Frontline worker perceptions of the empowerment process in community-based agencies

Although many in the social work profession have written about empowerment, few have offered a description of the empowerment process from the perspective of clients and workers in high-risk communities. This qualitative study presents a model of empowerment practice from the perspective of frontline workers, the challenges they faced, and the strategies they used to deal with these challenges. Interviews with 28 family support specialists, social workers, and team leaders from four Casey Family Resource Centers over a two-year period explored the experiences of empowerment-oriented practice in community-based settings. Frontline staff described six stages of the empowerment process, the obstacles to implementing empowerment practice with disadvantaged clients, and the steps they took to resolve them. Implications of these findings for organizations and professionals transitioning to empowerment practice are discussed.