentifying serious cases or wrongful removal of children. The article calls it ?defensive social work.? It stated that child protection workers are possibly trying to protect themselves from liability (danger creation theory); if they question the safety of a child, they remove that child, which is also what they do when they actually identify safety risks for children in identifiable, abusive homes. It has been identified as the ?better safe than sorry? mentality. Some child protection workers do not want to be held accountable for ?inappropriately returning a child to an abusive parent? for fear of liability. What is most unfortunate is the fact that children can and are being hurt by abusive parents and/or child protection workers alike.
I think it is important to provide some additional oversight of child protection cases; have some form of checks and balances to ensure effective and efficient service provision. Agencies should address the recruitment and retention of its child protection workers so to ensure that the children and families are not being shuffled from one worker to another; this would increase the familiarity of the cases and reduce the number of cases per worker. Also, adequate documentation should be kept to help back up the claims of child abuse and neglect. Adequate documentation can also help in identifying what interventions are working within the agency and with the child protection workers. And, what I think is most important to the accuracy and efficiency of providing services to children and families is to engage in self evaluations at the agency and personal level. Agencies can evaluate whether or not their vision, mission, and values all support creating better results for children and families. Child protection workers can evaluate who they are, including, what their morals and values are, what biases they may have, and what drives them to do what they do. Regular self evaluations are necessary for providing children and families the best possible assistance and can also ensure better results for children and families.
Works Cited:
A Critical Look at Child Welfare: Defensive Social Work, 5 Feb 2006, Rick Thomas. 6 Feb. 2006 http://www.liftingtheveil.org/defensive.htm
Alexander, R., Jr., Understanding Legal Concepts That Influence Social Welfare Policy and Practice, 2003, Brooks/Cole Publishers. ISBN: 0-534-59661-4
Child Welfare: Improved Federal Oversight Could Assist States In Overcoming Key Challenges GAO-04-418T, 28 Jan. 2004, Government Accountability Office (GAO): Report Abstract. 6 Feb. 2006 http://www.gao.gov/docdblite/summary.php?recflag=&accno=A09174&rptno=GAO-04-41
The following is a response to another student?s post. This response is also ?A: quality work:
I can understand your concern for the safety of others when a threat of harm has been established. My only concern is that maybe we (me included) are forgetting that sometimes people say things out of anger and with a limited vocabulary or means to express themselves completely. For instance, a mother speaking about the way she feels when her adolescent daughter stays out all night without calling. The mother, out of pure anger says, ?I am going to strangle that child when I see her!? Do you automatically report this information to the authorities or the Department of Social Services? I wouldn?t. What I would do is reflect back to the client the message that I am receiving. I might follow up with, ?It sounds like you are angry with your daughter because of her behavior. Is strangling her something that you would do?? Not saying that this mother would not strangle her daughter, but she may have used those terms for lack of better word choices. Like using the terms, ?I could kill ?em.? I think it is important to get as much information from the client as possible. Now if the mother says to you, ?When my daughter walks in the door, I am going to walk up to her, put my hands around her neck, and choke her until she can no longer breathe and falls over lifeless? there is definite reason to be alarmed and to contact the authorities. Sometimes clients don?t have the ?words? to express themselves or their feelings. They use what they know?regardless of how incriminating it can sometimes be. Just something to consider.
Grant Project
Thirty percent of your grade for this class will come from your grant presentation with 10 % reflecting the work you do up to the final presentation, 10% reflecting the final grant project, and 10% reflecting your oral presentation. However, failure to get a 'C' or higher on your final written and oral presentation will result in an 'F' for the class. You will turn in bi-weekly progress reports or your group?s work.
Work you do on the project will include assignments to be submitted, work on the group discussion board, and a group progress report to be submitted periodically.
EXTRA CREDIT!
Extra Credit: Perfect attendance will result in 1.5% added to your grade at the end of the semester. Being on time for every class will also be rewarded with an extra .5% points at the end of the semester.
You can also do up to three extra profiles, to be submitted with your last notebook submission. However, you can only get these points if you have submitted the twenty-five required profiles.
GRADING SCALE (SUBJECT TO CHANGE DEPENDING ON FINAL POINT VALUE TOTAL):
2000 to 1800 = A; 1799 TO 1600 = B; 1599 TO 1400 = C; 1399 TO 1200 = D; Below 1200 = F.
CLASS POLICIES:
1. You are expected to be on time and prepared for class. If you are unable to
be in class, you are expected to let the instructor know by leaving a message by
phone or email previous to the class period.
2. Assignments are to be turned in on the date due and at the beginning of the
class period due. You are responsible for making up any missed in-class
assignments; however, some assignments cannot be made up.
3. As noted in the attendance policy, excessive absences will reflect negatively
on your grade.
4. The ability to write well is an important skill for your professional
development. Assignments that are difficult to read due to handwriting will be
returned with one opportunity to redo the assignment, within 2 days. Typing is
strongly recommended. Some assignments require typing and will not be accepted
if not typed. Assignments with excessive grammatical or spelling errors
(excessive as subjectively defined by the instructor) will be returned with one
opportunity to make corrections.
5) Below is the PCC policy on plagiarism:
7.5.1
PLAGIARISM
Whether intentional or unintentional, plagiarism is ?the wrongful act of taking the product of another person's mind and presenting it as one's own" (Alexander Lindey, Plagiarism and Originality, 1952).
