TITLE:
Little Silent Spiders: Social Workers in Building New Relationships at the Time of COVID-19
AUTHORS:
Maurizio Esposito, Elena Addessi
KEYWORDS:
COVID-19, Social Services, Social Relations, Networking
JOURNAL NAME:
Sociology Mind,
Vol.11 No.2,
April
19,
2021
ABSTRACT: Italy
was reached by the pandemic 21 February 2020. Right away, Social Services
launched initiatives to support and respond to the needs of vulnerable people,
strengthening their professional experiences and changing, in a flexible
manner, their ways of intervening. Social workers have woven the network, which
now allows ensuring people the continuity of emergency interventions. By
reorganizing their services, they have started innovative ways of being closer
to people, to families and local communities, re-creating and strengthening
relationships and social networks. In networking, social workers have a
connecting role in creating links and synergies between various formal and
informal resources in order to promote the well-being of the individual. The modus
operandi of social workers is constantly evolving, as they are becoming
promoters of the process of change and creators of new best practices that
shape, with new professional awareness, the new social and historical context
marked by the COVID-19 pandemic.