Race and Groupwork: Some experiences in practice and training

Abstract

The paper starts from our concern that many groupworkers adopt a ‘colour blind’ approach in their work. This ignores the needs and experiences of the various black communities in Britain, and denies the fact that we live in a racist society which impacts upon the institutions within which we work and the daily lives of us all, white or black, professionals or clients.
Gmtpwork needs to find ways of acknowledging and then confronting racism, otherwise we are in danger of attracting neither black practitioners nor clients, leading to a position where groupwork is marginalised, professionally and politically, within social work as a whole.
To begin the process we draw on the experiences of specially convened workshops, held at the National Institute for Social Work (NISW) as part of the groupwork ‘network’, to help us examine ways of dealing with race and racism in groups and encouraging black participation in groups. Training issues are also analysed and suggestions made, including the use of trigger role-play scenes, to help exploration of the personal and professional dimensions.

Publisher’s note: We are now putting all back issues of Groupwork on line. Articles in this issue have been scanned to pdf files as viable original typesetting files no longer exist. Though they may not look it, these files are searchable. This issue was published nearly 30 years ago. We have stated author professional details as received at time of publication.