Abstract
Groups and social workers to lead them are increasingly in demand. Agencies often see group work as a favored method in redeploying resources, but find few social workers able to develop and implement effective group programs. While educational institutions must provide learning opportunities with groups, schools of social work face multiple challenges, especially in field education. The increased desire for group assignments in field education will remain unfulfilled if field instructors cannot train students in social work with groups.
This training project was designed to expand field instructors' abilities to plan and supervise group assignments. The assessment, design, implementation, and evaluation phases of this project are described, with recommendations for replication and expansion. Project outcomes confirm that such training can instill confidence, access existing knowledge in group work and generalist practice, enhance peer support and training, build specific group work supervisory skills, and move field instructors to action.