Working in groups or as a team essay

Working in groups or as a team essay

Describe your experience working in groups or as a team.

I have been involved in group work since pre-school. My experience with group work

throughout the years has mainly been the same. I notice that when there are smaller groups,

such as with 3-5 members, there are always one or two people who take the lead, one member

who contributes minimally and one who does what they are asked.

Explain the importance of collaborating with different groups and building

coalitions in order to advocate for community and policy change.

In order to advocate for community and policy change there needs to be

collaboration. The community that the agency I currently work for, Connections, serves is

cross cultural, diverse, and all inclusive, we do not turn individuals away, regardless of their

financial state and or ability to pay. The community that we serve is Cuyahoga county and

the strength of this community is the services available for mental health and chemical

dependency treatment. There are great community outreach programs that we collaborate

with on a daily basis such as the fatherhood initiative which seeks to strengthen families in

our community by encouraging fathers to play a more active role in nurturing and raising

their children and frontlines services mobile crisis, which is a 24/7 Suicide Prevention Hotline

for children and adults and their Crisis Stabilization Unit which is also available 24/7 for

individuals in psychiatric crisis as an alternative to inpatient psychiatric hospitalization.

Luckily there is a positive community perception of our agency which helps us better

assist our clients with their issues. All of our locations have a great relationship with law

enforcement and we are currently working with them to assist with crisis intervention team

training, also known as CIT training. CIT provides law enforcement-based crisis intervention

training for assisting those individuals with a mental illness. We have successful relationships

with other community resources such as detox centers and residential facilities for those

afflicted with chemical dependency and or mental illnesses such as Stella Maris and Orca

House. Connections also has a great relationship with The Alcohol, Drug Addiction and

Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board of Cuyahoga County who assists with funding for

our uninsured individuals along with assisting our clients with emergency shelter programs

such as RESPITE and group home placement and funding.

List one strength you will bring to your group.

I believe the strength that I will bring to this group is thoroughness. I have always

done assignments on time and with attention to detail. I take group work very seriously as I

know that it is a project that not only affects me but others as well based on my performance. I

am able to work effectively with others to get the task at hand done.

Describe a potential difficulty that may occur within the group and explain a

strategy you will recommend to your group to address that difficulty.

One potential difficulty that may occur in this group is that one or more members

may not do the work that is asked of them. Since there are only three individuals in this group,

all members need to take their role seriously. A strategy that can be utilized in order to deal

with member/s who are not contributing would be to communicate to see if there are

underlying issues that are contributing to this such as a family emergency, or medical

emergency, and take the necessary steps if that is the case such as asking the instructor for an

extension. If the member does not communicate back with the group, then the other

member/s will need to complete their portion of the project to best of their ability and

communicate with their instructor the ineffective dynamics of the group.