Social Work Outside the Office

Food, music, craft and community participation as pathways to social change

I’ve never been entirely convinced that social work needs to happen in an office.

There is certainly a place for professional appointments, assessments, case management, referrals and the many administrative processes that make up contemporary social services. These things have their purpose, and I’ve spent enough time studying and working around service systems to understand why they exist.

But some of the most meaningful experiences I’ve had in social work have happened elsewhere.

They have happened in kitchens, woodworking workshops, community halls, music rooms, public spaces and around tables where people share a meal.

I’ve cooked with people, carved timber, formed a punk band, participated in choirs, organised community activities and helped establish small businesses. These activities might not immediately look like social work, but they have provided some of the most interesting opportunities to practise it.

My interest is in what happens when social work moves beyond the professional encounter and becomes part of everyday community life.

Beyond the professional encounter

My understanding of social work has been shaped by two rather different sources of knowledge.

The first is lived experience. I’ve experienced homelessness, unemployment, social exclusion and the difficulties of navigating systems that don’t always work particularly well for the people who need them.

The second is professional education. Studying social work gave me a framework for understanding relationships, social structures, institutions, power and the circumstances that influence people’s lives.

Together, these experiences have influenced the way I approach community work.

I am interested in the relationship between people and their environments, and in how practical activities can create opportunities for participation.

A person doesn’t necessarily need to attend a counselling appointment to benefit from a supportive relationship. Someone doesn’t need to be enrolled in a formal program to develop a new skill. And people don’t always need to be identified as clients before they can participate in something meaningful.

Sometimes the most useful intervention is to create an opportunity for people to do something together.

Food: An invitation to participate

Food has been one of the most important parts of my social work experience.

I spent years around community kitchens and psychosocial rehabilitation environments, where preparing and sharing food was central to everyday life.

Later, through Food Not Bombs Hobart, I became involved in food rescue, community meals, food deliveries and the coordination of volunteers.

The Shared Table is a good example of what I mean by social work outside the office.

People arrive with different circumstances, different abilities and different reasons for being there. Some are experiencing food insecurity. Some are volunteers. Others come because they enjoy the social environment or want to contribute.

The table creates a common starting point.

There is no need to establish a professional relationship before someone can sit down and eat. Nobody needs to demonstrate that they deserve a meal. People can simply participate.

But participation can develop into something more.

Someone might initially come for food and later help prepare a meal. Another person might contribute by collecting supplies, welcoming visitors or organising an activity.

The distinction between someone providing assistance and someone receiving it becomes less important.

This is one of the things I find most interesting about mutual aid.

Rather than defining people by their needs, it creates opportunities for people to contribute according to their circumstances and abilities.

Food can be an entry point into community, rather than simply the end point of a service.

Music: Finding a voice

Music has provided another avenue for exploring social participation.

I’ve spent many years involved in community choirs, including choirs that bring together people with disability and people from different backgrounds.

I’ve also formed a punk band at a psychosocial rehabilitation centre.

That might seem like an unusual activity in a mental health setting, but I was interested in precisely that sort of possibility.

What happens when people are encouraged to participate in something expressive, creative and a little unconventional?

A band creates opportunities for people to contribute in different ways. Someone might sing, play an instrument, write lyrics, organise rehearsals or simply become part of the group.

Music provides a shared activity that doesn’t require everyone to have the same background, communication style or level of confidence.

Community choirs have taught me similar lessons.

Singing together requires listening, cooperation and a willingness to contribute to something larger than an individual performance.

It can also expose the complicated dynamics of community groups. Leadership, personality, recognition, artistic ambition and access to opportunities all influence how people participate.

I’ve become interested in how these environments can remain inclusive while still allowing people to develop their abilities and exercise leadership.

Music is not simply entertainment. It can be a way of establishing relationships, developing confidence and creating a sense of belonging.

Craft: Making something possible

Woodworking has been another important part of my approach.

I’ve established woodwork classes in community settings, including initiatives for people with cognitive impairment and people participating in psychosocial rehabilitation.

The Cognitive Factory and Woodwork Warriors were developed around the idea that making things can provide opportunities for learning, practical achievement and participation.

There is something quite different about working with timber.

A piece of wood presents a practical problem. It has a shape, a grain, a texture and limitations. You have to work out what can be done with it.

You learn to use tools, develop techniques and gradually improve your ability to make something.

The finished object provides a visible outcome.

For someone who has spent considerable time in environments where their abilities are assessed primarily through limitations, this can offer a different experience.

Instead of discussing what someone cannot do, you can work together on what they might make.

My interest eventually extended into small business.

Through Woodcraft Adventures, I explored the possibility of developing an enterprise around handmade Tasmanian timber products for a woman who had not previously been involved in employment.

This involved product development, practical skills, marketing, online selling, wholesale relationships and the economics of small-scale production.

It also raised a broader social work question:

How can we create economic opportunities for people who don’t necessarily fit conventional employment arrangements?

I think there is considerable potential in microenterprise, accessible craft and supported participation in small business.

The challenge is to create arrangements that are commercially realistic while recognising that people have different capacities, resources and support needs.

Community: The environment matters

One of the strongest lessons from my experiences is that the environment in which people participate matters enormously.

I’ve spent many years around community organisations, rehabilitation centres, choirs, workshops and volunteer groups.

Some environments encourage people to develop skills and take responsibility. Others can become restrictive, hierarchical or difficult to navigate.

