Additional Conference Events

Additional conference events are: Pre-Conference Symposia, During the Conference and Post Conference Events. See below for details.

Pre-Conference Symposia

We are delighted to be able to offer a number of pre-conference symposia on Monday 29 June 2014 from 14.00 until 17.00.
The symposia are presented by a number of interest groups selected by the Conference Steering Committee. These symposia are self organized by each group and offer a number of invited papers and an opportunity to discuss particular issues in some depth. Attendance at the symposia is available at the time of conference registration. Please indicate on your registration form which symposium you wish to attend. Do note that some symposia will be in languages other than English – this may influence your choice. Further details about the symposia are displayed below, as we receive them from the organisers.

1st European Student Social Work Meeting - EASSW

Social work education is currently facing significant challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, spending cuts and underfunding in Higher Education has affected many social work programmes across Europe. Moreover, the very existence of the European social model is at risk, affecting service users, educators and students alike. On the other hand, never before have social workers across the continent worked so closely together in order to address these challenges and shape a common social work agenda.
EASSW recognizes that the voice of social work students is necessary in shaping such an agenda and invites social work students to attend the 1st European Student Social Work Meeting. The meeting will be facilitated by the local association of social work students (Milan) and supported by EASSW.
Two main presentations (one student speaker and a contribution from EASSW) will launch the debate on the following themes:

• The current state of social work education in Europe: challenges and opportunities
• Listening to the voices of students: towards the creation of a European Student Social Work Network.
• ERASMUS and student exchange opportunities
• Job prospects for social work graduates in a uncertain environment

Program
14.00 - 14.15: Welcome to the partecipants
14.15 – 15.15: Plenary Presentations
15.15 - 15.45: Discussions in smaller groups
15.45 - 17.00: Group based and Regional Presentations
17.00 - 17.30: Towards the creation of European Students Network?

Participation to this meeting is free.
The Milano Bicocca students association "Associazione In-Formazione" may help students coming to Milan for this events and the conference.
An information page for students is available at the address: http://ainformazione.com/eassw-conference/
For further information write to: ass.informazione@gmail.com

This event is in cooperation with:



Note: at the end of the page you find the program of the Summer School “Ageing society and Social Work. Challenges and solutions from three continents”.

Social Work Education: dialogue between Europe and China

Europe and China are both struggling to realise a system for sustainable social development. Both regions are facing difficulties and opportunities in undertaking this endeavour. The similarities and differences in this process in the two continents are the basis for establishing a fruitful dialogue on social work education and the social work profession.
The European Association of Schools of Social Work (EASSW) and the Chinese Association of Social Work Education (CASWE) participated in a project called The China Europe Forum (www.china-europa.forum.net) based upon on-going dialogue between the two regions in order to create a bridge between them. The Forum was launched in 2005 with the support of the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for Human Progress.
In order to share experiences and underline similarities and differences in social work education EASSW and CASWE organized workshops in China (Beijing 2009, Shanghai 2010, Wyhan and Nanning 2012) with participants from several Chinese and European universities and a workshop during the ENSACT conference in Brussels in 2011
The commonalities we identified led us to pose some major questions during the workshops:
Should we focus on Internationalization or indigenization in social work education?
What is the best way to regulate and organise the profession of social work?
How close should the connection be between social work education and social policy?
The 2015 EASSW conference gives us an excellent opportunity to continue this dialogue. Chinese colleagues have been invited to come to Milan to discuss our common challenges and possible future projects. Presentations from both China and Europe will illustrate different perspectives in light of the priorities of the Global Agenda. The aim of this symposium is to identify concrete action for our further future cooperation.
The program for this symposium is being finalised. Full details will be given in due course.

