Congregational Social Work: An Experiential Sharing

Abstract

Congregational social work is professional social work practice that takes place in the setting of a congregation. This term was first coined and used by Garland and Yancey in the year 2012. "Congregational Social Work" is defined as those social work services that are offered in and through a religious congregation, whether the employer is the congregation itself or a social service or denominational agency working in collaboration with congregations. In this paper "Congregational Social Work" is defined as those social work services that are offered in and through a religious congregation – a slum church in Chennai with the help and financial aid of the slum people and network with different stake holders. The topic itself is a new area for explosion. Social work collaboration with faith-based establishments, such as churches, has great potential to optimize internal functions and service to the community. Social Work has been practiced through churches as an expression of the love of Jesus Christ for many years. Social welfare programmes have been introduced through church mission agencies. The paper briefly presents about the background of the slum community, about the slum church and the methods applied as part of Congregational social work. Seven dimensions have been presented in this paper 1. Use of Appreciative Enquiry to discover the abilities of the community 2. Creation of Endowment fund for Education with the support of Slum people 3. Micro-Enterprise initiatives to provide job opportunities 4. Educational Initiatives 5. Exposure to Foreign countries for the slum people 6. Advocating and Lobbying for the rights of slum people 7. Shelter home during Natural disaster. This paper is based on personal experience of applying Social work in a congregation based in a slum community and the members belong to the same community.

Keywords: Congregational Social Work, Church Social Work