Groups are powerful instruments of personal and social change. Group members can effectively harness the energy and power and resources to achieve a group’s purpose. This unit introduces frameworks, concepts, strategies and skills for maximising the benefits of group work in formal and informal settings for service-users or organisational work teams. Group work theories will be explored in their application to youth work practice with groups in a range of settings including secular and Christian environments. Concern for social justice will provide a philosophical underpinning in the unit; critical youth work perspectives will provide the overarching theoretical framework with attention to race, gender, culture and other power dimensions in group processes and dynamics. Focus will be on the diversity of groups and group work in practice; planning and evaluating groups; understanding and managing group processes and dynamics; and self-reflective practice in groups. Throughout this unit we also focus on providing students with a theoretical and practical understanding of program design as an organised response to social problems. Students will develop skills in program development and design, implementation, program resourcing/budgeting and evaluation. Topics: + Introduction + Group development * Planning groups and getting started * Understanding group dynamics and processes * Group facilitation and skills for managing ‘sticky issues’ * Work groups and team work * Therapeutic Groups * Group Leadership + Program Design * Experiential Learning and Cooperative Learning * Problem and Needs Analysis * Theory of Change * Program Design * Program Evaluation