When social workers draw on experience, theory, or data in order to develop new strategies or enhance existing ones, they are conducting intervention research. This relatively new field involves program design, implementation, and evaluation and requires a theory-based, systematic approach. Intervention Research presents such a framework. The five-step strategy described in this brief but thorough book ushers the reader from an idea's germination through the process of writing a treatment manual, assessing program efficacy and effectiveness, and disseminating findings. Rich with examples drawn from child welfare, school-based prevention, medicine, and juvenile justice, Intervention Research relates each step of the process to current social work practice. It also explains how to adapt interventions for new contexts, and provides extensive examples of intervention research in fields such as child welfare, school-based prevention, medicine, and juvenile justice, and offers insights about changes and challenges in the field. This innovative pocket guide will serve as a solid reference for those already in the field, as well as help the next generation of social workers develop skills to contribute to the evolving field of intervention research.

The first-ever thorough exploration and discussion of the rhetorical model of social invention [RSI] (initially conceived by rhetorical theorist William R. Brown) for today's students and scholars.

Precise shifts in the ways people make sense of themselves, others, and social situations can help people flourish. This compelling handbook synthesizes the growing body of research on wise interventions--brief, nonclinical strategies that are "wise" to the impact of social-psychological processes on behavior. Leading authorities describe how maladaptive or pejorative interpretations can undermine people’s functioning and how they can be altered to produce benefits in such areas as academic motivation and achievement, health, well-being, and personal relationships. Consistently formatted chapters review the development of each intervention, how it can be implemented, its evidence base, and implications for solving personal and societal problems.

Ideas are embedded in social arrangements, which in turn produce effects. With this simple premise, this radically accessible systems design book makes a compelling case for arrangements as a rich and overlooked terrain for social justice and world building. Unpacking how ideas like racism and sexism remain sturdy by embedding themselves in everything from physical and social infrastructure to everyday speech and thought habits, this book gives readers the tools to sense, intervene in and imagine new arrangements.

A show challenging conventional understandings of public art, Culture in Action in Chicago had a new social agenda, and rethought what an exhibition of contemporary art might be. Through eight projects by artists initiated in the early 1990s and developed in collaboration with local people, the intention was to engage diverse groups over time, in addition to the visiting public in 1993. In the fifth book in Afterall's Exhibition Histories series, the course of these projects is documented, with critical reappraisal of this important exhibition in newly commissioned essays and interviews, together with reviews from the time.

This book takes a new, critical, and multidisciplinary look at experiences and meanings of social intervention in different social contexts, taking the approaches of social constructionism as a theoretical approach. The volume collects the results of theoretical-practical experiences that social science professionals with critical and constructionist visions linked to social work intervention have carried out in different spaces. It considers the way social work intervention models are built, their foundation, and their application. It provides the findings on tested intervention models built according to the basis of social constructionism in specific social scenarios, providing interesting findings that show intervention alternatives beyond traditional approaches. The social intervention strategies discussed take place in diverse situations, including health recovery and reconstruction in breast cancer, family abandonment issues of institutionalized adolescents, institutional care of refugee families, women caregivers of children with disabilities, men who exercise violence, and more.

This book presents the Preschool Peer Social Intervention (PPSI), a manualized comprehensive social curriculum to enhance peer-interaction for pre-schoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) in three key domains: play, interaction, and conversation. The book outlines the PPSI’s transactional approach in each of the three intervention domains and incorporates developmental features and age-appropriate play, interaction, and conversation skills while accounting for individual differences in social communication abilities. The intervention is designed to be implemented within the child’s natural social environment, such as preschool, and it includes the child’s social agents, namely, their peers, teachers, and parents. PPSI intervention curricula addressed in this book are based on typical play, interaction, and conversation development, taking into account the social and communication challenges found to characterize young children with ASD in these domains. Building up the ability to play, interact and converse more efficiently with peers may render a substantial impact on preschoolers with ASD, with vast potential for improving not only these children’s immediate social experience with peers, but also their future social competence that relies on these early building blocks.

