The course offers the basic knowledge of the theory and practice of family support networks and community empowerment. It also provides insights and understanding of social work principles and methods of family and community empowerment, user’s emancipation and participation, development of a culture supportive to work in the community, strengthening partnerships with community organisations and informal networks. Moreover, it gives a critical perspective of social capital theory, social and gender inequalities, theory of human needs and theory of community development. The study focus is on understanding the everyday life of the family and community, meaning of local knowledge, daily routines and surviving strategies. The students will learn how to support families and informal careers by using community development skills and tools, including research of multiple and multi-levelled dimensions of human needs, mapping family networks and practices of support in the context of the everyday life of the family and planning actions for family support in a community. One of the objectives of the course is to provide basic skills to assess personal and family resources on the level of informal, personal connections such as other families, friends, online support groups, professionals (a formal/professional relationship), community organizations, support groups, and public resources in order to plan the meaningful responses to people’s needs in a community

Understand the challenges of working with families and communities, critically apprise theories of social capital, social networks, human needs, community care, user’s participation and empowerment., Recognise the meaning and characteristics of everyday life, local knowledge, daily routines and surviving strategies for individuals, families and communities., Ability to organise, create and demonstrate assessment of needs in a family and mapping family support networks., Understand the strengths and obstacles for creation of supportive formal and informal networks., Analyse the results of assessment, plan community action and demonstrate practical work in a community. , Contextualise and valuate research and community action experience according to the normalisation of family support., Link the experience with the principles of anti-oppressive social work.,