Program

• Prof. Annamaria Campanini (Department of Sociology and Social Research, University of Milano-Bicocca): introduction and chaiperson
• Prof. Agnes Koon Chui Law (Department of Sociology and Social Work and Director of the Center for Social Work Education and Research at the Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou): Challenges of social work education in mainland China.
• Prof.Zhong Zhang-bao (Department of Sociology and Law,Huazhong Agriculture University): Practice and thought of social work in Rural Area of China.
• Prof.Lei Hong（Department of Sociology,Huazhong University of Science and Technology: Obstacles in practical capacity achievement of MSW students.
• Prof. Wan Jiang-hong(Department of Sociology and Law,Huazhong Agriculture University): The MSW Internship Training in Rural Community: Sunshine Service Center as Example

Social Work Leadership in the Academy: the Southeast Europe Academic Women's Leadership Initiative.

Although change has taken place in educational institutions in SEE over the past 2 decades, particularly under the agreements of the Bologna Declaration of 1999, substantive reform has been difficult, uneven, and slow to materialize in concrete ways. The obvious and not so obvious causes of a less than robust reform movement are the severely depressed financial situation in SEE, the use of university education for political purposes while unemployment levels are above two digits, the growing shift in European philosophy from one of education as a social right to education as a market commodity, corruption, and the tenacity of a very entrenched bureaucratic and hierarchical system that continues to disadvantage early career academics.
Yet, in spite of seemingly insurmountable obstacles, new cohorts are ready to assume leadership roles with aspirations for change. In order to address this matter of leadership for educational reform, the Southeast Europe Academic Women’s Leadership Initiative was established and is in its first year of operation with an initial cohort of 8 women from 6 countries, a senior academic mentor based in Slovenia and 2 senior mentors in the US.
The Symposium will be used as a venue for discussing and forward thinking about the initiative and how leadership development among early career women academics in social work can contribute to furthering the goals of educational reform in SEE. Women from the first cohort will present their experiences and explore with symposium participants the ways in which the initiative can be expanded and sustained. The EASSW 2015 Conference provides an excellent opportunity for these discussions to take place with the goals of expanding the network, fostering greater educational and research connections beyond the SEE, and further stimulating educational reform. A full program for the Symposium will be published in January 2015. The Initiative is, in part, an outgrowth of the Open Society Foundations Academic Fellowship Program (AFP) that has supported early career academics for many years and is now being closed out at the end of 2015 academic year. The SEE Women’s Initiative has received funding from the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW), the Katherine A. Kendall Institute (KAKI), individual programs of social work education in the United States and from a private educational foundation.

User Involvement in Social Work education: Mending the gap

This symposium will involve service users and educators and explore the work that has been fostered by the EU funded international partnership PowerUs to develop user and carer involvement in social work education and beyond. It will focus particularly on the model of working which has been pioneered by the partnership - 'Mending The Gap'. This highlights in an accessible and readily understood way, some of the key gaps currently restricting the effectiveness of social work and social work education. It has also identified helpful ways of overcoming these gaps. Two different approaches to enhancing user and carer involvement in social work education will be explored; the UK and Scandinavian approaches. Both are concerned with ensuring the greater inclusion of service users and their experiential knowledge but do this in different helpful ways. The aim of the symposium will be to support educators, researchers and service users and their organisations to take forward such 'gap-mending' approaches more effectively in their different countries and different settings. While it will aim to be a practical and helpful session, it will also address theoretical and philosophical issues underpinning this development. Service user organisations and educators from the UK, Sweden and Norway will facilitate the session in association with partners from Germany and Denmark.

