The Joint World Conference will begin on Today, Wednesday, 9 July here at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Center in Australia.

The Conference is a great opportunity to get together with practitioners, educators and other friends of groupwork!  There are a range of groupwork-focused presentations at the Conference, as well as more informal events. If you would like to connect here in Melbourne, please feel free to email me at: cohen5@adelphi.edu, and I will try to facilitate getting together, and post presentation details on this site during and after the conference.

We have been successful in arranging for a one hour Symposium/ Special Interest Group on Friday, 11 July, 15:30-16:30 (2:30 PM – 3:30 PM, Level 2, Room 220).  It is listed as Session 8H in the Program, page 8, (Special Interest Group on Social Work with Groups: Joining Together).   Sharima Ruwaida Abbas (Malaysia), Carol Irizarry (Australia) and I (US), will convene the discussion.  As in the past, this session is an important opportunity for networking, support, and advancing our work together.  Numerous research and educational innovations have come from these sessions.

Please come and share your successes, projects and challenges — and of course, questions and ideas for working together to advance groupwork.   This is a big anniversary for our Special Interest Group in Groupwork – our first one was at the Adelaide World Congress in 2004!   We hope that you will attend if you are at the Conference, and send your ideas if you cannot be here, and encourage others to join us.  As in the past, we will circulate a summary, attendance and photo after the event.

Here are some other groupwork related sessions at the Conference – Please email cohen5@adelphi.edu to have your presentations added to this list.

Cohen, Carol S. (Presenting) & Deng, Suo. (Paper Session: 4D/M210; Day: Thursday 10 July; Time: 15:30-16:20 Paper at 16:00-16:10; Room: Level 2, Room 210). Being and Working Together:  Collaboration to Expand Social Work with Groups in Beijing, China  

Cohen, Carol S. & Tully, Greg. (Electronic Poster Presentation). Navigating with the IASWG Standards for Social Work with Groups in Practice, Supervision and Education.

Members of the International Association for Social Work with Groups are the Global Group Work Project are here and looking forward to networking and building enduring connections.