The Role of AI in Child Welfare and Community Organizing: Interview with ChatGPT-4o

[Episode 137] In today's Social Work Podcast, I speak with ChatGPT-4o about the role of AI in child welfare and community organizing and how we can use Bronfenbrenner's ecosystems framework and an antiracist perspective. That's right. I'm interviewing OpenAI's LLM, ChatGPT-4o. 

On May 13th, 2024, OpenAI released the Omni version of ChatGPT4. This was a big step forward in processing speed. You could input video audio sort of visuals data all sorts of things and it could analyze it almost in real time. I've been playing around with ChatGpt-4, the earlier version, and you know talking to it on the app and there was always a significant delay as it was thinking through things and kind of coming up with a response. But the Omni version, the response is basically in real time, and I thought what better moment than now to interview ChatGPT, because you'll hear a little bit of the thinking, right? It’ll be a slight delay but no more than you would for any live human guests on the social work podcast.

Unlike a human guest, I didn't have to coordinate schedules. All I did was I took my phone, I clicked on the app, I hit the little headset icon which activated the voice input, and I held up my phone to my microphone so that I was recording my voice like I am now, and then ChatGPT just coming right out of my phone into the speaker. So, it's good audio. it's not rich deep audio like I like to have, but you know when you record over Zoom or Skype or any of the other things that I've done in the past again it's not pristine audio either, but it's pretty good

This is the first time I've interviewed a chatbot. I'd love to hear your thoughts about the interview. Please text me or leave a voicemail for me at (215) 948-2456. If you leave a voicemail, please let me know if you're ok with me including your message as part of a follow-up podcast episode.

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The Special Commission on Macro Practice: Interview with Dr. Darlyne Bailey and Dr. Terry Mizrahi

[Episode 121] In today's episode of the Social Work Podcast, I speak with Dr. Darlyne Bailey and Dr. Terry Mizrahi about the Special Commission on Macro Practice.  We talk about how their social work experiences led them to co-chairing the Special Commission, the relationship between case and cause, moment and movement, and process and product. We talked about the false dichotomy between micro and macro practice, and that there is nothing wrong with focusing your energies on one or the other. We ended the episode with a call for the social work profession to focus energies on increasing the percentage of macro-concentration social work students to 20% by 2020.



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Recovery High Schools: Interview with Lori Holleran Steiker, Ph.D.

[Episode 105] Today's Social Work Podcast is about Recovery High Schools. I spoke with Dr. Lori Holleran Steiker, Distinguished Professor at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work, and author of the 2016 book, Youth and Substance Use:  Prevention, Intervention and Recovery. We talk about risk factors for addiction, adolescent brain development, how to think about addiction from a biopsychosocial-spiritual perspective, why recovery or sober high schools fit an essential gap in the continuum of care for youth struggling with drugs and alcohol and how you can help to bring one to your community. We end our conversation with Lori making an impassioned plea to join the fight against adolescent addiction.

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The Challenges and Rewards of Collaborative Community-Based Research for Social Change: Interview with Corey Shdaimah and Sanford Schram

[Episode 82] Today’s episode of the Social Work Podcast is about how to balance the demands of doing good research with the passion that practitioners and advocates have for addressing the social problems that face their communities. My guests are Corey Shdaimah and Sanford Schram, authors of Change Research: A Case Study on Collaborative Methods for Social Workers and Advocates published in 2011 by Columbia University Press.

In today’s Social Work Podcast, Corey and Sandy distinguish between Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and talk why they use PAR rather than CBPR in their work with communities. They give examples of how challenging it is to actually do PAR. They talked about the need to bridge the gap between research and practice and how that was one of their motivations for writing their text, Change Research. Throughout our conversation Sandy and Corey bring up lots of ideas that are perfect discussion points for research classes, both at the masters and doctoral level.

Identifying and Responding to Sex-Trafficking Victims in Social Service Settings: Interview with Rebecca J. Macy, Ph.D.

