Within the framework of the project "Development of professional and modern social work", the Ministry of Welfare organises a summer school for lecturers and students of university social work study programs "Social work in diverse communities".
The aim of the summer school is to present the initiative "Social work in the community" and practically experience, learn the methods of social work in the community so that the acquired knowledge and skills can be used for creating and developing the specialisation "Community social worker" in study programs.
Senior expert of the project, Doctor of Pedagogy Liesma Ose, says: "As evidenced by the research of content and quality of social work study programs carried out in 2020-2021, too little attention has still been paid to social work in the community, both in higher education and in the professional development of social workers. We, the policy planners, too, have until now emphasised the microlevel of social work in our work, according to the demand of the industry. A great deal of work appreciated by industry professionals was invested in the development of methodologies for working with special groups of clients in the project "Development of professional social work in local governments".
One of the methodologies of this project, the development of which was commenced by a group of experts formed by the Latvian Rural Forum in 2021, is dedicated to social work in the community. The summer school, to which we welcome lecturers and students of master’s and doctoral study programs of social work study programs, is dedicated to getting to know the content of this methodology and understanding the possibilities, with the idea of inviting creators of study program content to integrate more modern elements of the social work community into social work study programs. Besides, we also provided an opportunity for the participants of the summer school to get to know the interpretation of social work in the community at the University of Tampere, Finland, where social work in the community will soon be available for master’s program.
We invite interested persons to participate in the Summer School by expressing their interest or question in advance to socdarbs2028@lm.gov.lv and coordinating their participation with the number of available places.
The summer school is organized within the framework of the project "Professional and modern social work development" of the European Social Fund plus 4.3.5.4 event of the European Union cohesion policy program for 2021-2027.