An organisation might describe itself as inclusive while maintaining informal practices that make participation difficult.

A community group might offer opportunities but concentrate decision-making among a small number of established members.

A program might be designed to help people while leaving very little room for them to influence what happens.

These experiences have made me interested in the relationship between organisational culture and social inclusion.

I don’t think it is enough to create a program and assume that participation will follow.

We need to consider who controls the environment, who makes decisions, whose contributions are recognised and who has the opportunity to influence what happens.

This is particularly important when working with people who have experienced disability, poverty or institutional exclusion.

Participation should mean more than simply being present.

It should include opportunities to contribute, make decisions, develop relationships and exercise some influence.

The social worker as a facilitator

My preferred approach increasingly involves creating environments where people can do things together.

This requires a different emphasis from some conventional models of service delivery.

Rather than beginning with an assessment of what is wrong with someone, I am interested in identifying opportunities for participation.

What skills does someone have? What interests them? What resources are available? Who might they develop relationships with? What could they contribute?

These questions don’t eliminate the need for professional assessment or specialised services. There are circumstances where people require intensive support, professional intervention and formal protections.

But they provide another way of approaching social work.

The social worker can become a facilitator, organiser, teacher, connector or practical problem-solver.

Sometimes that means organising a woodworking class. Sometimes it means finding a way for someone to participate in a choir. Sometimes it means establishing a community meal or helping someone develop a small business.

The activity is important, but the relationships and opportunities that develop around it are often more important.

The politics of participation

There is also a political dimension to this approach.

People experiencing poverty, disability and social exclusion are frequently positioned as recipients of services rather than participants in shaping their communities.

Their lives can become organised around assessments, eligibility requirements, appointments, referrals and programs.

These systems can provide important support, but they can also create dependencies and reinforce distinctions between professionals and the people they assist.

I am interested in what happens when we create alternative opportunities.

Mutual aid, community workshops, shared meals, creative activities and small enterprises can provide spaces where people exercise more control over their participation.

They can also challenge some of the assumptions built into conventional service relationships.

This doesn’t mean that professional services are unnecessary or that grassroots initiatives can replace them.

Rather, I see these approaches as complementary.

Formal services can provide specialised support, while community participation creates opportunities for relationships, contribution and everyday social connection.

The challenge is to make sure that one doesn’t undermine the other.

Small projects as social work practice

I have become particularly interested in small projects because they allow ideas to be tested in practical environments.

A project doesn’t have to begin with a large organisational structure or an elaborate strategic plan.

It might start with a few people, some tools, a shared interest and an opportunity to do something useful.

As the project develops, new questions emerge.

How do we coordinate people? How do we share responsibility? How do we maintain an inclusive environment? How do we manage resources? How do we make the activity sustainable?

These are practical social work questions.

They involve relationships, organisational development, community resources, power and the conditions necessary for participation.

They also require a willingness to learn from experience.

Not every initiative succeeds. Some encounter resistance. Some require considerable adjustment. Others develop in unexpected directions.

I don’t see this as a reason to avoid experimentation.

It is part of the process of learning how to work with people and communities.

A different kind of outcome

Traditional service systems often measure their work through defined outputs.

How many people attended? How many meals were provided? How many referrals were completed? How many participants achieved a specified outcome?

These measures can be useful, particularly when accountability and funding are involved.

But they don’t always capture what happens socially.

A person might attend a woodworking class and develop a friendship that continues long after the class finishes.

Someone might come to a community meal and discover that they can contribute something useful.

A volunteer might develop confidence, leadership skills and a new sense of responsibility.

A person who has experienced exclusion from employment might discover that they can establish a small enterprise.

These outcomes are not always easily measured, but they can be significant.

I am interested in social work that recognises these less tangible developments.

Sometimes the outcome isn’t simply that someone received a service.

It is that something changed in their relationship with the world around them.

Bringing it together

Food, music, craft and community participation might appear to be quite different activities.

But they have something important in common.

They create opportunities for people to come together around something practical.

Food gives people a reason to gather. Music gives them something to express. Craft gives them something to make. Community projects give them opportunities to contribute.

Each activity can become a setting for relationships, learning, confidence and belonging.

This is the kind of social work that interests me.

It doesn’t require every interaction to take place within a professional appointment or every initiative to become a formal program.

It requires an understanding of people, an appreciation of their circumstances and a willingness to create opportunities in the environments where life actually happens.

I still value the knowledge and critical thinking that came through my social work education.

But I also value what I’ve learned in kitchens, workshops, community halls and around shared tables.

Some of the most useful social work I’ve encountered hasn’t looked particularly like social work at all.

It has looked like people making something together.

People singing together.

People preparing a meal.

People discovering that they have something to contribute.

Perhaps social work doesn’t always need an office. Sometimes it needs a kitchen, a workshop, a music room or simply a table with enough chairs.

Christiaan McCann

Explore related work

• Food Not Bombs Hobart: Food rescue, mutual aid and community participation.
• The Shared Table: A weekly community meal.
• Woodcraft Adventures: Craft, enterprise and opportunities for participation.
• The Cognitive Factory: Woodworking and cognitive participation.
• Woodwork Warriors: Practical learning in psychosocial rehabilitation.
• Sing With Me: Music, belonging and community participation.
• R3SEARCH: Investigating disability, social exclusion, institutional power and alternative approaches to community development.