Social workers during five decades

1. Social workers during five decades The Experience of CIP in a Finnish Perspective Susanne Holmström

2. Background to the study • CIP/Philadelphia in 1990-91 • What had Finnish social workers learned from the program? • CIF in Finland – network of different generations of social workers

3. When had they participated? • The history of CIP • The development of social welfare in Finland • Reconstruction of the society

4. The survey/questionnaire • 98 social workers • 85 % answered • 1957- 1993 • The average age 32 years

5. Most participated in the 4 mth program, one third in the one-year-program • Professional experience in Finland

6. Professional and Personalpoint of view • Participation both professional as well as a personal point of view • “An adventure” • Developing of the professional identity • The experience - huge impact on the participants’ professional and personal lives.

7. CIP History Three groups in accordance with the historical development of CIP (Glenn Shive 1993): • 1956-1965 The early CIP/ Henry B. Ollendorff and the Cleveland program • 1966-1979 The different affiliates taking form • 1980-1991 Post-Henry B. Ollendorff

8. The pioneers 1957- 1965 • The participants’ description of the exchange - cultural exchange most important • International understanding, cultural confrontation • Professional exchange - new methods of community and group work

9. Period of professional profiling 1966 – 1979 • High number of participants - social welfare and services developed in Finland • Health care, mental-health care or subsidence abuse related fields • Child- and youth field and the social workers working with subsidence abuse

10. New ideas and different methods of social work • High expectations– the US had seemed to be the leading country in many areas. • The level of American social work varied very much.

11. New groups of social workers the period of 1980 – 1993 • Structural changes in social welfare and society - new professional interests. • Social workers working with issues of unemployment or social benefits • Earlier this group had represented an orientation that hadn’t been open to American influence in social work

12. Conclusions • What you draw from the exchange experience depends on many factors • The historical, structural frame • Different demands in different eras • Own motivation

13. Conclusions • Confidence to manage in an international context • Building stones for a development of both the professional and personal identity • A process that continues through out their lives. • Process of finding one’s own cultural belonging and professional identity

14. Conclusions • The essential learning experience of the exchange program during all the different periods - the interaction itself • the interaction between the participants, the interaction the participant has with the hosts and the colleges • New perspective on the participants’ work and their professional context as well as on their personal cultural identity