By: Karen Zgoda, MSW, LCSW
Back-to-school season is here, and it’s time to make sure our Web browsers are ready to handle our information needs for the semester. While we can certainly Google just about anything and find information, sometimes it is helpful to start with sources that have already done some of the searching work or promise to do some work for us. Maybe it’s a resource center or nonprofit organization or association that focuses on a specific area of our interest. Perhaps they have fielded a number of questions on a particular topic and created a toolkit, decision tree, or worksheet to help make the process easier for others.
In any case, the resources below are a carefully selected bunch. This list includes sites that do not just display information but share tools you can use (for free), stories, and guides to help inform your practice. Colleagues on Facebook, Twitter, the Blogosphere, and others recommended some of these sites. Most of them are sites I have used to inform my own practice and the social work courses I have taught. I hope you will also enjoy them and discover some new Web sites to aid your social work practice. Let me know of any you’d like to be included next time.
Administration, Management, & Supervision
• Free Management Library http://managementhelp.org/
• NASW Media Toolkit https://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/mediaToolkit/default.asp
Aging
• NIH SeniorHealth: Helping Older Adults Search for Health Information Online http://nihseniorhealth.gov/toolkit/toolkit.html
• Aging Well in Communities: A Toolkit for Planning, Engagement, & Action http://www.civicpartnerships.org/docs/services/CHCC/aging-well-toolkit.htm
Alcohol, Tobacco, & Other Drugs
• DrugFreeInfo.org’s Treatment Tools & Resources http://www.drugfreeinfo.org/ptreat.html
• About My Drinking and Other Drug Use http://www.aboutmydrinking.org/
• Montana Meth Project http://www.montanameth.org/ and Faces of Meth http://www.facesofmeth.us/
Bereavement/End of Life Care
• Online Grief Resources http://www.wade.org/online.htm
• Caring Connections End of Life Care Resources http://www.caringinfo.org/
Children & Families
• CARA: A Web-Based Learning Environment for Child Protection Workers http://www.cfrc.illinois.edu/cara/
• FindYouthInfo.gov http://www.findyouthinfo.gov/
• National Center for Children in Poverty Data Tools, includes basic needs calculator, family resource simulator, state demographics wizard, state policy wizard, and income converter for state and federal programs http://www.nccp.org/tools/
Community Practice
• Community Tool Box http://ctb.ku.edu/en/default.aspx
• Citizen’s Handbook—Great practical advice for working with communities http://vcn.bc.ca/citizens-handbook/
• Social Work Organizations http://www.naswdc.org/swportal/swo1/
Diversity
• Class Matters http://www.classmatters.org/
• The Oreo Experience—A Black woman blogging about race and class issues http://theoreoexperience.com/
• Consortium on Race, Gender, and Ethnicity’s Intersectional Research Database—Searchable, interdisciplinary directory of articles http://mith.umd.edu/crge/ird/
• Gender, Institutions, and Development Database http://www.oecd.org/document/16/0,3343,en_2649_33935_39323280_1_1_1_1,00.html
Education
• The Research to Teaching Initiative—Materials for teachers to download on wide variety of social work topics http://ssw.unc.edu/RTI/topics.asp
• PBS Frontline Teacher Center http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/teach/
• Using Popular Culture and Technology to Teach Cultural Competency http://socialworktechnotes.blogspot.com/2010/05/live-and-in-color-on-teaching-cultural.html
Health
• Health on the Net Foundation—Verified Online Health Information http://www.hon.ch/
• Food Environment Atlas—County data on food choices, health, and well-being, and community characteristics http://www.ers.usda.gov/FoodAtlas/
• Health Expense Tracking Resources—These are great to have handy for clients, even if you create a spreadsheet for them to take and fill out:
- High-tech—Quicken Health Expense Tracker http://healthcare.intuit.com/
- Low-tech—How to Keep Personal Medical Expense Records http://www.ehow.com/how_5625333_keep-personal-medical-expense-records.html
International Practice
• Crisis Mappers Net http://www.crisismappers.net/
• Global Health Facts http://www.globalhealthfacts.org/
Licensure
• Association of Social Work Boards http://www.aswb.org/
Mental Health
• National Mental Health Information Center’s Evidence-Based Practice Kits http://mentalhealth.samhsa.gov/cmhs/CommunitySupport/toolkits/
• National Registry of Evidence-Based Programs and Practices http://www.nrepp.samhsa.gov/
• Therapy Worksheets http://therapyworksheets.blogspot.com/
Miscellaneous
• Information for Practice. http://blogs.nyu.edu/socialwork/ip/
• Social Work and Social Services Web Sites—A grand collection http://gwbweb.wustl.edu/resources/pages/socialservicesresourcesintro.aspx
• Google—Never doubt the power of carefully chosen keywords http://www.google.com
Private Practice
• Psychotherapy Finances http://www.PsyFin.com/
• Small Business Administration Training Network—Lots of free goodies to grow your business http://www.sba.gov/training/index.html
Research
• Social Work Research Planner http://libguides.bc.edu/socialworkplanner
• Census.gov—American Fact Finder http://factfinder.census.gov/ and Facts for Features http://www.census.gov/newsroom/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/
• Evaluating Online Sources: A Tutorial http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/techcomm/content/cat_030/evaluatingsources/index.html
• Selecting Statistics—An interactive guide http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/selstat/ssstart.htm and The Decision Tree for Statistics http://www.microsiris.com/Statistical Decision Tree/default.htm
Social & Economic Justice
• United for a Fair Economy Research Library http://www.faireconomy.org/resources/research_library
• Education for Social Justice: A Guide to the Resources http://ase.tufts.edu/macc/documents/socialjusticeresourcetoolkit.pdf
• NASW Peace Policy Toolkit http://www.socialworkers.org/diversity/peacetoolkit/
Students
• Be a Social Worker http://50ways.socialworkblog.org/
• KnowHow2Go—Great tips on being a successful undergraduate student http://www.knowhow2go.org/ The Know It All has stories from real students http://www.knowhow2go.org/knowitall
• How to Succeed in Graduate School http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~mariedj/papers/advice-summary.html
• Google Scholar http://scholar.google.com/
• How NOT to Give a PowerPoint Presentation http://researchforsocialworkers.blogspot.com/2009/12/how-not-to-give-powerpoint-presentation.html
• Federal Student Aid: Tools & Resources http://studentaid.ed.gov/PORTALSWebApp/students/english/toolsandresources.jsp
• NASW Information on Student Loan Forgiveness for Social Workers http://www.naswdc.org/loanforgiveness/default.asp
• NASW Information on the National Health Service Corps Student Loan Forgiveness Program http://www.socialworkers.org/loanforgiveness/nhsc.asp
Workforce Development & Participation
• Workforce Development Step-by-Step http://www.enterprisecommunity.org/resources/tutorials/workforce%5Fdevelopment/
• Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-2011, Social Workers http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos060.htm
• Glassdoor—Get the inside scoop on salaries, interview questions, and what it’s like to work for a particular employer http://www.glassdoor.com
Karen Zgoda, MSW, LCSW, is an ABD doctoral student at the Graduate School of Social Work at Boston College. Her research interests include the role of technology in social work, the effects of information communications technologies (ICTs) such as the Internet and e-mail, poverty and class, aging, social informatics, socioeconomic development, public policy, and community practice. Karen is the chief editor and founder of EditMyManuscript.com, providing manuscript editing services to students, faculty, and other social work professionals. Her Web site is http://www.karenzgoda.org. You can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/karenzgoda.
Editor’s Note: Find the list of links in this article on our Web site at http://www.socialworker.com/fall2010links