Educating the Generalist Practitioner in the Skills of Public Relations: A Challenge for the Eighties

Abstract

Public relations skills are increasingly important in the social service field. Reduced government financial support and a return to voluntarism have made it necessary to develop broad-based community support. Agency staff members, in addition to agency directors, need to have public relations skills in order to increase agency visibility and citizen understanding of client needs. The authors recommend that an effective level of public relations skills be incorporated in the generalist undergraduate curriculum and describe a unit of study developed for a senior seminar field instruction course.