2026 One Day Virtual Professional Development Institute

The Power of Group Work

Friday September 18, 2026

7:00am to 4:00pm Eastern Time

Join us for a full day gathering to learn from group workers around the world - we look forward to seeing you!

Schedule:

7:00-7:45 Breakfast Nook with IASWG Leaders

7:45-8:00 Introduction to the day

8:00-9:00 Session 1

9:00-9:15 Break

9:15-10:15 Session 2

10:15-10:30 Break

10:30-12:00 Plenary

12:00-12:45 Lunch and Membership Activity

12:45-1:45 Session 3

1:45-2:00 Break

2:00-3:30 Session 4

3:30-4:00 Closing

Session Details

Breakfast Nook and Introduction to the Day // 7:00-8:00am

An informal social gathering to meet IASWG leaders and socialize with other members.

Please be sure to join us at 7:45am ET for important information about what to expect and how to navigate the platform

Session 1 // 8:00-9:00am

1 Transformative Group Work in School Social Work

Daleen Labuschagne, SACSSP

Marelize Vergottini, PhD

Marelize Joubert, PhD

Discover how an international, interdisciplinary placement model turns group work into real change for at-risk primary school learners in South Africa. This session unpacks Khula Development Group's STERK programme — an eight-session journey through Self, Future, Emotions, Respect, and Choices — showing how mutual aid, cultural humility, and cross-cultural partnership between UK and South African universities build resilience where it's needed most.

2 Group Work During Difficult Times

Barbara Muskat, BSW, MSW, RSW, PhD

Ephrat Huss, PhD

Group work during prolonged political violence and collective stress places facilitators within the same reality as participants, raising methodological and ethical questions about neutrality, positionality, and moral responsibility. This experiential learning presentation will provide hands-on tools for creating flexible, humanizing spaces that hold complex emotions, resist black-and-white thinking, and balance respite with action. It will also highlight ways to use radical self-care, supervision, boundaries, creativity, and reflective practice as essential supports for facilitators seeking to sustain effective group work within difficult social and political realities.

Session 2 // 9:15-10:15am

1 The IASWG Standards for Social Work with Groups: Value and Impact

Carol S. Cohen, MSW, DSW

Sunday Ibobor, MSW

Andres Arias Astray, PhD, BSW

Together, we will explore the IASWG Standards and how they can be used in guiding and promoting effective and ethical work with groups in practice, education and research. Our primary purpose is to assist workshop participants in gaining understanding and applicable skills to expand group work competence to meet needs and enhance the lives of members.

2 Group Work, “Dichos” & Post-Traumatic Growth in Puerto Rico & Nicaragua

Luz Marilis Lopez, PhD

By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to identify cultural traditions, describe how to use 'dichos'. proverbs, and sociodrama for grief, loss and disaster trauma care, and explain post-traumatic growth models applied to Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and other Latino/Latine social contexts.

3 Teaching Social Work Through Photovoice: Using Participatory Visual Methods and Group Reflection to Enhance Learning (EN>SP)

Linda Ducca Cisneros, PhD

Discover how Photovoice can transform social work education by fostering critical reflection, collaboration, and student engagement. This interactive workshop introduces the foundations of Photovoice, offers a hands-on group photo analysis exercise, and practical examples for teaching and practice. Participants will leave with concrete ideas for integrating participatory visual methods and group work into their own educational or professional settings.

Plenary // 10:30am-12:00pm

1 EmPowering Groups and Communities: International Perspectives on Energy Justice (EN>FR and EN>SP)

Namoonga Chilwalo, PhD

Helene Filion Onserud, LCSW

Sunday Ofili Ibobor, MSW

Sofiat Abimbola Busari-Akinbode, BSc, PhD

Alexis Massol González

Katja Huš

This panel presents three examples of ecosocial group and community work addressing energy poverty in Puerto Rico, Nigeria, and Slovenia, highlighting varying degrees of non-state solutions. Panelists will share how mutual aid, community participation, local knowledge, and collective action are being used to address energy poverty within their respective contexts. Through these examples, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the importance of ecosocial work for group work and social work as a whole.

Lunch and Membership Activity // 12:00-12:45pm

Session 3 // 12:45-1:45pm

1 L’aventure des VisionnAires : Groupe de course autogéré favorisant l’inclusion des personnes en situation de handicap visuel/The VisionnAires Adventure: A self-managed running group that promotes the inclusion of people with visual impairments (FR>EN)

Marie-Claude Garceau, MSW

Cette présentation portera sur la création d’un groupe de course à pied autogéré dont l’objectif est de favoriser l’inclusion sociale des personnes en situation de handicap visuel. Ce groupe ouvert réunit à la fois des personnes avec et sans handicap visuel. La course, objet de médiation, permet le déploiement des dynamiques d’aide mutuelle, favorisant ainsi une transformation chez tous les participants et même, à plus large échelle, au sein de la communauté.

This presentation will focus on the creation of a self-managed running group whose goal is to promote the social inclusion of people with visual impairments. This open group brings together both people with and without visual impairments. Running, as a unifying activity, fosters dynamics of mutual support, thereby promoting positive change among all participants and, on a broader scale, within the community.

2 Group Work as Political Action

Dr. Joyce Roberson-Steele, Ph.D, LMSW, CASAC

How can group work strengthen communities beyond traditional practice? This workshop examines how group work provides the skills needed for political engagement, community organizing, and local leadership. Participants will explore a practical framework for integrating political social work into practice while promoting community resilience through collaboration and collective action.

3 Ubuntu in Action: A Namibia–Nigeria Dialogue on the Power of Groups for Collective Resilience and Social Change

Namoonga B Chilwalo, PhD

Sunday Ofili Ibobor, MSW

Join this interactive Namibia–Nigeria dialogue examining how Ubuntu-informed group processes support mutual aid, collective resilience, and social change. Drawing on community responses to recurring fire disasters in Namibia’s Erongo Region and participatory development initiatives in Nigeria, the workshop explores how groups cultivate solidarity, shared leadership, and collective agency. Participants will also reflect on power, inclusion, and the social worker’s role in strengthening community-driven capacities while preserving local ownership.

Session 4 // 2:00-3:30pm

1 Facilitating Effective Meetings through a Group Work Lens

Shirley Simon, MSW, ACSW

Social workers spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings, which are often frustrating and ineffective. Using a group work lens, this workshop shares practical strategies and activities to make meetings worthwhile. Learn whether to schedule a meeting and if so, how to structure it; how to engage participants, develop agendas and minutes, address conflict, and integrate group work concepts like contracting and mutual aid. This interactive session provides tools to make your meetings more productive.

2 Moving Bodies and Moving Minds: Group Interventions by and for Men of Color

Anthony De Jesus, LMSW

Kyle McGee II, Ph.D., LMSW

This panel explores innovative groupwork approaches that engage men of color through movement, mutual aid, and culturally responsive practice. Drawing on running/walking groups, movement-based resilience programming, and trauma-informed men's circles, presenters will demonstrate how embodied interventions can foster emotional literacy, strengthen peer support, reduce barriers to help-seeking, and promote healing, connection, and resilience across diverse communities of men.