[Episode 81] In today's social work podcast I spoke with Rebecca J. Macy, Ph.D., ACSW, LCSW. Rebecca is the L. Richardson Preyer Distinguished Chair for Strengthening Families and the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the UNC at Chapel Hill School of Social Work.

I started our conversation asking Rebecca how she became interested in identification of sex trafficking victims in human service delivery. Most of our conversation focused on how to identify and respond to victims of sex trafficking. We talked about the interdisciplinary nature of sex trafficking; how it involves representatives from law, medicine, social services, and how social workers can and should take the lead in coordinating efforts to help victims. And, as is the custom, we ended our conversation with resources for social workers, the Polaris project in particular. Rebecca was kind enough to send me a list of references and resources that I have posted to the socialworkpodcast.com website.

Since 2004 there has been a 150% increase in the number of searches for the term "sex trafficking." During the same period, there has been no appreciable change in the number of searches for the terms "modern day slavery" or "labor trafficking."

National Runaway Switchboard: Interview with Maureen Blaha

[Episode 67] Today's episode of the Social Work Podcast is an interview with Maureen Blaha, the Executive Director of the National Runaway Switchboard (http://www.1800runaway.org). So, if you're a social worker and you work in outpatient or inpatient or residential or you're in a school-based setting and you have a client who says I'm out of here. I am running away from home or maybe they don't even say I'm out of here. Maybe they're saying I don't know how I can live with my parents here. So, what do you do? What are some resources for you? If you're in a school setting and you're working with groups of kids, are there curricula that you can get a hold of, free curricula that you can use with your clients?

Communities that Care: Interview with Richard F. Catalano, Ph.D.

[Episode 57] Today's Social Work Podcast is on community-based prevention services for children and adolescents. I spoke with Dr. Richard F. Catalano, who along with J. David Hawkins, developed Communities That Care, a prevention-planning system that promotes the positive development of children and youth and prevents problem behaviors, including substance use, delinquency, teen pregnancy, school drop-out and violence. It is a system for identifying community needs, matching those needs to evidence-based prevention programs, and evaluating the outcomes. The system has been used in dozens of communities around the United States, and has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing problem behaviors and promoting positive youth development.

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Introduction to Grant Proposal Writing (Part II): The Narrative, Budget and Appendices

Today's interview with Dr. Edward Sites is the second in a two-part series on grant writing. In today's episode, I talk with Dr. Sites about the three sections most commonly found in grant applications - the narrative, the budget and the appendices. In the first episode, Dr. Sites talks about strategies for developing and writing a grant proposal. You can find the first part of the interview, as well as Dr. Site's thoughts on the role of women in the development of social work in the United States at the social work podcast website at socialworkpodcast.com.


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Narrative Section

1. Cover letter, letter of transmittal or printed cover face sheet form
2. Abstract or Executive Summary
3. Table of Contents
4. Introduction or Background
5. Need Statement
6. Proposed Program

Goals

Objectives

Design or Methodology

Location

Staffing

Project Administration

Implementation Time Table

Special needs such as equipment or especially designed facilities

Evaluation of Project

Budget Narrative

Budget

Budgets are simply another way of stating the proposal. The narrative is in sentence and paragraph form. The budget is in numbers, rows, columns and totals. Both sections are necessary, and both sections must be consistent with each other. What appears in the narrative must also appear in the budget. Nothing can be presented in the budget that is not covered in the narrative. Budgets can be technical. They are a topic for another day. In the meantime, technical help is always available from the organization for which you are writing.

