Introduction
Social group work enhances problem-solving skills in human relationships; it promotes social change and brings liberation among people through empowerment to improve their well-being. In using human behaviour and social systems theories, social group work comes in at the instance where people interact with their environment.
Social group work is built upon the principles of social justice and human rights, Social group work lights on the multiple and the intricate transactions that occur between the people and the environment. The sole purpose of social group work is to enable people to cultivate their full capabilities while still enriching themselves. This prevents dysfunction. Professional social group work is directed towards change and problem-solving activities.
As a result of these, social group workers are deemed to be the agents of change not only in society but also in the lives of individuals, communities and families from where they originate and serve. It is therefore a discipline or a profession that is related to theory, practice and system of values. Social group work came as a result of the democratic as well as the humanitarian ideals and the respect for the dignity of the people, worth and need for equality which makes its core values. It has therefore been operating towards developing human potential and meeting human needs. (Mannix and Gruenfeld, 2005)
Social justice and human rights function as the justification and the motivation for social work action towards those who are disadvantaged the social group work profession works as a source of hope because it helps in promoting social inclusion through poverty alleviation activities and liberating the oppressed and vulnerable people. Its values are therefore embedded in the profession’s international and national code of ethics.
Practice and research evaluation which includes the indigenous as well as the local knowledge which is specific to the content of the social group work forms the basis of a systematic body of evidence that is based on the methodology used to carry out this research.
This puts in view the intricate nature of interactions between the human beings and the environment and in addition the abilities of the people to be affected and to change the multiple influences upon them which includes the bio-psychosocial factors. The social group profession, therefore, draws on different theories of behaviours of human beings and development as well as the social systems in order to clarify the complex situations and still to enhance the organizational, cultural and social changes. Social group work helps in addressing the inequities, barriers and injustices that exist in society. (Bronson, 2002)
It is a live wire that responds to emergencies and crises and also to everyday social and personal problems. Social group work makes use of a variety of techniques, skills and activities which go in line with its holistic focus on individuals and the environment surrounding them. The interventions include among others the social policy, planning and development and also the person-focused psychosocial processes. Good examples of the interventions include counselling, group work, clinical social group work, social pedagogical work, efforts of helping people obtain resources and services in the society or the community.
These interventions also include community engagement in the social and political actions, agency administration aimed at impacting economic development and social policy. The focus of social group work is global but the major proprieties of social group work practices vary from one country to the other and still from time to time depending on the historical, cultural as well as socio-economic conditions.
There are four main elements of social group work namely, the social glue, a relaxer, structure of work and the maximizer of productivity. To better understand these four elements, tea will be taken to represent social group work and the elements of tea taken to infer the elements of social group work. (Mannix and Gruenfeld, 2005)
Firstly just as tea is social glue social group work is also social glue. One feels like part and parcel of a workforce when sharing a cup of tea with them. It is therefore a professional inclusion. It acts as a bond between different groups of people. Tea brings people together and a big percentage of people drink tea. Social group work also plays the same role as tea because it bonds different people together for a common goal. When in a social workgroup, one feels like part and parcel of the group regardless of the qualifications and the natural background. It, therefore, brings about the professionalism of inclusion.
In the same manner, the gender divide is not observed when serving tea and making tea. While coffee was basically seen as belonging to men, tea was socially neutral and was deemed as a drink for both men and women regardless of the class of people. Likewise, social group work does not segregate on gender and does not value what belongs to men or women. It is inclusive and it is socially neutral.
Tea acts as a relaxer. It is refreshing and soothes one out of irritable situations. It also provides an energy level booster and helps one keep on going when things are tough and also when things start to flag. Tea functions as a transitional marker of achievement and progress which is an important element in breaching the gap of time. People take tea with a break and so does social group work it does not come every time for it to be meaningful.
Just as a cup of tea is important when one wants to breach the gap between one activity to the other social group work is also vital in ensuring that time is well utilized in meaningful activities which will obviously yield positive fruits to the society as a whole. Another element of tea and which is deemed to be an element of social group work is that tea maximizes productivity. (Bronson, 2002)
A general feeling is that tea making is a way of helping. It is not just a method of refreshment provision but more likened to holding a dado rail exactly in one level while another partner fixes it to a surface. It helps keep peoples attention focused and improve the concentration level of a person because one strives to achieve perfect results. Tea making helps both the group and the individuals in the group to maximize their productivity.
This is also an element of social group work because just like tea when undertaking any activity as a group it is viewed as a way of helping. Individual’s contribution results in maximization of productivity. These four elements of tea seem to be the key elements of social group work. (Mannix and Gruenfeld, 2005)
Adventure training
Adventure training is defined as a form of activities that revolve around outdoor training which require challenging pursuits and is undertaken by service personnel. It has its origin in experiential programs which are carried out outdoor. It is an effective medium that is used to deliver results that fall within a range of disciplines such as corporate teamwork, school outdoor education psychological counselling and youth at risk. Among the most important lessons learnt in adventure, training is moral courage, powers of endurance as well as interdependence.
Those taking part in adventure training are required to demonstrate a high degree of leadership qualities, qualities of fitness, initiative and they by inference contain an ever-present risk of limb and life. The adventure commanders require that the team members embrace themselves with essential soldierly qualities of determination, courage, leadership, loyalty and team spirit.
