DBDS #028 WORKSHOPS AT R&D

Sangmitra Shirodkar

MUMBAI, AUGUST 14, 2009: The Shelter Don Bosco Research Centre (R&D), Matunga conducted workshops between August 10 and 13, 2009. Three major workshops were held on Basic Research Techniques for Co-ordinators/ Social Workers, Critical Field Reflection/ Analysis for Field workers and Advanced Practices of SPSS (Quantitative) and NVivo (Qualitative) Packages. The workshops were excellently executed by Dr. Bipasha Biswas, Assistant Professor, School of Social Work, St. Louis, Missouri (USA).

The staff members from Balprafulta, Development Office, Shelter Don Bosco and the R&D participated in these different workshops and had a lot to contribute as well as learn in the interactive sessions. Dr. Biswas gave an insightful orientation to the Micro system that social work is done in. She provided that work done even with individuals has to be referred to in the Meso system, the Exo and the Macro system. The workshops dealt with deisgning and managing small scale immediate field studies. It helped field workers to critically analyze their field interventions, reflect on their cases during report writing and consequently bring more effective inputs to their reports and the organizations’ interventions.

The three workshops were aptly culminated with field visits and meetings with groups from the various community sites of the displaced populations the R&D has been involved with. An enriching experience through which the participants understood that work interventions need to be more effective and focused.