Community Development in Social Work

Background and Credits

The idea for this resource was born following a regional conference in Craigavon in 2023 to launch the Department of Health’s Social Work and Community Development Reflections document and celebrate the impact of the Post Graduate Social Work and Community Development Approaches (SWCDA) programme.

Marita Magennis (Assistant Director for Social Work and Social Work Governance, Workforce, Training and Development SHSCT), chair of the SWCDA programme management board, initiated a group to build momentum from the conference, with a view to strengthening the use of community development approaches with SHSCT. She was assisted by Brenda Horgan (Head of Social Services Workforce Development and Training) and a steering group drawn from across the Trust who were passionate about community development.

Gillian McAuley (Interim Co-Head of Fitness to Practise, Northern Ireland Social Care Council) was instrumental in bringing this project to the attention of the Social Care Council – Digital Learning Team (consisting of Mairead Harkin, Digital Learning Manager and David Hamilton, Project Support Officer) who worked in partnership with the content reference group to develop the digital learning resource and make it available as a regional professional resource.

Special thanks to Fergal O’Brien (Regional Programme Coordinator SWCDA) and Robbie McCague (Inequalities and Inclusion Coordinator, SHSCT) for work on building content for this resource and Eugene Kerlin (Regional Digitalisation and Promotions Lead for Social Work, WHSCT) who provided early graphic design support.

Thanks to Joanne Lytle and Jackie Creighan from the Northern Ireland Degree in Social Work Partnership (NIDSWP) who sought consent from students featured on their website for their work to be showcased again on the Community Development resource.

We would like to extend thanks to Bryan Gormley, (Social Work Development Lead, SHSCT) for proofreading the material and to all the social workers and social work students who participated in the pilot of the resource.

We would also like to express our gratitude for the contribution that Darren Strawbridge made to the Reflections document on Social Work and Community Development and acknowledge the loss to the Social Work profession in Darren’s untimely passing earlier this year.

Finally, we would like to thank the Public Health Agency (PHA) who provided funding to promote this resource.