Authors Susan Opt and Mark Gring present the first-ever thorough exploration and discussion of the rhetoric of social intervention model [RSI] (initially conceived by rhetorical theorist William R. Brown) for today's students, scholars, and professionals. This unique communication-based model, compatible with traditional and non-traditional critical approaches, provides readers with a systemic framework for interpreting, analyzing, critiquing, and intervening in social and cultural change from a rhetorical perspective. It offers an easily accessible tool for critically reflecting upon the ongoing process of rhetorical intervention in people's interpretations of needs, relationships, and worldview. Readers will learn to use the RSI model to (1) reflect on their own symbolic natures, (2) identify rhetorical trends that generate social change, (3) critique social interventions, (4) initiate social interventions, and (5) anticipate the side effects of interventional choices. The Rhetoric of Social Intervention: An Introduction includes these key features: A detailed, step-by-step approach to help readers develop their skills in analyzing the communication patterns of social interventions and writing their analysis as a critical essay Examples and exercises to promote an interactive, transformative learning environment and encourage the development of critical thinking skills Service learning activities in every chapter that can be completed as individual, group, or class projects Review questions, exercises, and an "Under the Lens" feature in every chapter to help readers deepen their understanding Student and scholar essays that demonstrate the model's critical application Intended Audience: Ideal for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in Rhetorical Criticism, Rhetorical Theory, Persuasion, Public Address, Social Movements, and Advocacy Communication, the book's focus on criticism as a tool for interpreting social change makes it an excellent supplement for courses in other communication sub-specialties, such as public relations and advertising, and in related disciplines such as marketing, sociology, political science, management, and not-for-profit management. The book also offers communication practitioners a useful guide for the strategic planning of interventions.

Social workers need to have a sound working knowledge of a range of ways of working with the people who use their services. They also need to be able to apply and integrate this knowledge in practice, to critically evaluate different methods and to choose the most effective in any particular set of circumstances. This book provides a hands-on guide to the most common methods of helping social work service users and to dealing with some difficult situations.

In this uplifting book, a number of organizations and individuals are featured as exemplary prototypes whose experiences are worthy of being disseminated to persons working in the social services. In a coherent and coordinated manner, the organizations presented reveal how their programs function to make a difference. Readers can analyze the details behind these models and utilize them in their own work to make a difference in the lives of whom they serve. Exemplary Intervention Programs for Members and Their Families reveals to readers that, in many instances, exemplary program developers were risk takers who deviated from traditional modes and practices. Their steadfast belief that they and their organization could improve the workplace and service to the client and society resulted in actions of heroic proportions, even when derided by professional peers. Social services providers to families will be inspired by these featured innovative approaches to making a difference, which include programs, individuals, and organizations: Through the Looking Glass--An organization which provides clinical and supportive services, training, and research involving families where an adult with a disability or medical condition takes responsibility for the care of well-functioning children. Serving Holocaust Survivors and Survivor Families--An intervention program that recognizes that older survivors of the Holocaust express diversity in personality, perception of reality, memory of trauma and loss, and control of stress. Craig Whitman's "Make a Difference Phenomenon"--His empowering story of being an adult developmental home provider for two mentally retarded individuals, who lived semi-independently in a house next door. McKnight Foundation's Families in Poverty (FEP) Initiative--Seven parenting/family stability programs which achieved success by high levels of exchange of information, a resonated agency mission, and behavior characterized by altruism, responsibility, egalitarianism, justice, and honesty. An Israeli Experience of Intervention with Families in Extreme Distress (FED)--A holistic family approach which utilizes a team of dedicated professionals who can deal with the intrafamily power dynamics and the normative demands of organizations and institutions outside the family. The Impact of New Medical Technologies in Human Reproduction--Explores how interventions which plan to make a positive difference in the lives of parents and children may have negative consequences on both. Stepcouples in Stress Inoculation Training (SIT)--An intervention program where therapists can reduce the high stress experienced in stepfamilies. A Pilgrimage by Kris Jeter--Indicates that human service professionals can utilize the pilgrimage process in treatment of emotionally and mentally ill individuals and gain a viable ally in rebuilding the family's structure. Efforts to keep up with modifications in values, ideologies, beliefs, institutional policies and practices requires modifications, even cosmetic ones, in service delivery. Social service providers who want to go beyond cosmetic changes and move to a new model of service buttressed by new values, ideologies, myths and practices, are empowered to do so from the experiences spotlighted in Exemplary Intervention Programs for Members and Their Families. Service providers who adopt new paradigms like those featured in this key resource, are able to become the social artists who will "make a difference."