Unit Introduction and What You Will Learn
Week 12 is focused on mutual aid style groups. There are three readings for this week. First, Schwartz (2005), a republished article from the ’80s, talks about social work groups and provides some good context for the mutual aid model, especially as Schwartz is one of the pioneers of the model. Shulman (2014) provides some practical examples of people in mutual groups. Rosenwald and Baird (2020) layer on how social workers can fit mutual aid group work within the context of trauma-informed care practices.
The agenda for the class session is as follows:
- What are mutual aid groups
- Dynamics of mutual aid groups
- The phases of helping within the mutual aid process
- Facilitation of mutual aid
Unit Assignments
Content
- Read Schwartz (2005) The Group Work Tradition and Social Work Practice
- Read Shulman (2014) Case Study 7-1: A Mutual-Aid Support Group for Persons With Aids in Early Substance Abuse Recovery
- Read Rosenwald and Baird (2020) An Integrated Trauma-Informed, Mutual Aid Model of Group Work
A-01: Class Attendance and Engagement
Attend Class
A-02: Reading Engagement
A-02: Reading Engagement for Week 12 due before class via My Heritage Assignments
Unit Resources
I will share a little bit about my dissertation related to mutual aid. You can see links to a lot of things around my dissertation at Adding to the Ellipsis After My Name: Earning My Ph.D. or watch my actual dissertation defense (the presentation I did about my study) at Doctoral Dissertation Oral Defense by Jacob Campbell, or even read it if you are interested (Campbell, 2023).
All of the presentations for this class can be found at https://presentations.jacobrcampbell.com. This week’s slides are Spring 2026 SOWK 487w Week 12 - Therapeutic Group Models - Mutual Aid Groups.
The Lecture Videos tab in the MyHeritage course is where you will be able to find class recordings. The video this week is at [Spring 2026 SOWK 487w Week 12]().
Reference
Campbell, J. (2023). A professional learning community for developing trauma-informed practices using participatory action methods: transforming school culture for students with emotional and behavioral disabilities (Publication No. 30424801) [California Institute of Integral Studies ProQuest Dissertations Publishing]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses. https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/professional-learning-community-developing-trauma/docview/2813493629/se-2
Rosenwald, M., & Baird, J. (2020). An integrated trauma-informed, mutual aid model of group work. Social Work with Groups, 43(3), 257-271. https://doi.org/10.1080/01609513.2019.1656145
Schwartz, W. (2005). The group work tradition and social work practice. Social Work with Groups, 28(3-4), 69-89. https://doi.org/10.1300/j009v28n03_06
Shulman, L. (2014). Case study 7-1: A mutual-aid support group for persons with AIDS in early substance abuse recovery. In C. W. LeCroy (Ed.), Case Studies in Social Work Practice (pp. 253-265). John Wiley & Sons.
To-Do Lists
- A-01: Class Engagement and Attendance Attend class
- Read Schwartz (2005), Shulman (2014), and Rosenwald and Baird (2020)
- A-02: Reading Engagement Complete reading check in questions