16.

Examine the basic personal Social Work skills relevant to community social work
practice.

Community work is a conscious process of social work concerned with the meeting of broad
needs and resources in a particular community. Utilizing social worker’s skills it helps people to
deal with their problems effectively and help people maintain qualities of participation, self-
direction and cooperation. Community work is a method of intervention whereby individuals,
groups and organizations engage in planned action to influence social problems (Zastrow 2013).
For social workers to practice community work, they need to poses basic skills that include
planning, organizing, critical thinking, verbal and non-verbal communication, persuasion, self-
awareness, and coordination. These abilities are basic to community work practice.

Community work is a conscious process of social work concerned with planning and organizing.
Planning is identifying problems, finding out causes of problems and formulating solutions and
organizing is developing the constitution and devising the strategies to effect action(). These two
are major objectives of social work and therefore are the basic abilities that must be found within
a social worker practicing community work(Homan, 2010). The skill of planning is necessary in
carrying out the approach of social planning in community work whereby there are plans made
for about three years and again in policy making. Combined with the skill of organizing, the
social worker can be an effective social planner and developer in the field of community work.
These skills are vital in helping people to deal more effectively with their problems and
objectives by helping them develop strength and maintain qualities of participation, self-
direction, and imparting in them the skill of planning to bring development in community
through cooperation

A social worker’s efficacy hangs on his or her level of self-awareness and the ability to interpret
the diversity of cultures. This helps a social worker to carry an effective operation in different
cultures. It is important to be culturally competent because culture influences behavior of clients
and of the practitioner as well. There is need for competence in observing, exploring and
articulating how thoughts and feelings impact behavior. The Johari window provide with a great
deal in increasing the self-awareness (Homan, 2010). As a community social worker, it is best if
social workers are aware on how their thoughts, feelings, culture and behavior impacts the client
system. For example if one is a practitioner from Zimbabwe practicing in South Africa, he or she
might find it difficult to deal with homosexuals, but is one is aware of themselves and of their
cultural differences, it is easy to adjust and do as the profession requires. If one cannot assess
themselves, there is greater possibility of breaking most of the ethical rules. When ethical
conducts are broken, weather knowingly or unknowingly, the profession’ dignity is diminished.
Therefore, self-awareness and cultural competence are the basic skills needed for a social worker
to possess.

Critical thinking is one of the basic ability that is needed in community work practice. When
conducting a social research, a community worker needs to apply critical thinking where they
analyze every possible meaning of the data that is gathered. Critical thinking is also a necessary
tool when faced with ethical dilemmas in practice of social work (Teater, 2010). An example of a
dilemma in community work is when a social worker finds out that the local authority is
jeopardizing the rights of the community by neglecting them, He or she might have to choose to
oppose the local authority and challenge it through social action or stay in it as he or she is an
employee of that local authority. This might be a case where one is working for the council and
yet the council infringes human rights like on water and shelter, this may need critical thinking
as to make decisions that carries no regret in the future. For that reason, the social community
worker must have this basic skill of critical thinking.

Social worker need to have verbal and non-verbal communication skills to be effective in
community social work practice. Communication skills involve active listening to understand
and speaking to be understood by participant or client. Social worker may alter her
communication style multiple times during single work day to maximize he effectiveness with
clients, colleagues, supervisors or community members (Passmore,1972). In addition to receiving
and processing verbal information, a social worker must be sensitive to body language, social
cues, and implications in cultural patterns of behavior. This verbal and non- verbal
communication is a crucial need especially when working within the community all the time. If
one has no such skills he or she might not be able to make people understand what he or she has
to deliver to them hence service provision is compromised. It is also to understand body
language for the sake that some people use their body language most than verbal. Mupedziswa
(1996) puts that nonverbal language tales 50% of the total massage. This has a reflection that one
has to know the language of the people that he or she is working with, the cultural patterns and
meanings of the nonverbal cues; this is for the benefit of communication since communication is
the vehicle of nay progress.

Community social workers need to have the basic skill of persuasion. whether to help a client,
change behavior or motivate a health care worker to provide or justify coverage of expenses to
an insurance provider, the ability to influence, invite or coax others to take actions is valuable to
any social worker(Passmore,1972). It is the ability to persuade that makes an idea agreeable to
someone who has never thought of it before. As a community social worker, one might discover
that there is a potential problem to the community and tries to communicate it to people, for
example if a social worker would have heard of cyclone idai, there was need to persuade people
to take action, but since it was something that has had never had happened, people would not
have agreed so easily. This would justify the need of a persuasive ability where by one speaks
not out of assumptions but with evidence so that people believe in the cause. Another example is
when there is a society that has never used hospitals due to religious issues, and there is need to
persuade them to realize the merits of using hospitals so as to reduce the diseases and death rate
among them, there is need to have conducive evidence that hospital is good but without crossing
the ethical obligation of self-determination.

The ability to coordinate communication and action among multiple parties is a vital part of
social works role in connecting client with services. As social worker is the community practice
does have many clients, they need to have coordination skills so that they may be able to arrange
and attend to each and every client. Linking client to resources require high quality skills of
coordination (Teater, 2010). It is true that social workers do not provide every kind of services to
the community and in cases where there is need for external intervention; they link clients to
other professionals. For this to be achieved, a social worker need to have this networking skill,
they need to know where the resources are found and how to get them. They need to have a high
degree of social awareness facilities of a social worker’s ability to identify transference and
counter transference issues and utilize this information to access quality of intervention.

The essay has examined the basic skills that are necessary for community work practice. It has
been also revealed the relevance and benefits of these skills to community work practice. The
skills include good and quality communication skills, the ability to persuade, critical thinking
and the ability to plan and organize. As examined above, social workers practicing community
work necessarily need to possess these skills for the benefit of the community.

REFERENCES

Zastrow,C.H.(2013) The Practice of Social Work: A Comprehensive Worktext, Aurora

University; S4Carlisle Publishing Services

Teater, B., (2010) An Introduction to Applying Social Work Theories and Methods. 1st Edition
Open University press.

Passmore, G. (1972) The National Policy of Community Development in Rhodesia, Harare;

University of Rhodesia Press.

Mupedziswa, R. (1996)Community Development in Zimbabwe in Social Work Practice in

Africa edited by Hutton, M. and Mwansa, L.K.

Homan, S. M. (2010). Promoting community change: Making it happen in the real world. (5th
ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company