The 11th Summer School on Social Work and Community Development, organized by the Study Centre for Social Work at the Faculty of Law, University of Zagreb, and the Centre for Civil Initiatives in Zagreb, took place on September 9-10, 2024. The theme of this year’s event was “Development and Integration of Social Services in the Community – Challenges of Multisectoral and Interdisciplinary Approaches.”
The Summer School is a contribution to lifelong education for professionals interested in the field of community development, with a particular focus on those working in professional social work. Participation was also open to other professionals such as psychologists, social pedagogists, rehabilitators, lawyers, sociologists, social psychiatrists, public health experts, and others.
The theme of this year’s Summer School aimed to address the question of how to improve the quality of life for citizens in local communities through the development of integrated, accessible, and efficient social services. The event featured plenary presentations, panel discussions, guided conversations, workshops, poster presentations, and case studies from practice.
Over sixty participants from the public and civil sectors, mostly working in the organization and delivery of social services or engaged in theoretical models and research, took part in this year’s Summer School. Throughout the event, participants had the opportunity to explore a range of practical solutions for organizing and providing social services to various groups of users.
The discussions addressed many open issues faced by stakeholders in this field, and several solutions were proposed to improve the existing model or begin the development of a new and improved social services model in the Republic of Croatia.
The evaluation conducted at the end of the Summer School showed great satisfaction among participants, who also provided numerous suggestions for topics and methods for future Summer Schools, as well as ideas for other forms of lifelong education in this area.
