SW
4480: Social Work with Groups
Objectives for the First Meeting
These are ideas that came from Lawrence Shulman,
but I have lost the book so I do not know the title. It may be an early edition of The
Skills of Helping Individuals, Families, and Groups.
His main point is that the worker should structure the first
meeting to meet the following objectives.
I have identified the four that I think are most important with asterisks.
- * Introduce group members to each
other. On most occasions, this
should be more than just a name.
Members should know a little bit about each other. We often use icebreaker activities to do
this.
- * Clarify agency’s role in the
group. This is part of the
process of explaining why you are meeting.
Ideally, members will react to this with their own perspectives of
why they are there, as indicated by the next objective. But this also serves to make explicit
some of the limits and/or expectations that the agency and perhaps other
outside forces have with regard to the group.
- Receive feedback regarding #2. We want people to begin to say what
they need to say about what they see the group is about as early in the
process as possible, and often the best way to do this is in reaction to
your saying something about #2.
- Clarify job of group worker. Define your idea about worker roles
and how you expect to move between them as the group progresses. This gives members the idea that the
group process is a developmental thing, which is important.
- Deal with specific obstacles. There will be some. Decide which are best to deal with as a
leader and which the group can deal with.
This will reinforce the message that you want the group to be able
to make decisions.
- * Encourage intermember
interaction. This is one of the
most important things to have happen so the group can begin to process as
a group rather than directing everything through you. The earlier this happens, the better.
- * Develop a supportive environment. This is another very important
objective. You know this is
probably the case if you are getting good interaction, feedback regarding
#2 and group participation regarding #5.
- Help group develop an agenda. It helps if members have a sense of
where the group will be going, but do not try to be too specific or
inflexible about this.
- Clarify mutual expectations. This is the one I understand the
least. It seems implicit in several
of the others. I guess this has
something to do with members knowing about #2 and #4, and beginning to
learn from each other what they are there for.
-
Gain consensus regarding the next step. It is always a good idea, whether
working with individuals or groups, to have a sense of what you are going
to do next. When is
the next meeting and what will you start off with?
-
Start honest feedback regarding effectiveness. How did this first meeting go? Did we start things off well? What can we do better next time?