What is empowerment theory

As with all individual and group level change, the context had to be examined through a critical lens. Critical awareness leads individuals to identify personal and contextual factors that may be part of empowerment for particular individuals or groups. These factors may include additional skills, access to financial capital, access to other resources and opportunities, and access to individuals with greater power.

By increasing skills and access to resources, one can work towards achieving an increased sense of individual and psychological empowerment. A good example of psychological empowerment is found in Case Study The life of Ed Roberts—a central figure in the development of the independent living movement for people with disabilities in the US—is an example of psychological empowerment.

Ed became severely paralyzed at a young age. She also taught him how to advocate for what he needed. Roberts experienced firsthand the ways in which society distributed power unfairly. He had to fight those decisions. After graduating from high school, Roberts was admitted to the University of California-Berkeley but had to fight for accommodations and support from both the university and his rehabilitation counselor. He began to advocate for changes to be made to the physical environment, such as curb cuts to aid people in wheelchairs.

He also helped to create the first student-led disability services program in the United States and advocated for attendant services and wheelchair repairs to be provided on campus. Because of his work, Ed made this university a more accessible place for himself and other individuals with disabilities. At the organizational level, it is useful to think of empowerment in two ways: empowering those within the organization, and being effective in fairly addressing organization level issues and working well with those outside the organization such as other organizations and governmental policies and laws.

Regarding the first meaning of organizational empowerment, empowering, we can think of ways an organization is empowering those individuals and groups within it. For instance, Maton identified a set of positive core organizational characteristics for empowering community settings. These include a group-based belief system e. An organization may foster the empowerment of its members and groups by including these characteristics.

An empowered organization also can be effective in working with other organizations and others in the local community and larger society in order to address its needs and meet its goals. For example, Foster-Fishman and Keys found that in a large human service organization, employees distrusted system-wide empowerment initiatives set forth by upper management. This lack of trust often reflects perceptions about organizational policies and authority roles.

It is important to consider that some organizations are more democratic in the way they operate e. The way authority and decision making is shared, or not, among employees affects their sense of empowerment. Some organizations try actively to build personal relationships among members and develop greater trust, which provides a better foundation for organizational empowerment initiatives.

Regarding the second meaning of organizational empowerment, we can consider ways in which the organization gains and uses enough resources to support its people and activities, For example, a community group advocating for trans rights holds an effective fundraising effort to support its education initiative to include topics of transgender, gender identity and cisgendered prejudice in sex education curriculum in local schools.

An empowerment initiative at the organizational level is the focus of Case Study Laschinger et al. Results from their study suggested the workplaces that increased perceptions of individual empowerment also increased trust in organizational authority, commitment to organizational goals, and effectiveness of the organization as a whole.

The results also suggested an increased work ethic and desire to remain in the organization. This empowerment was facilitated through a number of intra-organizational strategies.

First, the nurses were trusted to act on their expertise when performing their work. This was accomplished, in part, by providing nurses access to both timely information and support. Additionally, nurses were given access to resources. Trust can be diminished in an organization if nurses do not have access to medical equipment and supplies or are forced to work overtime due to staff shortages. The researchers also found a relationship albeit, less significant between trust in management and opportunities for career advancement.

This view of organizational empowerment required that management nurses and staff nurses work collaboratively towards shared goals, in order to better their organization and improve patient care. In order to foster individual empowerment, management nurses exercised less direct control and practiced providing more feedback, support, and guidance. They also worked to ensure trust both among staff nurses and between staff nurses and management.

In this case, greater individual empowerment led to greater organizational empowerment. The concept of community-level empowerment has also received attention from community psychologists. Community empowerment means a community has the resources and talent to manage its affairs, to control and influence relevant groups and forces within and outside the community, and to develop empowered leaders and community organizations.

One example of developing empowered leaders is community members learning to organize so they can take part in improving their communities and take actions toward these improvements. Empowerment may be particularly important for communities rebuilding after trauma, such as survivors of a natural disaster, or for individuals in a war-ravaged country Anckermann et al.

Indicators of community empowerment include processes such as collective reflection, social participation, and political discussions, as well as outcomes such as having obtained adequate resources for improving community well-being and social justice Anckermann et al.

Collective reflection means that community members get together and jointly examine the issues that have mattered to them over time. Social participation and political discussions are ways in which these communities can take the actions needed to empower themselves.

Case Study Community empowerment has played a role in improving the mental healthcare system in the US. They did so by developing their community and giving opportunities for community members to participate in decision making.

Additionally, they addressed issues that their community faced. For a number of years, many groups representing different facets of the disability community advocated for the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a major piece of civil rights legislation.

However, the ADA helped all disability groups and individuals with mobility issues were most active in effecting this legislation. Increases in influence often occur through partnerships between those in power and other community members.

These partnerships may take place in advisory boards, coalitions, or broader community inclusion initiatives Fawcett et al. At times, community empowerment may mean that members of the community become empowered with the help of the community leaders and vice versa.

Finally, it is important to examine empowerment on the societal level. Even if empowerment interventions are carried out at other levels, they typically must take broader, more structural societal forces into account. These forces include the impact of systemic racism, sexism, homophobia, ableism, ageism, or classism over time. Societal empowerment concerns processes and structures affecting the empowerment of individuals, organizations, and communities for more information on inadequate resource distribution from Habitat for Humanity, click here.

