What obstacles do you anticipate?

Submit a final integrative paper, APA style and referenced, 4-6 pages, due on Nov. 21th. This paper provides an opportunity for you to more thoroughly design a group for a particular population. Try to select a group that you might realistically facilitate in your professional career. Discuss the specifics of the group. What type of group will you be leading? What are the special considerations in facilitating this group? The paper should include the following Headings:
Introduction – the author’s reasons for planning this group for this population; the purpose and hopes for the group. Refer to yourself as “the author.”
Background – use the research articles and the textbook to describe the target population and why group work is an appropriate intervention modality for this population. This will be like the literature review section. Use 2 journal articles. You can also use internet sources and the textbook, but you still must have the 2 articles. Contact Instructor if you need help finding articles.
Goals and Objectives for the Group – what do you hope the group will achieve? how will you know if the group has been successful – as a whole and for individual group members? what instrument will be used to gather data about pre-group functioning and post-group functioning?
Planning the Group – describe what you are planning and why, always trying to tie the particular plan to the needs of the population, such as, meeting in the morning because it’s for older, retired people, or having a closed group because it’s for trauma survivors, etc. Include: how often will it meet? what time of day? in-person or online? at an agency/school/hospital or a neutral spot in the community? Can potential group members be surveyed first to see what works for them?
Recruiting group members – describe how you think this could most successfully be done, considering the population you want to reach and the agency setting/resources. Will you use flyers to the general public, or current agency clients as referred by their workers? Will you seek funding so you can offer food, door prizes, transportation, childcare? Will you partner with a court or state agency that can mandate participation? What obstacles do you anticipate?
Intervention Approach and Group Development – talk a bit about the theoretical approach you are starting from to plan this group (and why), such as behavioral, psychodynamic, solution-focused, attachment — there can be more than one of course. Discuss the role of the group leader(s) [more talkative and directive in a psychoeducational group or socialization group, less talkative and more facilitative in a therapy or support group, etc.] What techniques and activities will you use, what skills will be most important for the Leaders to use. Also discuss how you expect the group dynamics to evolve over time for your particular population, such as 4-5 sessions to warm up and establish trust, or do you expect trust quickly and lots of sharing right away — it depends on the target population (e.g., formerly incarcerated people, teenage boys, mixed-gender or gender-specific)
Ethical & Multicultural Considerations and Termination- will group members be voluntary or involuntary/mandated; how will you talk to them about confidentiality and its limits, what other group rules will you want to establish (can they socialize outside of group, or not…), will the rules be written out and signed by everyone and/or posted on the wall, reviewed each time, etc. What cultural issues will be important for the group planner/leader to consider?
Conclusion – provide a brief concluding statement. *Also, if you list 5 terms that appeared in your articles and that are important for readers to know, and their definitions, you will receive 5 extra credit points on your grade for the paper.
GRADING RUBRIC FOR INTEGRATIVE PAPER
The 4-6 page paper must be APA style, typed, with one-inch margins, using 12-point font and double-spaced.
APA Format 10 points
Use of scholarly sources (less than 10 years old) 10 points
Proper length and number of references 10 points
Clearly and thoroughly address outline issues for the paper development 30 points
Clearly integrate the target population, purpose of group, type of group, and intervention approach 30 points
Use your own words as much as possible and not thesaurus words or internet cut-and-pastes. Priceless! and 10 points
*Extra credit – 5 points if you do the 5 words and their definitions
Plagarism (such as the absence of or minimal use of citations in the paper, or in-body citations not found on the reference page) can lead to a “0” for the paper.