Capacity building for integrated family-centered practice

The profession of social work has made distinctive and important contributions to individual, family, and community social welfare, because it has avoided the excessive reductionism found in other helping professions. Unlike these other helping professions, social work has addressed economic and occupational needs of individuals, families, and their communities in a unique way. As a new century dawns, it is appropriate to look back and reflect and then to look ahead toward continuing challenges and emergent needs of individuals, families, and their surrounding communities. This article highlights some social work legacies and how they will help inform 21st century practice. Drawing on lessons from the past, several examples illustrate the kinds of strategies that might inform integrative social and economic foundations for practice, policy, and human well-being. The importance of these and other income-support and capacity-building strategies is featured against the challenges associated with welfare reform, new mandates for systems change, and what some see as the "reinvention" of the welfare state. The analysis concludes by describing some of the implications for professional education, research, practice, and their relationship.