Internationalisation of training in the social professions through efforts of networks

The symposium evaluates the achievements in the internationalisation of training in the social professions through the efforts of the various networks originating in the work of ECCE (European Centre for Community Education) over the past 30 years. Both the title of the network (‘community education’) and the European dimension heralded an approach that gave recognition to the specificity of cultural, political and legal contexts in which social work practice is bounded at national level on the one hand and to the border-crossing orientation which characterised the social professions right from the beginning on the other. The duality of this perspective is today more important than ever given the transversality of issues like migration, demographic transformation and economic globalisation and of social policy ideologies based on neoliberalism which threaten to level the value of diversity in methodology and of ethical commitments that hold social work to give recognition to identity issues. These issues can only be analysed and pursued from a specific international perspective grounded in exchanges of teachers and students which highlights the character of the social professions in the dialectic between cultural and individual particularity and scientific universalism. The symposium will bring together the results of projects that have demonstrated the value of such exchanges and will aim at formulating a manifesto for the further development of the international and intercultural dimension of education in the social professions

Educating for research mindedness and research capacity in social work

European Social Work Research Association - Silvia Fargion, Julie Fish, Staffan Hojer, Elaine Sharland

The relevance of social work research and of a strong connection between practice and research and vice versa is widely accepted. Albeit the connection between research and practice has been described and theorized along different lines, most of those involved in social work deem the link itself as crucial. This position of course entails that social work education bears a great responsibility for finding ways to prepare future practitioners and to promote what has often been described as research mindedness. Research mindedness requires being alert to and sympathetic towards research, and able to find and critically understand research relevant to social work. Many involved in social work education maintain that we should go a step further: practitioners should develop research capacity, be able to develop and conduct their own research, or participate collaboratively in research projects. For research to be relevant for practice, it needs to be guided by and connected to issues emerging from field work, and practitioners’ participation in research is the best guarantee of relevance. So how does social work education prepare and develop research mindedness and capacity in future practitioners? This pre-conference session aims to provide a space for reflection on this theme. A review of literature on teaching social work research, and a reflection on different teaching models identified will provide the bases for a discussion and exchange of experiences among participants.

UNA RETE PER GENERARE APPARTENENZA ALLA COMUNITA’ PROFESSIONALE E PROMUOVERE PARTECIPAZIONE POLITICA: UN MANIFESTO DI IDEE E AZIONI POSITIVE PER LA PROFESSIONE DEGLI ASSISTENTI SOCIALI

 

PER PARTECIPARE E' NECESSARIO ESSERSI ISCRITTI TRAMITE L'ORDINE DEGLI ASSISTENTI SOCIALI DELLA LOMBARDIA 

This event is organized by the "Consiglio Nazionale dell’Ordine degli Assistenti Sociali" and "Consiglio Regionale degli Assistenti Sociali della Lombardia" (Professional Bodies for Social Workers in Italy and Lombardia) and will be only in Italian.
In Italia la professione è regolata dalla L. 84/93 che istituisce l’ Ordine degli assistenti sociali. La funzione ordinistica, riconosciuta dalla Costituzione Italiana, si pone contemporaneamente due livelli di azione: una per garantire l'esercizio competente della professione, l'altra di impulso a livello politico per stimolare capacità di innovazione dei sistemi di protezione sociale, fortemente messi in discussione dalla crisi economica e sociale a livello internazionale. Come ciò si può in concreto realizzare? Come è possibile che un’ istituzione sappia mantenere la capacità di rappresentanza in una società caratterizzata dalla frammentazione degli interessi?
Con la Formazione Continua, diritto/dovere del professionista, si è creata un’ opportunità strategica per rigenerare professionalità e appartenenza nel servizio sociale professionale, attraverso la disseminazione delle responsabilità contenute nel Codice Deontologico della professione. La Formazione Continua è un dovere già previsto nel Codice (2009) per “garantire prestazioni qualificate, adeguate al progresso scientifico e culturale, metodologico e tecnologico, tenendo conto delle indicazioni dell’ordine professionale” (art. 54).
Nella fase di sperimentazione (2010-2013), che ha creato i presupposti per la costruzione dell’attuale sistema obbligatorio posto dal DPR 137/2012, il Consiglio dell'Ordine, nelle sue articolazioni nazionale e regionali, ciascuno per il proprio ruolo, hanno favorito la partecipazione degli iscritti nei diversi territori locali e nelle aree di intervento professionale. In particolare, nella regione Lombardia si è proceduto proponendo la costituzione di gruppi di lavoro che potessero affrontare le tematiche poste dai cambiamenti sociali in atto e dalle criticità espresse dalla società civile e le ripercussioni sul ruolo professionale. Nella sperimentazione del sistema della Formazione Continua i gruppi di lavoro consiliari caratterizzati territorialmente (gruppi territoriali) e per aree tematiche di intervento professionale (gruppi tematici come la rete negli ospedali, nelle cure palliative, nei consultori, nella protezione dei bambini, coordinamento dei supervisori) hanno avuto luoghi e tempi per interrogarsi, confrontarsi, manifestare criticità, dubbi, dilemmi ed anche pensare a percorsi di contrasto alla marginalizzazione del settore dei servizi sociali.
Quale processo collettivo e partecipato abbiamo generato per essere protagonisti negli attuali sistemi di welfare, che si stanno allontanando dai principi di giustizia sociale ed eguaglianza per i quali sono nati?
Il circuito virtuoso - dal centro alla periferia – dalla pratica alla teoria – è in atto: le risposte non sono facili, ed è necessario trovare nelle singole esperienze il “filo rosso” che renda riconoscibile localmente quell’impegno globale che gli assistenti sociali hanno scritto nella “Global Definition of the Social Work Profession”.

