Community Practice is a branch of social work in the United States that focuses on larger social systems and social change, and is tied to the historical roots of United States social work. The field of community practice social work encompasses community organizing, social planning, human service management, community development, policy analysis, policy advocacy, evaluation, mediation, electronic advocacy and other larger systems interventions. In the field of social work, community practice is often contrasted with direct practice social work, in which social workers work directly with individuals solving micro-level problems. Community Practice has been referred to in the past as Macro Practice, though Community Practice is now the standard term in the United States. Social work is a helping profession focused on social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being (IASSW & IFSW 2001). ... Community organizing is a process by which people are brought together to act in common self-interest. ... Social engineering can mean: Social engineering (political science), efforts to influence popular societies on a large scale Social engineering (security), the practice of obtaining confidential information by manipulating users External links [1] Category: ... Community Development, informally called community building, is a broad term applied to the practices and academic disciplines of civic leaders, activists, involved citizens and professionals to improve various aspects of local communities. ... Policy analysis is the systematic evaluation of alternative means of achieving social goals. ... Evaluation is the systematic determination of merit, worth, and significance of something or someone. ... Mediation in legal terminology, comprises an act of bringing two states, sides or parties in a dispute closer together toward agreement through alternative dispute resolution, a dialogue in which a (generally) neutral third party, the mediator, using appropriate techniques, assists two or more parties to help them negotiate an agreement... Electronic advocacy (also known as cyber-activism,online organizing, and internet activism) is an emerging social work practice in which technologies such as email, web sites, and podcasts are used for cause-related fundraising, lobbying, volunteering, community building, and organizing. ...

Community Practice has considerable overlap with many other applied social sciences, such as urban planning, economic development, public affairs, rural sociology and nonprofit management. Community Practice social workers typically have a Masters in Social Work (MSW). There are several MSW programs in the United States that offer Community Practice Concentrations, while many other MSW programs offer specializations in one or several types of community practice, such as social services administration or policy analysis. The professional group of community practitioners is the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), which publishes the leading journal in the field, The Journal of Community Practice. Urban planning is concerned with the ordering and design of settlements, from the smallest towns to the worlds largest cities. ... Public affairs is a catch-all term that includes public policy as well as public administration, both of which are closely related to and draw upon the fields of political science as well as economics. ... Rural sociology is a field of sociology associated with the study of life in small towns and the country. ... MSW is an acronym that may stand for any of the following: in academia and as a title, Master of Social Work a sub-discipline of social work, medical social work in computing, MicroSoft Windows (where the acronym is pronounced as /mεswʊ/ or /mʌswʊ/ in the IPA) This is a...

Schools of Social Work with Community Practice Concentrations

• University of Minnesota School of Social Work
• University of Denver
• University of North Carolina
• Arizona State University
• University of Tennessee
• University of Texas at Arlington

University of Minnesota School of Social Work The School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota is a top-ranked graduate school of social work. ... The University of Denver (DU) is an independent, coeducational, four-year university in Denver, Colorado. ... The University of North Carolina is a sixteen university system which comprises all public four-year universities in North Carolina, United States. ... Arizona State University (ASU) is a public institution of higher education and research with several campuses located in the Phoenix metropolitan area. ... The University of Tennessee (UT), sometimes called the University of Tennessee, Knoxville (UT Knoxville or UTK), is the primary institution of the statewide land-grant University of Tennessee system, Tennessees flagship public university. ...

External links

• Association for Community Organization and Social Administration
• Journal of Community Practice