Social Work

Dominant social work and social care discourses on 'race' and ethnicity often fail to incorporate an Irish dimension. This book challenges this omission and provides new insights into how social work has engaged with Irish children and their families, historically and to the present day.

'Regeneration', 'mainstreaming', 'community involvement', 'evidence-based policy', 'public service reform' - terms central to the government's policy programme for tackling social deprivation. This report describes how an East London community organisation has worked to give these terms practical meaning through its Social Enterprise Zone project.

Community participation is now demanded of virtually all public sector services and programmes. This handbook provides practitioners, community activists, regeneration managers, teachers and academics with the tools needed to ensure that it is effective.

A document of the results of road-testing two frameworks for assessing community participation: Active partners: Benchmarking community involvement in regeneration (Yorkshire Forward, 2000) and Auditing community participation: An assessment handbook (The Policy Press, 2000).

This book offers a new approach to scrutinising the co-existence of both care and abuse in relationships. Discourse analysis is introduced as a method of investigating relationships, policy and literature in informal care and analytic tools are considered alongside case-studies to illustrate how both parties construct their relationship.

Growing interest in the social and therapeutic value of horticulture, has produced little evidence that demonstrates outcomes for vulnerable groups, including those with learning difficulties and mental health problems. This report addresses the gap in knowledge and presents the findings of the first study of horticulture projects across the UK.

Until now little published work has focused on how horticulture and gardening can help to promote social inclusion for vulnerable groups. This guide looks at the ways in which social and therapeutic horticulture projects can help foster independence, build self esteem and provide training and employment opportunities for vulnerable groups.

This book, by examining the landmark scandals of the post-war period, including more recent ones, such as the Victoria Climbie Inquiry, reveals how scandals are generated, to what purposes they are used and whose interests they are made to serve.

How a neighbourhood is viewed can affect the lives of those who live there and the attitudes and behaviour of others towards them. This report examines the increasing use and sophistication of Internet-Based Neighbourhood Information Systems and considers their potential impact on how neighbourhoods are viewed. Free PDF available at www.jrf.org.uk

From a campaigning concept in the 1970s, direct payments - the substitution of cash for services - have become a key part of UK government social care provision. This book charts the change, critically evaluating progress, take-up, inclusion and access to direct payments by different user groups.

Iin the aftermath of traumatic events, there is a need for improved understanding of the needs of individuals and communitie. This new edition consolidates the core elements of good practice, while bringing theory and practice issues fully up-to-date.

The UK government has identified Faith communities as important players in community development and regeneration. But religion is also associated with conflict and division. How far is this faith in 'Faith' justified? How far should Faith communities comply? This report assesses the debate and the evidence. Free PDF available at www.jrf.org.uk