Paule McNicoll has been a frequent presenter at AASWG Symposium sessions, and gave a memorable plenary address at the 22^nd Symposium, in Toronto. She is Associate Professor at the School of Social Work and Family Studies, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, where she teaches social group work at the undergraduate and graduate levels. She holds an MSW from the University of British Columbia and a PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Washington. Prior to her academic career, she had 15 years of experience as a professional social worker in medical, psychiatric, educational and community settings. Dr. McNicoll was instrumental in founding the Multicultural Family Centre in East Vancouver at the beginning of the 1990s. Her research and teaching interests include group work, cultural diversity, health and mental health, disability, interprofessional education and participatory action research. In collaboration with Frank Tester, Dr. McNicoll is currently doing research on the history of medical services in the eastern Arctic. She is currently Senior Editor of the Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health. Her recent publications include, “Current Innovations in Social Work with Groups to Address Issues of Social Justice,” and “Group Work in Social Work Education: The Canadian Experience.” More information about Dr. McNicoll is available online, at http://www.socialwork.ubc.ca/about_us/faculty_pages/mcnicoll.htm

Topic:

Group Work and Globalization: A Post-Colonial Reflection

Group work is a social work method indispensable in clinical and social development contexts to empower individuals and communities, facilitate the emergence of mutual-aid, and further democratic practices. There exists no other approach with such progressive potential. Still, we cannot take anything for granted: we have a need and a duty to regularly assess and critique our practices, even the most successful ones. This presentation will consist of a post-colonial reflection on group work practice in cross-cultural environments.

As our world experiences a rapid process of economic and social globalization, increasingly, group work is used in cross-cultural contexts. These contexts cannot be construed as neutral. When two cultures enter in contact, the playing field is rarely even: one culture is perceived as more “advanced” than the other. Too often the dominant culture belittles, distorts and eventually replaces the less powerful one. Because all cultures are receptacles of traditional wisdom, we all risk losing part of our common human heritage and the repertoire of ingenuous human behavior may be diminished.
This presentation will challenge the assumption that the effects of group work are necessarily all positive or, at the minimum, benign. Dr. McNicoll will provide illustrations from her work with several groups of people, and will make suggestions for practice and a plea for dynamic investments into research on cross-cultural group work.

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SATURDAY PLENARY BREAKFAST

Presenter:

Joan Pennell, PhD, MSW, North Carolina State University

Joan Pennell is a longstanding AAWSG member. She is Professor and Head, Department of Social Work, at North Carolina State University, where she teaches and carries out training and evaluation on family-centered meetings in child welfare. She is the principal investigator of the North Carolina Family-Centered Meetings Project and previously directed the North Carolina Family Group Conferencing Project, both with the goal of fostering inclusive group approaches to planning in child welfare. Previously, she taught at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Social Work in Winnipeg. Before her return to the U.S., she served as a principal investigator for a Newfoundland and Labrador (Canada) demonstration of family group conferencing in situations of child maltreatment and domestic violence. Earlier, she helped to found the first shelter for abused women and their children in Newfoundland and has co-facilitated support groups for abused women of European and Aboriginal descent. Her writings particularly focus on empowerment approaches to group work, community practice, program development, and research. She believes that concerns can be resolved and peaceful solutions found by bringing together a larger group in which participants listen closely, respect diversity, and form a unity of spirit. Additional information about Dr. Pennell is available online, at

http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/jpennell/

Topic:

Cultural Safety, Family Violence, and Group Work

Social work with groups is a bicultural context of intervention. As a profession, we bring a culture of ethics and commitment to change in our engagement with groups. Whether group facilitator or group supporter, the worker takes part in a bicultural exchange with participants, each holding their own values and traditions. Differences in views are likely to emerge when the group addresses family violence; and tensions can escalate when the participants are connected to each other by family, friendship, or community ties. In groups addressing domestic violence and child maltreatment, how can the group advance a sense of cultural safety in which participants can express their own views? What are the aspects of cultural safety that come to forefront as the group develops? How is cultural safety linked with physical and emotional safety? How can this bicultural and often multicultural exchange create opportunities for understanding, safety, healing, and growth?

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SATURDAY BANQUET KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:

Beulah G. Rothman Memorial Lecture

Panel Presentation

Crossing the Boundaries:

Use of Social Work Group Skills in Non-Traditional Settings

Panel Moderator:

Dean Phyllis I. Vroom, PhD, MSW, Wayne State University School of Social Work

Panel Discussants:

Maryann Mahaffey, MSW, President, Detroit City Council. Working with Groups in City Government

Dean Peter Vaughan, PhD, MSW, Fordham School of Social Work. Working with Groups in a University Setting

Jacquelin E. Washington, MSW, Board of Governors, Wayne State University. Working with Groups in University Governance

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FRIDAY BREAKFAST PLENARY

Presenter:

Michael Spencer, PhD, MSSW, The University of Michigan

Dr. Spencer is Associate Professor at The University of Michigan. His research focuses on the health and mental health of populations of color, and he is currently examining the causes and consequences of disparities in the health, mental health, and service use of people of color. Dr. Spencer is the Principal Investigator of the Family Development Project, a University of Michigan/Detroit Head Start community-based research partnership. He is also the Co-Principal Investigator for the REACH Detroit Partnership, another community-based, participatory research partnership. The goal of REACH Detroit is to reduce health disparities, particularly diabetes, among African American and Latino Eastside and Southwest Detroit residents through the promotion of a healthy lifestyle and self-management of health. Dr. Spencer is of mixed race, Native Hawaiian descent. He was born and raised in Honolulu, and has lived on the continental US (Texas, Washington, and Michigan) for 15 years. His interests in diversity and social justice are largely drawn from these experiences. More information about Dr. Spencer can be found online at http://www.ssw.umich.edu/faculty/profile-spencerm.html

Topic:

Dialogues for Diversity and Social Justice

This plenary will introduce the principles and objectives of dialogues for diversity and social justice, a group-based, facilitated method for promoting communication and bridging differences across groups of people who have a history of conflict or differing perspectives. The groups are typically identity-based and founded upon the principles of Paulo Freire and popular education. Dialogues are used in classroom settings to facilitate self-awareness and exploration, and in communities to promote coalition building and social action.

Dialogue groups are a pedagogical model of social justice education that incorporates small groups for the purpose of discussing difficult issues among individuals from social identity groups who have a history of conflict. These groups utilize peer facilitation with the goals of self-awareness, perspective taking, building bridges across differences, and social change/action. Dialogue groups were initially developed by the Program on Intergroup Relations, Community, and Conflict at the University of Michigan for undergraduate students. Dr. Spencer was one of the first to bring these groups to Master’s level Social Work students for the purposes of teaching content on diversity and social justice. Dr. Spencer has developed a course on Dialogue Group facilitation training. The goal of this course is to create cohorts of MSW level students with the necessary skills to promote awareness and action around issues of diversity and social justice in their professional, familial, and social communities.