Silvana Mordeglia – Presidente Consiglio Nazionale dell’Ordine degli Assistenti Sociali
Renata Ghisalberti – Presidente Consiglio Regionale degli Assistenti Sociali della Lombardia

 

during the CONFERENCE

Interest Group Meetings

During the conference, there may be small networks or groups of people who would like the opportunity to meet together. This may be for groups that are already formed, such as national or sub-regional associations, or groups of people who want to continue discussions that arise as a result of conference input.
Rooms have been reserved during the conference to facilitate such meetings on various dates and times. If you would like to book a meeting room, please do so on site at the conference. The registration desk will keep the list of rooms and dates where you can make a reservation.

SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP ON GROUPWORK IN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AND PRACTICE

Preston-Shoot Michael (University of Bedfordshire, UK), Andrés Arias Astray and Sagario Segado (Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Spain)

Group participation appears central to human experience, well-being and the promotion of social justice. However, while the power of groupwork is indisputable, social work educators and practitioners identify critical reductions in the quality and scope of groupwork education, training and services. In addition, groupworkers rarely have opportunities to join across borders to talk about successful approaches and challenges they encounter. This session's purpose is to bring together conference attendees to share experiences and research, and develop strategies to strengthen groupwork in social work education.
This session will be convened by a panel of social work educators who are affiliated with the Global Group Work Network. We have a track record of successful Special Interest Group sessions internationally, including sessions in Adelaide, Stockholm and Melbourne (2004, 2012 & 2014 World Social Work and Social Development Conferences), Munich (2006 World IFSW Conference), Parma (2007, European Social Work Conference), and Bonn (2011 United Nations DPI/NGO Conference). These sessions have provided support to strengthen local programs and fostered collaboration on regional and global levels. Attendees reported that they strongly welcomed such sessions.
Previous Interest Groups included discussion of ways to enhance organizational and educational support for groupwork, explorations of cross-national and cross-cultural practice and education, and development of issue focused teams. International research partnerships, including some presenting at IASSW and EASSW conferences, were incubated through Special Interest Group on Groupwork conversations.
We look forward to engaging participants in this Special Interest Group to broaden and encourage future collaborations around groupwork education. While we cannot predict the exact outcomes of this synergistic session, we foresee expanding our sense of commitment, resulting in activities that build on the connections made at the event. Such group discussions are critical in sustaining and expanding social work with groups as essential to our profession's identity and expertise.

Time and place:
Wednesday 1st July 2015 from 13.00 to 14.00
place will be available on this page soon.