The following acts are examples of intentional plagiarism:
Copying material from a published source to avoid having to devise one?s own ideas.
Failing to give clear and proper credit to an idea, phrase, or quotation taken from a source.
Purchasing a pre-written paper.
Having someone other than the stated author complete an assignment, or part of an assignment.
Unintentional Plagiarism occurs when a student provides sources for his or her work, but the sources are cited incorrectly or inadequately. Handbooks with documentation rules for Modern Language Association (MLA) and American Psychology Association (APA), two source documentation styles, are housed in the Caswell County Campus Resource Center and in the Person County Campus Learning Resource Center. Students are also encouraged to speak with their instructors when they are uncertain about documenting their sources in class assignments.
Plagiarism will result in disciplinary action, and repeated offenses will lead to increased penalties that may ultimately result in expulsion from the College, as set out below:
A student who unintentionally plagiarizes will receive a warning and instruction on proper citation, style, and usage for the first offense.
A student who unintentionally plagiarizes a second time in a single course will receive a course grade of F in the course in which the student plagiarized.
A student who intentionally plagiarizes will receive a course grade of F in the course in which the student plagiarized.
If a student receives a course grade of F due to plagiarism, the course instructor will notify the Dean of Student Development using the Plagiarism Incident Report Form.
If a student receives three course grades of F due to plagiarism, as determined by records kept in the office of the Dean of Student Development, he or she will be expelled from the College.
Legal Reference: G.S. 115 D-20
History Note: Effective January 20, 2004
6) Assistance: Please contact me by phone or email with any questions or problems. There is also a distance-learning counselor available. Her name is Libbie McPhaul-Moore and she can be contacted at 599 - 1181 ext. 445.
7) Email policies: When sending an email to your instructor, please make sure that in the title, you put the course code (SWK 113, SWK115, etc.), your name, and to what this is in reference (Module two homework assignment, etc.). Emails that do not identify the speaker in the title line may be deleted to protect from viruses.
8) Late Assignments: Homework assignments that are late lose 5 points a day. Late discussion board entries will not be graded. However, you have three ?freebie? cards for this class. You may turn one homework assignment in up to seven days late without penalty. You may turn one homework assignment in up to three days late without penalty, and you may turn one homework assignment in up to one day late without penalty. If you do not use any of your cards during the semester, you can ?turn them in? at the end of the semester for 30 points extra credit.
9) Dropping the class: If you choose to drop the class, you must complete a drop form. If you do not complete the drop form you will receive an ?F? in the class.
10) Cell phones and beepers should be turned
off or on vibrate in class. If you do get a call, please leave the classroom
before answering the call.
Student Success Center
Piedmont Community College now offers a
comprehensive package of services to assist students with their academic
success. The Student Success Center, located in Room G-204, provides a variety
of free learning support services including computer access, tutoring,
supplemental instruction, study groups, and other academic services. Visit or
call Gloria Bennett, Coordinator of the Student Success Center, at 599-1181 ext.
276 to access this valuable student resource.
Students with Disabilities
If you have a disability that may affect your academic performance and need accommodations, you may contact the Special Needs Counselor, Shelley Stone in E-Building. It is important to request accommodations early in order to give the counselor adequate time to consider your request and recommend reasonable accommodations. Information provided to Ms. Stone will be kept confidential.
Financial Aid
It is important to be aware that withdrawing from a class or failing a class may
adversely affect financial aid availability, and at times will result in your
having to pay back money to the school. You are strongly encouraged to talk with
the financial aid office before withdrawing from a class.
Location Schedule:
All classes will meet in the L building conference room, unless otherwise noted.
CLASS SCHEDULE (Subject to change):
For each week, there will be one or two discussion board questions to be answered. Please post your response to discussion board questions by Wednesday evening at 8:00 p.m. and response to two other students, for each question, by Sunday at 8:00 p.m.
Class Meeting Days:
Blackboard Weeks:
Week One: Monday, January 9, 2006 to Sunday, January 15, 2006
Week Two: Tuesday, January 16, 2006 to Sunday, January 22, 2006
Week Three: Monday, January 23, 2006 to Sunday, January 29, 2006
Week Four: Monday, January 30, 2006 to Sunday, February 5, 2006
Week Five: Monday, February 6, 2006 to Sunday, February 12, 2006
Week Six: Monday, February 13, 2006 to Sunday, February 19, 2006
Week Seven: Monday, February 20, 2006 to Sunday, February 26, 2006
Week Eight: Monday, February 27, 2006 to Sunday, March 5, 2006
Week Nine: Monday, March 13, 2006 to Sunday, March 19, 2006
Week Ten: Monday, March 20, 2006 to Sunday, March 26, 2006
Week Eleven: Monday, March 27, 2006 to Sunday, April 2, 2006
Week Twelve: Monday, April 3, 2006 to Sunday, April 9, 2006
Week Thirteen: Monday, April 10, 2006 to Thursday, April 13, 2006 and Wednesday, April 19, 2006 to Sunday, April 23, 2006
Week Fourteen: Monday, April 24, 2006 to Sunday, April 30, 2006
Week Fifteen: Monday, May 1, 2006 to Sunday, May 7, 2006
Week Sixteen: Monday, May 8, 2006 to Saturday, May 13, 2006