Empowering children, youth and families

Social Work Review [Revista de Asistență Socială, ISSN 1583-0608] is a scholarly peer-reviewed international journal published by the University of Bucharest in partnership with Polirom Publishing House. It aims to serve as means of dissemination of social work theory, research, policies and practices. Social Work Review publishes original and innovative articles on social welfare and human services, social development and social justice, as well as on social worker’s involvement in the traditional neighboring fields of education, criminal justice and healthcare.

The special issue 2/2016 edited by prof. Maria Roth and assist. prof. Mihai Iovu from the Social Work Department at Babeș-Bolyai University Cluj-Napoca, proposes the theme Empowering children, youth and families. This aim of this issue is to provide an academic, scientific and professional space for describing and critically analysing the current challenges of social work practice with children, youth and families, focusing especially on the service users’ perspective.

When it comes to assessment, planning and delivering interventions for children and families, service providers tend to focus more on problems and deficits of their clients. This approach often ends with a list of the things that are considered to be “wrong” or dysfunctional and practitioners can become stuck in this view. In the end they tend to rationalize the failure of the professional efforts by describing clients as “unmotivated”, “resistant”, and/or “not ready” for change. Opposing this view, some services and professionals have expressed a heightened interest in using a strength-based approach. The current view of the welfare system is not just focusing on assuring the needs of the clients, but on empowering them in order to cope with their problems. Therefore, focusing on strengths and not on the problems and deficits shows respect and has multiple advantages both for providers and people they serve: increased involvement in the therapeutic process, setting positive expectations about the future and increased responsibility in taking action toward change. Giving the current socio-economic situation, children, youth and their families are often clients of the social work process. Even when they are clearly identified as target group for a specific intervention, professionals tend to think and do things for them, rather than with them.

We expect contributions in English from researchers, social workers, psychologists, and other helping professionals. This issue of journal calls for research-based articles or critical analysis on the different dimensions of empowerment children, youth and families. The topics to be covered in this special issue include, but are not limited to:

• Participation of children, youth and families in the social work process
  
• Participatory methods regarding children and youth
  
• Monitoring and evaluation of work with children, youth and families
  
• Including child/youth voice in programme planning
  
• The economic effects, at local, national and global levels of including marginalised children, youth and familes in society
  
• Evidence-based social work practices
  
• Models of good practice of client involvment
  

Key-dates:
Paper submission deadline: December 15th, 2015
Feedback on papers: March 1st, 2016
Final manuscript submission deadline: April, 2016
Publication: June 2016


The manuscripts should be sent before the deadline as an email attachment to the following addresses: roth.mari@ymail.com or iovu_mbogdan@yahoo.com. All submissions will be subject to journal’s standards of peer-review process. The journal does not accept hardcopy submissions.