Participation in adventurous training is aimed at developing necessary qualities that affect positively the members abilities to stand their ground during tough times encapsulated with shocks and strains. In adventurous training it is not experienced is not mandatory as opportunities for learning and cultivating the required skills is what is vital. Adventure training trains an individual in exciting and new ways which offer more challenge than what an individual member is used to. A new environment helps members break away from everyday distractions and situations.
A perfect tool for achieving this purpose is therefore an exciting environment that is filled with fun and adventure that enhances learning. People’s skills such as cooperation, trust, goal setting, commitment, communication and leadership are developed and assessed with an aim of enhancing improvement on individual’s levels of performance. Adventure training has both low and high elements. Low elements of adventure training are used for group problem solving as well as team building. High elements of adventure training are based on risks which focus mostly on developing trust and self-confidence. Equipment used in high elements are carabiners, belay ropes and harnesses. (Bronson, 2002)
Effort, motivation and thinking are the tools used in low elements. In adventure, training group sizes vary sizes of six to several hundreds of people. The program is carried out in days or several hours. The abilities of people in the group determine the program’s designation because the adventure programs are suitable for people of all ages and no athletic ability is required. The person participating in the activities determines their own levels of involvement.
The programs are designed to match the group size location desires and the time length. Adventure training is an effective way of developing teams that can be utilized back in the office and resources must be channelled to encouraging the practice of team behaviour. Follow up procedures must be done to ensure that the teams put into action whatever they practised during their adventure training. (Bronson, 2002)
This training goes a long way into helping companies change their own corporate culture and also change the motivational climate. Interest in providing trust towards an organization applies either ropes courses, group initiatives or a combination of both approaches to the need. During adventure training, male heart rates should range from 64% which is explained by height, age, weight, body girths and time to walk a distance of one mile. In developing interpersonal trust touch plays a very great and important role. Programs of adventure training impact the bottom line but the absence of follow up procedures causes it to be a one-shot wonder. Facilitation through solution focus approach works very well with dysfunctional groups.
Trust is one of the most important virtues that adventure training seeks to address and instil in the life of a member of a group. Five types of trust exist during adventure training programs. These include confidentiality, believability, acceptance, dependability and encouragement. Different kinds of trust are developed using different kinds of programme activities. Member’s ability to care about their safety is vital for creating trust and maintaining it while on the other hand, the use of experts interferes with the creation and maintenance of trust. Programmes such as abseiling and rappelling influences positively willingness to take risks among the members.
Training such as rock climbing, challenge courses help improve the corporate culture. In adventure training, incorrect ordering of activities can result in retardation of the programmes which affects the overall objective of such a program in the development of teamwork. To quantify impacts of cohesion in groups repeated measures of a series of groups are analyzed with time and treatment group as the independent variable.
Differences and commonalities between adventure training and social group work
One of the most vital commonalities between adventure training intervention and social workgroup is that both help the members to learn new psychological skills and this goes a long way into improving an individual’s performance. Secondly, the two are aimed at enhancing and instilling several virtues such as endurance, togetherness and abilities to work together for a common goal. Members are trained on the need to step in one another’s shoes when the time calls for such an intervention. Tolerance, patience and leadership are some of the qualities that the two programmes strive to achieve. (Francis, 1996)
Another major commonality between social group work and adventure training is that both utilize the concept of breaking away from the environment that people are used to. This is perceived as a good way of achieving the laid objectives of the programmes because people find it fun and exciting when in a new environment. The other commonality between the two programmes is that they involve more than one individual in order to achieve the set objectives.
Another commonality between the two programmes is that the results of the exercises are seen in individual participant’s productivity, change in behaviour of the participants and the ability to face and solve hard obstacles that emerge in the daily routine of activities. This is only possible in the long run because a behavioural change is a process and not an instant process.
One common difference between the two programmes is that they use different approaches in achieving the set objectives. For example, adventure training is more physical than social group work and the activities are aimed at improving individuals rather than the group. On the other hand, social group work tries to emphasize group achievement and the need for people to work in togetherness. (Francis, 1996)
Another major difference between the two programmes is that adventure training involves a total engagement of one’s mind as well as the body. This is done because adventure training goes the extra mile in training the participants into becoming self-reliant. This is opposed to a social workgroup that is carried out using minimal mental efforts because most of the work is done in a less challenging manner.
Since adventure training involves more vigorous exercises the probability of the members in the group forgetting about the experiences becomes hard and follow-ups are only done to ensure that the members are in positions of putting their experiences into action. This is not the case with social group work where exercises involved and undertaken by the members are less vigorous and the participants have got a high likelihood of forgetting the need for the exercise.
As a result, follow-ups are more important in order to remind the participants of the potentiality of the exercise they undertook in their performance. Another major difference between social group work and adventure training is that social group work aims at extending a hand into the large society through carrying out an activity that is beneficial to society. This is not the direct case in adventure training because its aim is to bring advancement and improvement at an individual level.
An individual participant is trained on how to improve his/her performance rather than on how to improve society as a whole. As opposed to social group work which mainly aims at achieving social cohesion, adventure training is aimed at achieving group cohesion with the main focus being to cultivate the attitude of endurance between different members of the group. (Francis, 1996)
Limitation in usage
Adventure training is a more rare term in the field as most participants and trainers use the term social group work to refer to activities that are otherwise grouped in the adventure training category. This is because of the commonalities stated above that make the distinguishing of the two terms difficult.
Recommendations
In order to achieve the overall objectives of the two terms, it is important that the trainers distinguish between the two through clearly establishing the boundary that differentiates the two programmes. This is vital because the two programmes have got different objectives that they seek to address.
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