Workshop "Writing for publication in international journals" 

Suzy Braye, Editor, European Journal of Social Work

This short workshop will explore the challenges and rewards of publishing your work in international journals. In particular, we will consider how to:

• Create a clear aim and purpose for your paper, and find your audience
• Ensure your paper fits well with the aims/scope of the journal to which you submit
• Explain the national/regional context in which your work is located
• Ensure that your work has significance beyond your immediate geographic context
• Organise, plan and get support with your writing
• Use feedback and stay motivated

We will draw on examples of publishing successes as well as new writing ideas you may bring along with you for discussion, and put together some top tips for taking forward your work to publication.

Time and place:

• Wednesday 1st July 2015 from 13.00 to 14.00
• place will be available on this page soon.

Workshop "Disseminating your research: Publishing in peer reviewed academic journals"

Lena Dominelli, Simon Hackett, Vasilios Ioakimidis, Elizabeth Ryan (Durham University, Durham, United Kingdom)

Disseminating research findings and being published in peer-reviewed journals is a time-consuming and challenging process, especially for those unfamiliar with what is expected in high quality journal articles. Who do you look to for support? Who can explain the process to you? Such questions may press heavily on PhD students, new researchers, and experienced scholars because each journal has its own particular criteria and approaches to material that it publishes. Thus, every publication has to be tailored to the specific requirements of the journal in question. Examining its website for the guidance offered to authors and reading specimen articles can help in getting started. However, the process can be made more transparent and easier to follow. To address this need, the Co-Editors of the Journal 'International Social Work', Lena Dominelli, Simon Hackett and Vasilios Ioakimidis, will provide a workshop which will help you to maximise your chances of success in submitting to peer reviewed journals. The workshop will include attention to the process of getting an article published, from having a preliminary idea, to working it up to a high standard, responding to reviewer comments and to preparing an accepted article for publication. The editors will provide practical tips and advice and will offer examples of materials that will assist you in getting published. There will be time for discussion, questions and sharing of experiences.

Time and place:

• Wednesday 1st July 2015 from 18.00 to 19.00
• place will be available on this page soon.

POST-CONFERENCE EVENTS

Field visits

1. Casa della Carità (House of Charity) - Interventions on urban sufferance

A multifunctional centre hosting men, women, singles, families, italians and migrants. At the Casa della Carità around 150 people often in economic poverty, are actively hosted and involved in their own social and economic re-integration project. Thanks to professionals and volunteers the House offers counselling, legal guidance, occupational and vocational advice as well as providing a shower and wardrobe service, medical and walk-in psychiatric service. The Academy of Charity and the Souq (research study centre for urban exclusion) organizes training courses, theatre, seminars and workshops on the themes of social hardship and marginalization. Conference attendees will visit all of these facilities.
Visit for: upon availability
Address: via Francesco Brambilla 10, 20128 Milano
Further information: at http://www.casadellacarita.org/english

2. Centro accoglienza donne profughe con bambini (Consorzio "Farsi prossimo") - short term host for refugee and asylum seeker women with their children

Multifunctional centre for women and children who are asylum seekers. With residential facilities, kindergarden, social and psychological support.
Visit for: upon availability
Address: Via Sammartini, 75, Milan
Further information: http://www.farsiprossimo.it/aree-di-intervento/area-stranieri-centri-di-accoglienza/centro-polifunzionale-sede-di-via-testi

3. Zumbini 6 - Approdi Innovativi (Innovative Landings) (Cooperativa La Cordata) - Integrated social housing experience

Zumbini 6 is a social housing experiment operating within a community welfare framework, an ‘integrated housing experience’ led by the social enterprise La Cordata. La Cordata provides hospitality and support to a wide range of people, from tourists, students and workers in need of temporary accommodation to families, minors, single mothers with children or singles who face temporary difficulties. The 4.500 sqm space includes 120 beds in single, double, three and four-bed rooms, all with ensuite bathroom, one reading room, three common equipped kitchens and dining rooms, a laudrette, a coworking space, a family centre providing psychological support, a pub-restaurant, an auditorium with an amphitheatre, a garden with playground open to the neighbourhood. Common spaces will be shown by the people who live and work in the building.
Visit for: upon availability
Address: Via Zumbini 6, Milan
Further information: http://www.lacordata.it/zumbini-6/

