| Course | MSW 517 Advanced Social Work Practice Across Systems |
|---|---|
| Week | 5 |
| Paper type | Group work plan |
| Length | About 590 words, 5 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Chamberlain University |
| Program | Master of Social Work (MSW) |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSW 517 Week 5
Group Work Plan for a Lunchtime Group for Middle School Students Who Look After Someone at Home: Who Is In, Who Is Left Out and Why, a Purpose Said Two Ways and the First Session Minute by Minute
Student Name
Chamberlain University
MSW 517: Advanced Social Work Practice Across Systems
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Group Work Plan for a Lunchtime Group for Middle School Students Who Look After Someone at Home: Who Is In, Who Is Left Out and Why, a Purpose Said Two Ways and the First Session Minute by Minute
The Situation the Group Answers
In one middle school this fall, the counselor and I identified nine students whose absences tracked a family member's care: a parent's illness, a grandparent's dementia, a sibling's disability. None had told a teacher. Each thought they were the only one. The problem is not a population; it is a hidden job carried alone.
Composition
Six members, ages 12 to 14, each looking after an ill or disabled family member, recruited with parent consent. M. is one. Left out, with reasons: two students who care for younger siblings because parents work nights; their situation is real but different, a gap in child care rather than a person who needs care, and their needs would pull the group toward scheduling problems. Left out also: a student whose parent's substance use is the reason for the care, because what that student can safely say in a group is limited and individual work comes first. Another worker might include all nine for numbers. I think six with one shared job is a stronger group.
Purpose in Two Registers
To members: "This is a lunch group for people who help look after someone at home. You can talk about it or just eat, and we'll work on making school days easier."
To the school: an eight-week group to reduce isolation among caregiving students and to plan, with each family, arrangements that protect school attendance. Children's caregiving runs along a continuum, and support works best when it recognizes the role rather than treating it as misbehavior (Becker, 2007).
Practicalities Are Content
Lunch, not after school, because after school is when several members are needed at home. Wednesdays, because absences cluster on Mondays and Thursdays. Food provided, so no one has to choose between eating and talking. A room with no window onto the hallway. Parents get a one-page description and a phone call.
Transport home is not an issue at lunch, which is the other reason for the hour. A group that meets when members are free is a group they can attend.
The First Session in Real Time
Minutes 0 to 5: food, names, the one rule, "what's said here stays here, unless someone's in danger." Minutes 5 to 15: each member answers "who's at home that you help?" in one sentence, or passes. Minutes 15 to 25: a sorting exercise in pairs, cards listing tasks such as giving medicine, cooking or translating at appointments, which the pairs sort into "I do this" and "I don't." Members discover overlap without having to announce it. Minutes 25 to 30: what members want from the next seven weeks.
Making It a Group
The design aims at members speaking to each other, not taking turns with me. The pair exercise is chosen for that reason; group work texts describe early sessions as the point where members test whether they are similar enough to trust one another (Toseland & Rivas, 2017).
References
Becker, S. (2007). Global perspectives on children's unpaid caregiving in the family: Research and policy on 'young carers' in the UK, Australia, the USA and Sub-Saharan Africa. Global Social Policy, 7(1), 23-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/1468018107073892
Toseland, R. W., & Rivas, R. F. (2017). An introduction to group work practice (8th ed.). Pearson.
The Chamberlain MSW 517 Week 5 instructions
The group work plan is a working document of a few pages in which the membership section carries most of the weight. Open with the situation the group answers, stated as a problem rather than a population. Then argue composition: who is in, how many and the two or three people a different worker would have included whom you leave out, with reasons. Write the purpose twice, once in words you could say to a member and once for the agency or school. Treat practicalities, such as time, place, food and transport, as part of the design. Write out the first session in real time. Show how members will speak to each other rather than taking turns with the facilitator. Cite group work sources where they shape decisions.
Inside the MSW 517 Week 5 example
The plan begins with nine students whose absences tracked a relative's care and frames the problem as a hidden job each carried alone. The composition section admits six members and explains leaving out two students caring for siblings while parents work nights and one whose parent's substance use needs individual work first. Purpose appears once for members and once for the school, citing Becker (2007) on the caregiving continuum. Practicalities set lunch on Wednesdays, food, a room without a hallway window and a call to every parent. The first session runs from introductions through a one-sentence round and a pair sorting exercise with task cards to members' wishes. A final section cites Toseland and Rivas (2017) on early sessions as the point where members test whether they can trust each other.
Where the points sit in the MSW 517 Week 5 rubric
Membership carries the most weight. A composition section that names a population, such as young caregivers, rather than arguing who is in and who is out loses heavily. Faculty also mark down plans that amount to individual work with an audience, where members never speak to each other. The purpose should be sayable to a member without embarrassment and also make sense to the agency. Practicalities count as content: a group scheduled when members cannot attend is not a plan. A first session written in real time earns credit. Sources should support specific decisions. APA format, a realistic session count and attention to consent and confidentiality are expected.
MSW 517 Week 5 help from the desk
The plan that loses most is individual work in a circle: each member talks to the facilitator in turn. Next is a composition section that names a recruitment category and never says who is left out. Plans also miss practicalities, such as scheduling after school for students needed at home in the afternoon. Some write a purpose only the agency could love. If your group is different, perhaps new parents in a clinic or older adults in a housing complex, the same order applies: problem, composition with exclusions, purpose twice, practicalities and a first session in real time. A plan drafted for your group would name the people left out and say plainly why.
Get a MSW-517 Week 5 example written to your instructions
Send the group assignment, the rubric and any case or population material your section attached. A custom MSW-517 Week 5 plan is written to those requirements and returned inside 24 to 48 hours, the first one free. If your section prescribes a group model or a session count, include that and the sample is built inside it.
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MSW 517 Week 5 questions, answered
Does the plan have to name a group model?
Most sections want one named, and a clause is usually enough. The model earns its place by having shaped something visible: session length, whether members speak in turn, whether the facilitator holds the middle. A named model that changed nothing about the plan reads as decoration, and faculty notice that gap almost immediately.
How many sessions should the plan cover?
Check your instructions first, since counts vary widely between sections. Where nothing is set, sketch the arc briefly and write only the first session in detail. One session rendered minute by minute demonstrates more than six listed by theme, and the marks sit in what a facilitator could genuinely run on the first evening.
What if my situation suits a family meeting better than a group?
Then argue that, where the assignment allows it. This course rewards the decision about who is in the room more than it rewards the format, so a plan convening four relatives and a school counselor can score well where a generic eight-member group would not. Say what the group option would have bought you.
Where can I find a free MSW 517 Week 5 sample paper?
A full MSW 517 Week 5 group work plan for middle school students who care for a relative at home is posted here, with its first session and margin notes.
Who is left out of the group in the MSW 517 Week 5 sample?
Two students who watch younger siblings while parents work nights and one whose caregiving stems from a parent's substance use, each for stated reasons about fit and safety.