Week 10: Special Areas of Practice – Bullying. There are many different forms of bullying. Each type negatively impacts all involved. Social workers are often called on to provide counseling to victims and perpetrators, make presentations about bullying to raise community awareness, and develop programs to prevent bullying.

This week, you explore bullying through a variety of lenses and evaluate different approaches to bullying intervention.

Students will:

• Identify the definitions, forms, and impact of bullying
• Apply intervention approaches to forms of bullying
• Evaluate an agency’s approach to trauma-informed services

Learning Resources

Note: To access this week’s required library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Required Readings

Webb, N. B. (2019). Social work practice with children (4th ed.). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.

• Chapter 15, “The Interpersonal Violence of Bullying: Impact on Victims, Perpetrators, and Bystanders/Witnesses”

Discussion: Bullies at School

One of the most frequent places where children experience bullying is at school. Being different often makes someone an easy target for bullies. Choosing the best course of action to prevent or stop bullying is not always obvious.

In this Discussion, you determine how to intervene most effectively and describe the specific steps you would take to stop bullying at school.

To prepare: Imagine you are a school social worker in an elementary school, and you become aware that there are some “cliques” or “gangs” of fourth or fifth graders that routinely pick on their peers who do well in their schoolwork.

Week 10: Special Areas of Practice – Bullying

By Day 3

Post:

• Identify the signs and characteristics you might observe that would indicate the above scenario is bullying.
• Explain how you would respond. Include what steps or intervention strategies you would take.

Week 10: Special Areas of Practice – Bullying

By Day 5

Respond to at least two of your colleagues’ posts who identified different strategies.

Submission and Grading Information

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 10 Discussion Rubric

Post by Day 3 and Respond by Day 5

To participate in this Discussion:

Week 10 Discussion

Final Project: Applying Trauma-Informed Principles to a Social Work Practice Setting With Children and Families

Trauma-informed practice goes beyond the skills and techniques used by an individual social worker. Organizations and communities can unintentionally retraumatize clients through their policies and procedures. Social workers have a responsibility to advocate for change.

In this Assignment, you use the knowledge you have gained about trauma-informed practice to evaluate the organizational and operational structure of a setting with which you are familiar. You also make recommendations for changes needed to apply core trauma-informed principles.

Week 10: Special Areas of Practice – Bullying

The Assignment

In Week 4, you explored the concept of trauma-informed services through six principles and 10 implementation domains (SAMHSA, 2014). Now, choose a setting in which you have worked providing social work services (e.g., current/previous field placement, employer, etc.) and explore the principles and implementation domains of trauma-informed services in the setting you have chosen.

Week 10: Special Areas of Practice – Bullying

By Day 7

Submit a 5- to 7-page paper in which you address the following four areas:

• Describe the agency setting. Is it public or private, non-profit or for-profit? Is the agency’s primary goal to serve trauma survivors? Approximately what percentage of clients would be defined as trauma survivors?
• Explain how the setting demonstrates each of the 6 key principles. Provide examples.
• Using the sample questions on page 14-16 as a guide, assess each of the 10 implementation domains at the agency and explain which key principles are evident in each domain.
• Provide specific recommendations for improving each of the principles that are not well implemented. Be specific about (1) organizational, (2) environmental, (3) programmatic, and/or (4) administrative changes that would need to occur for your agency to implement a trauma-informed approach.
• Explain potential barriers to creating trauma-informed services in this setting and how you might address these barriers.

The paper should be presented in a clear and coherent manner and reflect critical thinking and a clear understanding of trauma-informed services. It should adhere to APA guidelines.

Week 10: Special Areas of Practice – Bullying

Submission and Grading Information

To submit your completed Final Project for review and grading, do the following:

• Please save your Final Project using the naming convention “WK10Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” as the name.
• Click the Week 10 Final Project Rubric to review the Grading Criteria for the Final Project.
• Click the Week 10 Final Project link. You will also be able to “View Rubric” for grading criteria from this area.
• Next, from the Attach File area, click on the Browse My Computer button. Find the document you saved as “WK10Assgn+last name+first initial.(extension)” and click Open.
• If applicable: From the Plagiarism Tools area, click the checkbox for I agree to submit my paper(s) to the Global Reference Database.
• Click on the Submit button to complete your submission.

Week 10: Special Areas of Practice – Bullying

Grading Criteria

To access your rubric:

Week 10 Final Project Rubric

Check Your Final Project Draft for Authenticity

To check your Final Project draft for authenticity:

Submit your Week 10 Final Project draft and review the originality report.

Week 10: Special Areas of Practice – Bullying

Submit Your Final Project by Day 7

To submit your Final Project:

Week 10 Final Project

Week in Review

This week you identified the definitions, forms and impact of bullying and applied intervention approaches. You also evaluated an agency’s approach to trauma-informed services.

In the final week you will explore some of the unique ethical and legal issues that may confront you when providing social work services to children and their families.

To go to the next week:

Week 11