Social Action and Self-Directed Groupwork

Jennie Fleming is currently a Director of Practical Participation. She started her career as a youth worker, community worker and social worker in a range of voluntary and statutory settings. Until November 2013 she was Director of the Centre for Social Action and Reader in Participatory Research and Social Action at De Montfort University. From 2011- 2018 Jennie was Editor of Groupwork Journal and on the Board of the International Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups.

Dave Ward is Professor of Social and Community Studies at De Montfort University, Leicester. His particular interests lie in groupwork and in work with offenders, particularly young people in trouble, about which he has researched and published extensively. In particular, he has focussed on the application, through groupwork, of the values and methods of transformative education (Paulo Freire) to practice, training, research, teamwork and management. In recognition of his contribution to groupwork, Dave has been made International Honoree by the international Association for the Advancement of Social Work with Groups.