Rooted in Strengths:  Celebrating the Strengths Perspective in Social Work

Publication

Rooted in Strengths: Celebrating the Strengths Perspective in Social Work

Abstract

Rooted in Strengths: Celebrating the Strengths Perspective in Social Work builds upon the last three decades since the perspective was formally highlighted as a philosophy to guide social work practice by faculty and students at the University of Kansas in a 1989 article in the journal Social Work. Since then, the Strengths Perspective has grown to be a pervasive influence on the social work profession, while also influencing other movements that have challenged conventional thinking in social work, such as empowerment, social constructionism, feminism and holistic health and wellness. Today, the Strengths Perspective is used widely in the field of social work, being utilized in child and youth services, family practice, gerontology, mental health recovery, substance abuse treatment and other fields of practice in the United States and several other countries. With dozens of authors from around the world who currently serve as practitioners in the field, instructors and researchers, these chapters provide a look into the Strengths Perspective’s use today and its influence in social work and beyond.

Description

For this volume, we wanted to mark the importance of the Strengths Perspective in social work practice. The Strengths Perspective emphasizes the human capacity for resilience and resourcefulness and recognizes the need for individuals and communities to form and achieve their own goals and aspirations. While acknowledging the difficulties that clients experience, the Strengths Perspective reframes obstacles as challenges, opportunities, and motivators for change, and places social workers as collaborators with clients, their families, and communities in the change process. The Strengths Perspective has become a guiding principle for academic and scholarly activity at the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. Today the Strengths Perspective has become pervasive in social work, viewed as foundational to social work practice in the USA and several other countries. Practical applications, critical reviews, and innovative extensions of the perspective have emerged in social work education, policy development and analysis, organizational practice, and direct practice with clients. Strengths as a starting point are ubiquitous in our field. Current social work students and early career social workers would have little understanding of a deficit approach to working with people. The purpose of this special volume is to highlight the journey, catalog the paradigm shift, and document the historical roots of recognizing individuals’ strengths in their own ability to change. Our call to authors was intentionally abstract. Contributors were asked to share their application of the Strengths Perspective in practice, research/scholarship, or teaching, but given no parameters beyond that. It was our hope that we would hear the “story” of strengths work in social work from the unique perspective of the authors. What resulted is a wide-ranging collection of chapters that speaks to the power of strengths in the authors’ own words. From traditional research articles to personal narratives, the chapters illustrate how the Strengths Perspective has been applied in the United States and internationally.