Appendices

1. Bibliography
2. Technical data (e.g. census data)
3. Letters of support
4. Table of organization
5. Job descriptions
6. Vitae
7. Maps
8. Bids
9. Licenses, certificates, permits, etc.
10. Evaluation instruments
11. Statements of nondiscrimination, drug-free workplace, etc.
12. 501(c)(3) documentation
13. Board of Directors
14. Annual report
15. Organizational budgets and audited financial statements
16. Internal Review Board (IRB) approval(s)

The following are “the 5 abilities” Dr. Sites believes that proposal writers should attempt to demonstrate in their proposals:

1. Feasibility
2. Credibility
3. Capability
4. Accountability
5. Transferability

APA (5th ed) citation for this podcast:

Singer, J. B. (Host). (2007, August 21). Introduction to grant proposal writing (part II): The narrative, budget and appendices [Episode 23]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved Month Day, Year, from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2007/08/introduction-to-grant-proposal-writing_21.html

Introduction to Grant Proposal Writing (Part I): Strategies and Writing Tips

Today's interview with Dr. Edward Sites is the first in a two-part series on the basics of grant proposal writing. In today's episode, I talk with Dr. Sites about strategies for developing and writing a grant proposal. In the second episode, Dr. Sites goes into more detail about the three sections most commonly found in grant applications - the narrative, the budget and the appendices.

Dr. Edward Sites has devoted his entire career of nearly 50 years to child welfare practice, education and research, the last 41 years of which have been as a faculty member at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work where Dr. Sites was a full professor from 1978 until his retirement in 2006. He was the coordinator of the School’s Child, Youth and Family concentration and the coordinator of the Child Welfare Certificate Program.

Another area of specialization for Dr. Sites has been his expertise and teaching in the area of grant proposal writing. He is a consummate grant proposal writer and was the principal investigator on at least one federal, state or foundation funded grant project every year from 1971 until 2006. He taught grant proposal writing for over 30 years to graduate students from throughout the schools and departments of the University. At his retirement, he was the principal investigator of 9 projects and programs with total annual budgets of over $30 million and a state-wide staff of nearly 100 faculty and professional staff. These projects included research, degree and training programs in collaboration with 16 universities, and provided over 35,000 days of training annually to 4,000 public child welfare employees and 9,000 foster parents in all of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties as well as baccalaureate and master’s degree programs for hundreds of child welfare workers annually. Dr. Sites has not only written hundreds of proposals, but has been a proposal reviewer for the federal government, state agencies, foundations, universities and private agencies. Currently Dr. Sites serves on the board of a foundation and is engaged in institutional advancement work in higher education.

To read more about Dr. Sites, please visit his first podcast on the role of women in the development of social work in the United States.

Download MP3 [20:38]

Questions to ask before writing your proposal:

1. Is this project one in which the author and his/her agency has sufficient interest to pursue to the finish?
2. If funded, will the staff be able to handle this new project with their other work?
3. Is the author sufficiently skilled to plan, organize, direct, coordinate, control and evaluate the project? (Keep in mind here that when I say author, I am assuming the author will become the project director, though sometimes proposals are written for hire by proposal writers not expected to be involved in the project if the proposal is funded.)
4. Are the project goals and objectives sufficiently congruent with those of the parent organization?
5. Will the parent organization back the project with administrative and other supports?
6. Are adequate facilities, equipment release time, etc. available?
7. What risks to the author and organization are there and are these reasonable?

Questions to ask about your finished proposal:

1. Who are you and what qualifies you to present this proposal?
2. What is the problem you seek to address?
3. Have you identified the need?
4. What do you propose to do about that problem?
5. How exactly will you go about this and what exactly will you deliver?
6. How much will it cost?
7. How will you know if you have accomplished your goals and objectives?
8. What objective evidence is there of the nature, purpose and capacity of you and your organization and what do other qualified parties think of your idea, your approach to addressing it and your organization?

APA (5th ed) citation for this podcast:

Singer, J. B. (Host). (2007, August 13). Introduction to grant proposal writing (part I): Strategies and writing tips [Episode 22]. Social Work Podcast. Podcast retrieved Month Day, Year, from http://socialworkpodcast.com/2007/08/introduction-to-grant-proposal-writing.html