About the Book

Give your students a text that will help them improve the lives of not only individual clients, but of entire communities, with PROMOTING COMMUNITY CHANGE. This text addresses the real world issues facing the social work, human services, and community health professionals who want to take the theoretical discussion of community forward and realize tangible community changes. Students will learn to identify the issues related to change and discover exactly how they can become effective agents of change. Author Mark Homan emphasizes the role a strengthened community can play in preventing and solving the problems that individuals and families commonly experience. Homan teaches students how to organize empowering local actions bringing clients, families, and other community members into an active role in building a healthier community for themselves, their families, and their neighbors.

Key Feature

• The book's many real-world examples connect theory to practice showing students how to motivate and involve others and keep them involved in making important and necessary changes in the community.
• The text's discussions of approaches to fundraising, obtaining resources, building an organized changed effort, planning for action, and lobbying techniques help students learn how to be effective change agents.
• Throughout the text, helpful boxed features such as "Take a Moment to Discover," "Change Agent Tips," and "Capturing Concepts" promote building community capacity and the collaborative development of specific solutions for common community problems.
• Chapter 13 pays special attention to working to strengthen neighborhoods with new tools such as the use of community newspapers and community land trusts.
• The text reflects the needs and interests of today's students, with extensive information on the value of cultural awareness and competence as well as illustrations that highlight basic concepts to engage students in the material.

About the Author
Mark S. Homan has been a full-time faculty member in the Social Services department at Pima Community College since 1978, spending several of those years as department chair. He has also served on the faculty of several other Colleges and Universities. He received his M.S.W. from Arizona State University and is a licensed clinical social worker in the state of Arizona. He has served on the editorial boards of academic journals and publications. For over 30 years he has worked with diverse populations in urban, rural, and reservation communities on a broad range of issues. In addition to his roles as organizer, lobbyist, consultant, and teacher, Mark has developed and directed several human services programs. Mark is the recipient of numerous professional and teaching awards including Outstanding Field Faculty Award from Arizona State University Graduate School of Social Work, the President's Award from the National Organization for Human Service Education, the Outstanding Faculty Award from Pima Community College, and the Lenore McNeer Award from the National Organization for Human Service Education. He is author of another book for Brooks/Cole, RULES OF THE GAME: LESSONS FROM THE FIELD OF COMMUNITY CHANGE.

New to this Edition

• A new examination of power, confronting oppression, and social justice are woven throughout the text to illustrate how to strengthen an individual's belief in the possibility of transformative change.
• Information about technology tools and online sources of information and support are now incorporated into every chapter, giving students a constant stream of resources they can use both now and as professionals.
• Strengthening the work of Social Service Agencies by helping them move from a services approach to a community development orientation is now addressed in Chapter 14.
• Updated information on a variety of subjects including the "changing face of the nation," recent population figures and new techniques in fundraising.
• This text provides an overview of the levels of Family Involvement - as more agencies are looking to involve families in the work of their programs.
• Homan continues to refine and further emphasize the development approach, which resonates with the strengths perspective, in this edition. To that end, a distinct community development orientation (including expanded coverage of community capital and social capital) is evident in each chapter.
• To better teach students about working in communities and planning for action, the text now takes a more extended look at participatory (or community-based) action research, values-driven planning, and methods of evaluation for community-level work.
• The author has added a number of new considerations for building viable, organized change efforts, including an examination of the elements necessary for organizational sustainability, increasing students' understanding and potential for effectiveness.
• Information describing how nonprofits can actively engage in lobbying has been moved into Chapter 15 to more clearly fit with the discussion of lobbying. Also included is the most recent information on lobbying regulations to clarify what organizations can and cannot do.
• To encourage students to think further about how course material connects with the real world, each chapter now ends with a brief story that brings chapter concepts into focus. These stories are followed by reflection questions that not only help students recognize the ways that concepts can play out in the real world, but also invite critical thinking about the issue at hand.

Table of Contents

• Part I. RESPONDING TO THE NEED FOR COMMUNITY CHANGE.
• 1. Understanding the Challenge to Change.
• 2. Theoretical Frameworks for Community Change.
• 3. Relating Community Change to Professional Practice.
• 4. Putting Yourself in the Picture.
• Part II. PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER.
• 5. Knowing Your Community.
• 6. Power.
• 7. Powerful Planning.
• 8. People--The Most Valuable Resource.
• 9. Raising Other Resources.
• 10. Getting the Word Out.
• 11. Building the Organized Effort.
• 12. Taking Action--Strategies and Tactics.
• Part III. A CLOSER LOOK AT TYPICAL CHANGE CONTEXTS.
• 13. Enhancing the Quality of Neighborhoods.
• 14. Increasing the Effectiveness of Established, Formal Organizations.
• 15. Lobbying for Change.