Empowerment Theory Case Study

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Question #1: Empowerment Theory & the Women’s Shelter
Empowerment theories are most commonly used in a context where victims are experiencing a form of oppression. For victims to recover and produce change in their lives, they must feel as though they have the power and resources to do so. In this paper, empowerment theory within a women’s shelter is explored and analyzed. Specific organizational changes are offered based off a study which highlighted the importance of creating a culture within the organization that will support an empowerment-based program.
Robbins, Chatterjee, and Canda (2012) describes empowerment as the process of gaining power by accessing resources that will permit people to control the situations in their life (p. …show more content…

Therefore, the shelter’s leadership should advocate for the women’s shelter with other organizations in the community such as job assistance or placement agencies, housing assistance, or other medical or mental health services that the shelter cannot offer but would offer residents needed resources. Administrative staff should work on grant writing to provide better funding for the shelter. In addition, shelter leaders should educate other human service agencies on the empowerment approach and advocate for the collaboration in using this approach, as it was found in the study that different philosophies of partnerships is considered a barrier to maintaining the empowerment-based approach (p. 252)
Conclusion
The women’s shelter discussed in this paper offered some positive approaches toward upholding an empowerment practice, however, there remained some areas that continued to lacked in the ability to empower the residents. Based on the study of Gutierrez, GlenMaye, and DeLois (1995), barriers and supports for an empowerment practice were given, which were expanded on to develop specific strategies for the staff of the women’s shelter to better empower their residents. Overall, a power sharing approach between the agencies administration, staff, and clients is the best way to maintain an empowerment based

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