Promoting Well-Being: From Amelioration to Transformation in Human Services

1. Promoting Well-Being:From Amelioration to Transformation in Human Services Professor Isaac Prilleltensky, PhD Dean, School of Education University of Miami isaacp@miami.edu www.education.miami.edu/isaac

2. AMELIORATION Treatment Symptoms In the office Charity Individualistic Passive victim Single level of intervention Neglects Power TRANSFORMATION Prevention Root causes In natural setting Justice Communitarian Agents of change Ecological Attends to Power Tale of two paradigms

3. FROM AMELIORATION Deficits Reaction Detachment Individual solutions TO TRANSFORMATION Strengths Prevention Empowerment Community Conditions Why Do We Need A New Paradigm?

4. The SPEC Approach • S – Strengths: Celebrating strengths and building on existing competencies is better than pitying individuals and focusing on deficits • P -- Prevention is better than cure • E –Empowerment: Offering voice and choice to community members is more empowering than telling them what to do and how to change • C – Community conditions: Changing community conditions is more powerful than trying to change individuals

5. The P and C of SPEC9/7/1854…Removing the Handle

6. Getting To The Bottom Of It…. • No mass disorder, afflicting humankind, has ever been eliminated, or brought under control, by treating the affected individual • HIV/AIDS, poverty, child abuse, powerlessness are not eliminated one person at a time. • It has been proven that there will never be enough workers to help those who require assistance

7. Strategies: Time and Place Collective X Reactive Proactive Individual

8. Strategies: Time and Place Collective Quadrant IV Examples: Food banks, shelters for homeless people, charities, prison industrial complex Quadrant I Examples: Community development, affordable housing policy, recreational opportunities, high quality schools and health services Reactive Proactive Quadrant II Examples: Skill building, emotional literacy, fitness programs, personal improvement plans, resistance to peer pressure in drug and alcohol use Quadrant III Examples: Crisis work, therapy, medications, symptom containment, case management Individual

9. Too Little, Too Late CONTINUUM OF SERVICES Wellness Promotion Prevention Treatment 1% 99% BUDGET ALLOCATION

10. Prevention Saves Money

11. The S and E of SPEC The Grameen Bank

12. Strategies: Abilities and Participation Strengths X Detachment Empowerment Deficits

13. Strategies: Ability and Participation Strength Quadrant I Examples: Voice and choice in celebrating and building competencies, recognition of personal and collective resilience Quadrant IV Examples: Just say no! You can do it! Cheerleading approaches, Make nice approaches Detachment Empowerment Quadrant III Examples: Labeling and diagnosis, “patienthood” and clienthood,” citizens in passive role Quadrant II Examples: Voice and choice in deficit reduction approaches, participation in decisions how to treat affective disorders or physical disorders Deficit

14. Three more SPEC examplesHeart and Crime…..more than meets the eye • MRFIT and Heart Disease • $ 100 million invested • 6000 people • 6 years • No results • Crime in Camden • Changing conditions? • Changing people?

15. Camden, NJ

16. RELATIONSHIP BUILDING CCOP held over 800 conversations with members and residents about community concerns.

17. CAMDEN HOUSING CAMPAIGN IMPACTS Crime citywide was down 8.4%, however this dip is consistent with regional and national trends When examining those blocks in which two or more vacant houses were boarded up (the major focus of the housing campaign) drug crime dropped 56%.

18. Community Work in Chicago:Changing community conditions • Compared to children who moved within the city, children who moved to the suburbs were much more likely to graduate from high school (86% vs. 33%), attend college (54% vs. 21%), attend 4-year college (27% vs. 4%), be employed if not in school (75% vs. 41%), and receive higher salaries and benefits.

