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Hi,

Your resource is amazing! And inspiring!

I am studying for the ASWB master's exam and hope you can help me understand the rationale for this question. I think questions are written to trip you up but as I am truly interested in community work, I want to understand the real reason why the correct answer is A and not C (I’m only presenting the two viable choices).

The juvenile facilities in a city are clearly substandard. As a first attempt to aid in correcting the problem, the social worker should:
a. Mobilize interest groups to explore and recommend alternatives
c. Organize the parents of the juveniles to demand change

I thought it would be C, to organize the parents. Is the reason C is wrong because of the second part of the answer “to demand change.”? Is A better because it says to “explore and recommend alternatives.”? Or is it better to begin with existing interest groups than to organize parents.

I hope you can see my confusion and help me understand the best approach to go about affecting change in the real world.

Thank you so much!!!

Linda Mason
Answer:

Dear Linda
many thanks for your compliments regarding CBT resources.
About your doubts: I don’t know the rationale for the question pointed out, and perhaps it is not written to trip you up…
I can imagine, to my knowledge, that “Mobilize interest groups to explore and recommend alternatives” is better because this kind of action is directly addressed to people who will use such facilities (first of all young people). You may look for some indication in Chapter 6. “Communications to Promote Interest” (on the webpage https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/promoting-interest) and Chapter 7. “Encouraging Involvement in Community Work” (https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/participation/encouraging-involvement). For each chapter, see also the related sections.
We don’t know how old are young people mentioned in the question. Perhaps they are adolescents or young adults, so able to know their needs.
From a community psychology point of view, a program may help them to become aware of their needs. Parents are surely important and crucial for minors, but perhaps, if older, it may be preferable to address our attempts directly to them, so to empower them as citizens. Subsequently, parents may be involved as significant stakeholders, taking into account their opinions, which may be in line with the juvenile ones, or not (and then social workers will have to mediate). The question talks about “interest groups”, which means young people, but also parents and teachers and other people without limitations.
Hoping to have been useful,
best wishes for your studies!

Question Date: Mar, 03/10/2020