4. Brodolini (Cooperativa La Cordata) - Integrated social housing experience

Also managed by La Cordata, the Residence Brodolini 24 is located in Cinisello Balsamo, north of Milan (not far from Milano Bicocca University). Opened in 2011, it's a social housing project following the principles of affordable housing, along with integrated services. The residence hosts students, workers, refugees, separated fathers and other people facing temporary difficulties. There is a Solidarity Purchase Group ("the gastronauts") and a vegetable garden open to the neighbourhood.
Visit for: upon availability
Address: via Brodolini 24, Cinisello Balsamo (Milan).
Further information: http://www.residencebrodolini24.com

5. Casa di Accoglienza Enzo Jannacci (Municipality of Milan) - Homeless people and adults in poverty

This is a public service, managed direclty by Milan municipality which provides temporary shelter for adults in serious need, lacking housing and economic means. It is open to people of both sexes, Italians, migrants or stateless people, aged between 18 and 65 years ,who able to live in community. Guests are supported in the acquisition of maximum individual autonomy through the provision of social services, education and health.
Besides a night the hostel offers: evening canteen, showers, Day center, Living room. Library, wardrobe, Laundry, Social and educational assistance and Health care service medical and nursing.
Visit for: upon availability
Address: Viale Ortles, Milan
Further information: https://www.comune.milano.it/portale/wps/portal/...

6. Pio Albergo Trivulzio - Residential health and social care for elderly people

The Pio Albergo Trivulzio is an ancient Milanese institution, founded in 1776 as a public assistance and charity (IPAB) foundation dedicated to care for elderly and poor people of the city.
In its history it has had several changes. Currently it is a “Human Services Agency” with a complex organization geared to dealing in a multidisciplinary way with the problems of eldery people, providing both inpatient rehabilitation, long-term care (RSA) and outpatient facilities. It is one of the main geriatric service centres in Europe.
The hosting facilities, the medical and therapeutic places and social services will be visited.
Visit for: upon availability
Address: via Trivulzio 15, Milan
Further information: http://www.iltrivulzio.it/il-trivulzio.html

7. Casa Aurora (Istituto Don Gnocchi) - Residential respite care for older and/or disabled people

This is a multifunctional centre with different services for disabled people. Casa Aurora is a 'respite residential faciliy' that hosts people with temporary social frailty or minor health needs for a limited period of time in a family-like and sheltered environment.
Visit for: upon availability
Address: via Marcantonio Colonna 24 - viale Teodorico; Milan
Further information: http://www.dongnocchi.it/

Summer School “Ageing society and Social Work. Challenges and solutions from three continents”

The summer school is at its third edition and involves students from Italian universities (belonging to Social Work degree courses of Milano Bicocca and Calabria), from the Loyola University of Chicago (US) and the Huazhong Agriculture University di Wuhan (China). The school will discuss problems arising from a rapidly ageing population and its potential impact on social services, comparing different realities. It also considers issues about food and nutrition.The program includes participation at the biennial conference of the European Association of Schools of Social Work that will be held in the same days at the University of Milan Bicocca. The overall aim is to enhance students’ competences and knowledge on social work with elderly in a comparative perspective.

The program that is hosted by the Milano Bicocca Social Work Degree Course delivery includes lectures from scholars coming from US, Italy and China, student work group and field visit to services in Milan dedicated to elderly. It will take place from June 29th to July 7th 2015.

For further information: http://www.summerschoolexpo2015.com/ageing-society-and-social-work.php