An important consideration is to what extent a society fosters equity, or the equal distribution of resources and opportunities, while providing support to those who have less than their fair share of resources. An empowering society is one that works to distribute resources equitably as well as effectively. Policies and practices that support such equity are critical, as are the voices of individuals, organizations, and communities.

Society-wide empowerment is concerned with how well key components of society work, so that everyone has adequate resources. Moreover, society must use resources wisely to address its needs in cultural, governmental, political, business, educational, health, and other major areas of community living. Societal empowerment may take the form of communities supporting and influencing one another and of communities working to promote change in public policy at the state and national levels.

Empowered societies can take care of themselves. They can work with and influence other societies. They can create positive change with their neighbors and others around the world. In short, many societies face the challenge of helping people who are facing serious limitations in their lives.

Rarely, if ever, do these individuals have opportunities to deal with the dehumanizing structures in society that cause such limitations. These challenges are related to histories of oppression, discrimination, or segregation, as well as disparities in income and opportunities that are systemic and very hard to address, as indicated in Case Study Individuals who experience poverty are often in positions of powerlessness due to their lack of access to necessary resources.

In order to address the empowerment of individuals in poverty, societies must develop their critical understanding of the structures that create and sustain poverty.

After critical awareness is developed, societies must amend or remove the disempowering structures that have been identified. Empowering people who are experiencing poverty can happen through many different means.

For example, addressing workplace discrimination through a legislative action is a step towards creating a more equitable society. Additionally, addressing the barriers to participation in the political system is important to address poverty. People who are impoverished may not be registered to vote. Creating accessible opportunities for voter registration can help to ensure active political participation.

On voting days, ensuring that people know they have a right to leave work to vote and providing transportation options is another way that societies can support the empowerment of people experiencing poverty. As discussed throughout this textbook, some groups often use their power to accumulate privileges over the groups they oppress. This oppression happens with dehumanization and exploitation , as discussed in Chapter 9 Palmer et al. Oppression may occur on any level from individual to societal.

It also has a psychological piece. Those in power oppress individuals and groups by reducing their opportunities for education, work, housing, and health care. Then those on the receiving end of this oppression may take part in negative activity due to feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. In addition to the experience of exclusion and marginalization on a societal level, the problem of oppression is compounded when those oppressed engage in self-destructive patterns due to the internal feelings of hopelessness.

For more information on how oppression works on multiple levels, click here. Unfortunately, conditions of exclusion and disadvantage are often ignored when those individuals with fewer resources try to obtain services. Furthermore, the economic inequality of people of color, people with disabilities, and many other groups in the US and other countries, contributes to their limited access to many services and supports. Economic inequality also limits opportunities for employment, housing, health care, and education.

These conditions can only be eliminated by changing unequal power relations and with the redistribution of wealth. Attention to the distribution of power and wealth is consistent with the principles of Community Psychology regarding social justice, respect for diversity , and promoting social change, as discussed in Chapter 1 Jason et al.

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Maynard, J. The people of New Hampshire against the nuclear dump. New York Times Magazine , pp. McCarthy, J. It centers on helping marginalized people at individual, group and community levels gain the personal, interpersonal and political power to improve their lives. Additionally, the model seeks to challenge systems that prevent or hinder people from having their needs met. What can prevent marginalized people from feeling empowered to take control of their lives?

Empowerment theory social work explores several key factors:. Direct power blocks are the structures that stop people from achieving goals such as better employment, advanced education or safe housing. Examples include inequitable access to well-funded and high-quality schools, discriminatory lending practices in housing, or sexist attitudes in corporate culture. Social workers can help promote awareness of direct power blocks and energize social movements against them by developing programs that help individuals overcome marginalization.

Additionally, social workers can advocate for policy reforms and corrective laws. Indirect power blocks refer to internalized oppression. Groups with histories of mistreatment often absorb the negative messaging of the abuse they receive.

They develop stories about their limited options and ability to achieve and then pass those ideas down across generations. However challenging, these deeply ingrained thoughts need to be resolved. Social workers can investigate proven interventions, such as trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy TF-CBT , which evidence shows can change thinking patterns to help clients work through their internalized oppression.

For example, a mentoring program using TF-CBT could help improve the self-image of youths from historically oppressed communities to support their empowerment and potentially address the cultural trauma that has hurt their academic performance.

How can empowerment theory social work help individuals and communities tackle the systemic oppression and societal barriers that prevent them from reaching their full potential? Awareness is essential. The empowerment approach works to develop awareness on several levels. Individuals must build their power by cultivating the belief that they can change their circumstances.

This requires addressing some of the indirect power blocks interfering with their self-actualization. Social workers can guide individuals through therapies that help clients explore their beliefs, why they hold them, and how to change them.

They can also help individuals develop coping skills to adjust to their environments. Individuals need to develop a deep understanding of the complex social, economic and political realities in their environments that negatively affect them.

This involves examining their roles in these environments and seeking out potential ways to work around the structures blocking them. Establishing this type of consciousness allows people to share their experiences and connect with others in the same or similar situation. Sharing allows people to learn from one another and not feel as alone in their struggles.

For example, social workers can organize programs in which participants discuss how racism affects their lives and explore forces that support racism.