In this article, the authors explore the question: When does services delivery cross the line and become an opportunity for proselytizing? The authors posit that social workers have a justifiable concern for usurping their professional and privileged roles to influence such an important part of their clients' lives. A case study of one Christian nonprofit agency indicates that social workers need to be cautious as they seek to provide ethical practice in religious settings. The authors conclude by recommending guidelines for social work practice in religious organizations.
This grounded theory study of 15 faith-based programs in four urban cities examines how initiators and founders find homes for their visions of addressing unmet community needs, especially those of children and their families. Founders can be congregations, individuals, or groups with diverse characteristics. This study suggests that they place their visions in viable contexts through developing new organizations in which to place their programs, temporarily incubating them until a new organization can be formed, tethering them to congregations, or birthing them in well-established faith-related agencies with deep historical roots in the community. These programs have the potential to become legends, influencing the identity of their organizational homes and the larger community's images of those homes.
Although international volunteerism is a common service practice among Americans and Europeans, research exploring host community members’ perceptions of volunteers and their practice is lacking. In this phenomenological study, thirteen in-depth interviews were conducted with Kenyan participants and their perceptions of international volunteers’ attitudes and behaviors were explored. While positive themes of skill transfer and honoring cultural practices emerged, so did negative themes that suggested international volunteers had demeaning perceptions of Kenyans, controlled collaborative projects, and gave Kenyans cursory roles to play. The study also suggests that international volunteers departed from service hastily without empowering Kenyans, which led to project failure. Recommendations for strengthening international volunteer practice are identified and described.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.