Towards a clearer understanding of the transformational potential of outreach work

Grymonprez, Hans; Roose, Rudi

doi:10.1080/13691457.2019.1567468

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…This lack of emphasis on direct outreach contrasts with the values of the profession, including client engagement, social justice, empowerment, and increasing access to services for marginalized populations. In a related way, although the delivery of social services in Europe and the United States has been influenced by neoliberal contexts since the 1970s ( Grymonprez & Roose, 2022 ), the literature on outreach reviewed for this study received greater attention in Europe. Outreach as a concept and method to increase access to services, including the skills required to engage vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations during outreach, should form an integral part of social work curriculum.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outreach to farmworkers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Saldanha

2023

Journal of Social Work

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Summary Outreach is an important element of social care. It is an informal but planned form of on-site service delivery to vulnerable populations. Outreach affects some target populations, such as migrant farmworkers, immensely. Outreach staff demonstrate a unique capacity to navigate remote and hard to -to-reach areas, making contact with farmworkers who would otherwise not receive essential services. This ethnographic study describes how organizations make first contact with farmworkers in normal times, and the changes to outreach observed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings Outreach workers connect, interact, and provide services to farmworkers in unique settings and situations. The general components of farmworker outreach are planning, engaging, improvising, and initiating services. During the pandemic, the changes observed were a sense of urgency to serve farmworkers, and adaptations in the modality of outreach to include a focus on health, collaboration with health clinicians, and the use of social media to contact farmworkers. Applications Outreach matters to farmworkers and other groups that are secluded, isolated, and vulnerable to abuse. In crisis times, such as the pandemic, outreach is even more vital. Hence, outreach, including the skills required t o conduct outreach, should form part of social work curriculum. Different models and outreach components should be evaluated to assess whether organizations providing outreach services to target populations deliver results beyond immediate benefits and contribute to structural change and advocacy on behalf of them.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Outreach to farmworkers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Saldanha

2023

Journal of Social Work

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“…Hence, a dominant conceptualisation in the literature is that of outreach work as a bridge. Nonetheless, we argue that this conceptualisation fails to capture fully the transformative potential of outreach social work interventions (authors ownGrymonprez, Roose & Roets, 2017) . authors own Grymonprez and Roose (2019) identified two perspectives on outreach work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…First and dominant is the universalist view, which is inspired by post-positivist perspectives advocating to keep access manageable. The second, to which we aim to contribute, is the transformative view, based on constructivist perspectives on reality, conceptualising outreach work as an open process grounded in proximity to and reflexivity about the situations in which they intervene (authors ownGrymonprez, Roose & Roets, 2017, Grymonprez & Roose, 2019. Pursuing this second view further, we aim to explore the transformational potential of outreach work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Search of Transformative Practice: Outreach Work Tactics for Perpetuating Symbolic Boundaries

Grymonprez

Roose

Corte

2021

The British Journal of Social Work

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Health services, social welfare, housing and an adequate standard of living are all part of the economic, social and cultural rights which should be accessible to all. These rights are, however, not realised for all and societal resources are not accessible to all. In this respect, outreach work is a promising social work approach as it is often deployed to target, engage and bring individuals back into contact with services. Nevertheless, it is argued that outreach work leaves the mainstream unchallenged. We therefore examine the transformational potential of outreach work (Grymonprez and Roose, 2019). Theoretically, we draw on the concept of symbolic boundaries, which are conceptual distinctions drawn between people and groups. This article contains an in-depth analysis of outreach work practice with marginalised homeless individuals in the Belgian city of Antwerp. We identified three conceptual distinctions important for the construction of symbolic boundaries: predictability, complexity and housing readiness. Our analysis identifies a range of tactics used by outreach workers to transform these boundaries. Such tactics may be helpful for social workers interested in transformational practice in contexts where challenging the mainstream is not seen as a mandate for outreach workers.

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Transformative practice: social work practice with vulnerable young people

Munford

Sanders

2020

European Journal of Social Work

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Towards a clearer understanding of the transformational potential of outreach work

Cited by 9 publications

References 50 publications

Outreach to farmworkers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

Outreach to farmworkers before and during the COVID-19 pandemic

In Search of Transformative Practice: Outreach Work Tactics for Perpetuating Symbolic Boundaries

Transformative practice: social work practice with vulnerable young people

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