Spring 2026 SOWK 487w Class 10 Weekly Email

MyHeritage Syllabus Presentations Emails

See you guys tonight!

Unit Introduction and What You Will Learn

Social work groups require consideration of the dynamics of group development, intervention strategies, and ethics, all of which are the focus of week 10. Students will read Hepworth et al. (2023) and their chapter regarding facilitating social work groups, which provides insight into stages of group development. During class, we will make further connections to group dynamics and interventions in group work. Students will present their elevator pitch for the community group facilitation activity. We will have an example of an empowerment group and small-group discussions on how to understand ethical decisions in group work and planning. The agenda for class is as follows:

• Group Intervention Pitch
• Group dynamics in social work facilitation
• Empowerment groups
• Ethics in group work
• Planning and implementing social work groups

Learning Objectives this week include:

• Describe the stages of group development and identify examples of group dynamics within each stage.
• Analyze group norms through the lenses of orienting perspectives of social work.
• Define empowerment and articulate the core principles of empowerment theory as applied to group work.
• Identify ethical dilemmas that arise in group work and apply a structured decision-making process to navigate them.
• Plan a social work group for a specific population.

Unit Assignments

Read

• Read Hepworth et al. (2022) Chapter 16 Facilitating Social Work Groups

A-01: Class Engagement and Attendance

Attend Class

A-02: Reading Engagement and Check-in Questions

Complete the reading engagement and check-in questions at W-10 A-02 Reading Questions, which is due Wednesday before class.

Assignment 04a: Group Intervention Pitch

Assignment Overview: Worth 175 points or 35% of the student’s final grade, the community group facilitation activity is an opportunity for students to practice their skills in implementing group work. Students will plan and implement group intervention in a community setting, working in small teams. Each member will also author a reflective paper about the experience. Students can determine the location of their group. In previous years, students have often facilitated groups at the Boys and Girls Club, in the Bridges Program within the Pasco School District, a community center, an assisted living facility, and others. Please follow up with the instructor if students need support finding a location. The group’s content should not be overly deep and come from a psychoeducational framework. The group can be therapeutic in nature, but the content should be more instructional. The other team members can help as co-facilitators, but each member should have time to facilitate the group. Most often, this requires members to go and facilitate groups over multiple days. The assignment has three graded parts: the group intervention pitch, group member feedback, and a reflective paper.

Meta: Points 25 pts (5% of final grade); Deadline Wednesday 03/25/26 during class; Completion Informal presentation during class; Locations Assignment Detail on MyHeritage and Assignment Description and Rubric Handout.

Purpose: The purpose of the pitch is to provide a deadline for planning the group intervention for the student and for the instructor to feel confident in the student’s plan.

Task: Each group will make a short informal pitch for the group they plan to facilitate during the 10th-week class session. As a group, students will share with their classmates their plan to implement their group (i.e., when and where) and the content they will do for their groups. These presentations should be at most five minutes.

Success: Students will have a plan for facilitating their group. I grade students following 0 = no plan, 12.5 = has a plan and appears moderately prepared, and 25 points for has a plan and appears ready to facilitate the group.

Unit Resources

The Arc of Tri-Cities helps to put on the event Our Autism Journey We’re Better Together. Last year, some students did their group facilitation project there, and that can be an option for you to consider. I would also give extra credit for students who volunteer for the event. It is a great event to support and raise awareness regarding autism. If you plan to help at the event, you must complete a background check, so you should follow up with the Arc about your desire to help. The actual event is on April 25th.

There are three excerpts from some texts that we will be using in class this week in our discussion regarding ethical dilemmas. Garland (2010), Goodrich and Luke (2015), and Pawlukewicz and Ondrus (2013) are attached as handouts, but I will also bring some printed copies.

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 10 - Facilitating Social Work 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 10]().

Reference

Garland, C. (2010). The Groups Manual: A treatment manual, with clinical vignettes. In The Groups Book Psychoanalytic group therapy: Principles and practice (pp. 404-591). Routledge.

Goodrich, K. M., & Luke, M. (2015). Group counseling with LGBTQI persons. Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119222774

Hepworth, D. H., Vang, P. D., Blakey, J. M., Schwalbe, C., Evans, C., Rooney, R. H., Rooney, G. D., & Strom, K. (2022). Direct social work practice: Theory and skills (11th ed.). Cengage Learning, Inc.

Pawlukewicz, J., & Ondrus, S. (2013). Ethical dilemmas: The use of applied scenarios in the helping professions. Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics, 10(1), 2-12. https://jswve.org/download/2013-1/articles(2)/2-12-Ethical%20Dilemmas.pdf

To-Do Lists

• Read Chapter 16 and do the reading quiz
• Attend class
• Be prepared for your group project elevator pitch