Blog » Social Workers Invited to Contribute to New Project

Social Workers Invited to Contribute to New Project

20th September 2017

SOCIAL workers in the voluntary sector across Northern Ireland are being invited to contribute to a new publication which is the first of its kind here.

Extern, the social justice charity, supported by the Department of Health, has created a new virtual book project which is being written by social workers for social workers.

Over 6,040 social workers are employed in Northern Ireland, with a further 30,450 people in the wider social care field, and over 460 students, registered with the Northern Ireland Social Care Council.

Known as VbookNI.com, or the Virtual Social Work Book Project, the new open access publication means experienced and leading social work practitioners in the voluntary sector can share their experiences, creative practice, and learnings with colleagues across Northern Ireland and beyond.

Extern hopes the new peer reviewed publication will allow social workers, and those in the wider so-cial care field, to find out what has worked well for colleagues in Northern Ireland, and, importantly, what hasn’t.

It also aims to encourage workers to adopt elements of various approaches in their day-to-day practice, and play a part in identifying gaps in services which will help inform vital new service provision.

An initial 12 chapters will be published on VbookNI.com. Mentoring and online guidance will be available to support the authors, and the publication has an editorial board made up of experienced representatives from across the educational, statutory and voluntary sectors.

Announcing details of the new publication, Charlie Mack, Extern CEO, said: “The creation of Vbook-NI.com is good news not just for those who work in the voluntary sector, but also for the many thousands of vulnerable people we support every day. This will make the valuable experiences of some of the most knowledgeable Social Workers here openly available to their peers.”

The announcement took place at the launch of Extern’s new Learning and Development Hub at its Mallusk-based headquarters. The new Hub means Extern’s 450 staff now have access to dedicated meeting and breakout spaces for their training, hot-desking facilities and an on-site library.

The Hub is also available for booking by other organisations in the voluntary and statutory sector.

Those interested in the project can attend an information session from 1pm to 2pm on Wednesday, September 27 at Extern or contact Kate Harrison on 028 90 840555.

Back to Top