19. Martha O’Bryan Center New SPECsThree-year action research project Oasis Center Bethlehem Center UNHS

20. Action Research SPECS

21. Action Research Contributions

22. SPEC Work & Support Measures Dependent Variables • Strengths • Regardless of why this may be the case; to what extent does your work reflect a strength-based orientation as opposed to a deficit-based orientation? • Primary Prevention • What percentage of work time do you engage in primary prevention of problems such as child abuse, obesity, teenage pregnancy, poverty, burn-out, crime, or school drop-out? • Empowerment • Regardless of why this may be the case; to what extent does your work give co-workers voice and choice in decision-making processes at the organization? • Regardless of why this may be the case; to what extent does your work give clients and community members voice and choice in decision-making processes at the organization? • Changing Community Conditions • What percentage of work time do you engage in changing community conditions such as pollution, access to health care, lack of transportation, affordable day care, living wage, and others?

23. SPEC Work & Support MeasuresIndependent Variables • Strengths • As much as I would like to promote a strength-based orientation in my work, there are a lot of pressures on me to continue to concentrate on problems. • Most of the time I spend with community members we talk about their strengths, successes, resilience, and strategies for coping and thriving • I feel I have adequate preparation and skills to work from a strength-based perspective. • I have adequate organizational support to promote a strength-based perspective • Primary Prevention • I feel I have enough opportunities in my job to engage in primary prevention • I feel I have adequate time to engage in primary prevention activities. • I feel I have adequate preparation and skills to engage in primary prevention activities. • I have adequate organizational support to engage in primary prevention.

24. SPEC Work & Support MeasuresIndependent Variables • Empowerment • I feel I have enough opportunities in my job to give co-workers voice and choice. • I feel I have adequate time to give co-workers voice and choice. • I feel I have adequate preparation and skills to give co-workers voice and choice. • I have adequate organizational support to give co-workers voice and choice. **Same items were asked regarding empowering clients and community members • Changing Community Conditions • I feel I have enough opportunities in my job to work on changing the conditions that affect our clients and communities • I feel I have adequate time to engage in work to change community conditions • I feel I have adequate preparation and skills to engage in community change activities • I have adequate organizational support to engage in community change activities

25. Predictors of a strengths-based orientation Time Preparation and skills Organizational support Predictors of Changing Community Conditions Opportunity Time Preparation & skills Organizational Support Predictors of Primary Prevention Opportunities Time Preparation and skills Organizational support Organizational cohesiveness Organizational climate Learning from action Organizational skills Change in organizational learning. Results: Predictors of Strengths, Primary Prevention and Changing Community Conditions Orientations

26. Predictors of Empowerment at the Co-worker level Opportunity Time Preparation & skills Organizational Support Client/Community member voice & choice Organizational cohesiveness Organizational climate Learning from action Organizational skills Change in organizational learning. Predictors of Empowerment at the Client/Community member level Co-worker voice & choice Opportunity Organizational Support Time Preparation & skills Organizational skills Change in organizational learning. Results: Predictors of Empowerment

27. Assessing the “SPECiness” of 166 programs: Strength-Based Programs

28. Prevention vs. Treatment

29. EmpowermentBy Number of Programs

30. Changing Community ConditionsBy Number of Programs

31. Little funding for community change

32. Structures T-Team Councils Affiliation groups Forums Workshops and training Task Forces Principles Participation Power sharing Ownership Meaning Messages Meaning of SPEC Meaning of change process personally and professionally New SPECs action research approach

33. Outcomes of NEW SPECS PROJECT • New mission statements • New outreach programs • More youth and client involvement • Assessment of projects in light of SPEC • More prevention efforts • Empowered counselors • Blending of therapy with social change

34. In every act, in every interaction, in every social action, we hold each other accountable to promote People’s dignity, safety, hope and growth Relationships based on caring, compassion and respect Societies based on justice, communion and equality We are all better when these values are in balance To put these values into action, we will: Share our power Be proactive and not just reactive Transform the conditions that create problems for youth Encourage youth and families to promote a caring community Nurture visions that make the impossible, possible We commit to uphold these values with Youth and their Families Our Employees Our Organization Our Community This is a living document. We invite you to discuss it, to critique it, to live it