Different Types of Client Participation and the Effects on Community-Social Work Intervention
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Date
1994
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Abstract
The study described here tries to test empirically the assumption that client participation in community-social work intervention leads to improved outputs. Two hundred senior community centre staff were asked about their practices and means of client participation, and about the outputs of the community centres: intrinsic, process outputs, extrinsic, goal attainment outputs and economic outputs. It was found that most of the measures of client participation predicted the types of outputs at a moderate to high level, and, together, explained about a fifth of the variance in each type of output. The study suggests that client participation is not only a value of community-social work, but contributes to its effectiveness and success.
Description
Study explore the relationship between client participation and effectiveness in social work and community services. While early studies like Gilbert and Specht (1977) suggest participation aids process but not outcomes, the findings remain inconclusive. Using data from Israeli community centers, the study finds that effectiveness depends on both goal attainment and internal system processes. The research emphasizes the complexity of defining and measuring the impact of client participation in organizational settings.
Keywords
Client Participation, Model Cities Program, Professional socialization, Worker Satisfaction, Evaluation Criteria
Citation
Itzhaky, Haya, York , Alan S. (1994). Different Types of Client Participation and the Effects on Community-Social Work Intervention.