Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
Social workers understand that evaluation is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice with and on behalf of diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers evaluate processes and outcomes to increase practice, policy, and service delivery effectiveness. Social workers apply anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspectives in evaluating outcomes. Social workers understand theories of human behavior and person-in-environment, as well as interprofessional conceptual frameworks, and critically evaluate and apply this knowledge in evaluating outcomes. Social workers use qualitative and quantitative methods for evaluating outcomes and practice effectiveness.
Social workers:
a. select and use culturally responsive methods for evaluation of outcomes; and
b. critically analyze outcomes and apply evaluation findings to improve practice effectiveness with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
Competency #9 In Practice
Evaluation is important to social work practice because it is essential to measure the effectiveness of our methods. By evaluating different models and approaches to casework, community organizing, and therapeutic interventions, we can continue to use best practices with our clients. Evaluating can sometimes fall through the cracks in non-profit practice because it appears that the main goal, the intervention, has already been completed. This is not the case, as we know that our work does not begin and end with intervention but is instead formed by a combination of engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation throughout each stage of the helping relationships we form and the change we create. This competency engages me by challenging me to continually improve my practice and seek out feedback. I am committed to integrating evaluation into my practice as a social worker by evaluating what I did well and what I would like to improve in my practice on a regular basis and seeking feedback from my supervisors and colleagues in this evaluation process.
Evidence from class work:
For my Social Work Practice With Organizations and Communities class, I helped create an evaluation report for our Macro Skills Presentation on Direct Action. Analyzing the feedback from our evaluation, we found that our audience’s experience was overwhelmingly positive and that we could improve on being more concise in our presentation and maintaining the audience’s interest more effectively. We utilized this case study, activity sheet, and this Evaluation Form, which contained questions rating the presenters, visual aids, and overall effectiveness of the presentation. I choose this assignment because of the comprehensiveness of our evaluation process and the quality of the assignment we were evaluating. By creating an evaluation form and sending those results in an Evaluation Report to my professor, I demonstrated mastery in creating, conducting, and analyzing evaluation outcomes.
Evidence from field:
At CASA of Bradley and Polk Counties, we use this Survey to collect evaluation information from the custodial parties at the close of our cases. The surveys are collected within two weeks after the cases have closed. Along with the other student completing her practicum at CASA, we notice that the original survey lacked questions about the quality of the advocacy and the advocate in general that the client received, and about half of the questions were related to a grant we are receiving, not so much about improving our outcomes. So we created updated surveys that could be used to increase the quality of the data collected. The updated survey thoroughly covers the client’s experience and asks for feedback on what we could have improved. The updated surveys also include an exit survey for the advocate to review their own performance. By creating these evaluation tools, we demonstrated mastery in using evaluation tools to enhance our practice and a commitment to and ability to integrate evaluation into our practice.
Other evidence:
In our Social Work Practice with Groups class, a classmate and I conducted an evaluation at the end of our group practice session to gauge the groups’ satisfaction with our performance as facilitators. I chose this assignment because it demonstrates not only a knowledge of evaluations and how to implement them in a small group setting, but the participants also rated our performance highly, showing a mastery of the skills we set out to learn in this exercise. The feedback we received from the group members allowed us to identify areas where we excelled and areas where we could improve, which we will use to enhance our future practice as group facilitators. Namely, we can improve on getting our group to work together as a team, making sure participants feel cared about as a person and that everyone feels able to participate fully.