Human Service Program Planning Through a Social Justice Lens

237 Pages·2022·7.322 MB·English

by  Irwin Nesoff

Human Service Program Planning
Through a Social Justice Lens
Human Service Program Planning Through a Social Justice Lens provides
a foundation in social justice to students while developing practical skills
and knowledge about the steps and tasks involved in planning social
programs.
Through the “parallel process” of contextualizing social issues while
teaching the process of program planning, students will develop a per-
spective on the need for social justice planning and its impact on mar-
ginalized communities and populations. The textbook explores current
concepts and approaches to understanding social issues and involving
impacted communities and individuals. These include: Intersectionality,
Appreciative Inquiry, Participatory Planning and Visioning, which serve
to challenge preconceptions while coupling these with the step-by-step
approach to planning using the Logic Model.
Utilizing meaningful examples to demonstrate how social justice plan-
ning can be implemented, Human Service Program Planning Through a
Social Justice Lens is appropriate for students of social work as well as
practitioners in human services, public administration and public health.
Irwin Nesoff served as a non-profit executive for fifteen years before join-
ing the social work faculty at Kean University in New Jersey. He later
joined the faculty at Wheelock College in Boston where he taught social
work before becoming the founding chairperson of the Department of
Leadership and Policy. He holds a Doctorate in Social Welfare awarded
by the City University of New York Graduate Center.

Human Service Program
Planning Through a
Social Justice Lens
Irwin Nesoff
Cover image: © Irwin Nesoff
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2022 Taylor & Francis
The right of Irwin Nesoff to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be
trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this title has been requested
ISBN: 9780367709754 (hbk)
ISBN: 9780367709761 (pbk)
ISBN: 9781003148777 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003148777
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
Support Material is available for this title at
www.routledge.com/9780367709761
This book is dedicated to
Paula Nesoff, my life partner, muse and inspiration.
Forever and…
and
The young activists of the Movement for Black Lives and the
Sunrise Movement. You give me hope for a future built on
social justice.

Contents
List of Figures ix
Introduction xi
1 Social Justice Thinking 1
2 Working with the Community to Define the Issue 41
3 Determining Need 67
4 From Understanding the Issue to Developing the Impact 100
5 The Process of Program Planning: Theory of Change
and Logic Models 120
6 Lasting Change Requires a Detailed Strategy 144
7 Developing the Program Logic Model 164
8 The Program Narrative 182
9 Program Evaluation 199
Index 215

Figures
1.1 Houselessness viewed through systems thinking 8
1.2 Intersectionality 13
1.3 Moving from dependence to interdependence 16
1.4 Paradigm shift 19
1.5 Wealth disparity in the U.S. 20
1.6 White vs. Black wealth 21
1.7 Maintaining the status quo 23
1.8 Structural poverty 25
1.9 School suspensions and expulsions, 2016 27
1.10 Social capital 31
2.1 Do not use “lack of” 43
2.2 Food insecurity contributing factors 44
2.3 Cultural competence and cultural humility compared 48
2.4 Getting from Point A to Point B 56
2.5 Flow of information 58
2.6 Maslow’s hierarchy 59
3.1 Program planning flow chart 70
3.2 Summer learning loss and the achievement gap 71
3.3 Defining the issue 72
3.4 Asset thinking vs. deficit thinking 77
3.5 Demographic data for the community (U.S. Census Bureau) 79
3.6 Community asset map 82
3.7 Relational organizing 93
3.8 Force field analysis 94
4.1 Role of the intervention hypothesis 103
4.2 The impact of assumptions 112
4.3 How the issue statement leads to impact 114
4.4 Theory of change components 117
5.1 Three approaches to rational planning 125
5.2 Structured decision making 128
5.3 Evidence-informed planning 135
5.4 Theory of change phases 137
5.5 Logic model template 139