THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO COMMUNITY SOCIAL WORK IN POLAND

Abstract

The article analyzes contemporary theoretical and methodological approaches to community social work in Poland. The research was carried out at the University of Wroclaw (Poland). Desk research methods were used in order to conduct a comparative analysis of Ukrainian and Polish laws and regulations, scientific publications, official websites of government agencies, non-governmental organizations, social service providers, etc. Since different terms are used in the Polish-speaking world when addressing community social work (such as “praca środowiskowa”, “organizowanie społeczności lokalnej”, “praca socjalna ze społecznością lokalną”, etc.), it was decided to interpret them within the article as synonymous, so that the terminological confusion would be avoided. It was found out that contemporary community social work in Poland takes its origins in American and Western European sources. The key theoretical and methodological approaches to community social work, which were developed directly in Poland, are identified and characterized, in particular: Model of local community organization, Model of local activity center, Local activity programs. In addition, various local variations of community social work, which are predominantly the offshoots of the above-mentioned approaches were developed in Poland over the last few years. The article also indicates the presence of critical views on the community social work practice in Poland, primarily due to the fact that models, which are already implemented in the country have a rather limited environmental impact and require a certain initial level of community self-organization, etc. Given the longer history and wider implementation of Polish models of community social work, it is concluded that their further study is justified. Moreover, it is reasonable to consider Polish experience, while implementing community social work in Ukraine.