Novel Ideas for Community-Centered Clinical Practice: Facilitating Graduate Students' Understanding of Sense of Community and Place

Abstract

Community-centered clinical practice requires understanding of relational aspects of community and place and how these unfold in the lives of clients. However, many students lack such conceptual understanding and consequently struggle to define how they might be integrated into clinical practice. This article illustrates the use of three novels to facilitate such understanding in a graduate clinical practice course. The novels examine the experiences of a middle-aged White widower, a Black woman, and a young Aboriginal man as they alternatively avoid, reject, find, and ultimately cherish their place in community and their community in place.

Keywords:

• social work education
• graduate education
• sense of community
• sense of place
• case studies