Richard Hoefer
Biographic Data
| ID | 4099719 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard Hoefer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard |
| FAMILY NAME | Hoefer |
| SIGNATURE | HOEFER R |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Texas at Arlington |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3741-9334 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 30 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 73 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 29 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2022 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
The Multiple Streams Framework
Toward human-centric urban infrastructure
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Vol. 46 No. 1
According to the NASW Code of Ethics, social workers are called to engage in political activity at the micro, mezzo and macro levels for the advancement of social justice and human rights.NASW has mechanisms in place to aggregate the voices of individual social workers through political activity.Drawing on a model of civic voluntarism, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of political activity on decisions by Texas social workers to jo…
Do Social Workers Support Nasw's Political Activism? Evidence From Texas
According to the NASW Code of Ethics, social workers are called to engage in political activity at the micro, mezzo and macro levels for the advancement of social justice and human rights. NASW has mechanisms in place to aggregate the voices of individual social workers through political activity. Drawing on a model of civic voluntarism, the aim of this study was to examine the impact of political activity on decisions by Texas social workers to …
The Dangers of Social Justice Advocacy
Advocacy in social work has a long history. In some ways it is the beginning point of the profession, and by any measure advocacy for social justice is one of the most influential and enduring ideas within social work. Befittingly, it is well acknowledged by both the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2017) and the Council on Social Work Education (2015). By understanding the ideas and practicing the skills needed, anyone can join in …
A Quantitative Evaluation of the Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Prevention Services (Maps) Program to Protect Children and Strengthen Families
This article presents the results from an evaluation of a state-funded, prevention-based, pilot program called the Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Prevention Services that was designed to reduce the potential for child abuse and neglect. The program served 64 families of various races and ethnicities over two years. A quantitative pretest–posttest design was used to analyze existing program data related to client outcomes including parenting skill…
Strengthening Advocacy Coalitions
Social workers who are active in the area of intimate partner violence (IPV) must understand how to structure their coalitions for maximum effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to examine the communication strategies, organizational structures, and relationships between one IPV coalition and its membership to glean recommendations for the field. The authors purposively sampled ten subjects from one state, including staff from the state IPV…
Domestic Violence Shelters’ Efforts to Prevent Teen Dating Violence
This research note reports data from a national survey of 213 domestic violence shelters regarding their teen dating violence (TDV) prevention efforts. More than half of the shelters reported that they provide TDV programing to at least 1/2 of the high schools in their communities; about 1/3 of shelters provide TDV programming to parents. Approximately 85% of shelters reported that they use or adapt a TDV curriculum. Shelters use information boot…
Living Up to the Code’s Exhortations? Social Workers’ Political Knowledge Sources, Expectations, and Behaviors
The National Association of Social Workers' (NASW's) Code of Ethics urges social workers to engage in political action. However, little recent research has been conducted to examine whether social workers support this admonition and the extent to which they actually engage in politics. The authors gathered data from a survey of social workers in Austin, Texas, to address three questions. First, because keeping informed about government and politi…
The Motivation and Persuasion Process (MAP)
This article proposes a new model of community intervention called the Motivation and Persuasion Process (MAP), a community intervention model to equip community members with specific skills on how to engage in productive community advocacy. This article describes the principles behind the MAP, its objectives, and its application. Implications for community practice, policy advocacy, and research are addressed
Developing Nonprofit and Human Service Leaders
Developing Nonprofit and Human Service Leaders comprehensively prepares students with the skills to successfully manage human service organizations. Authors Larry D. Watson and Richard Hoefer explore core managerial competencies tailored to the unique environment of these organizations, including administrative responsibilities, values and ethics, organizational theories, leadership, boards of directors, fundraising, supervision, research, cultur…
New Horizons for Policy Practice
Planning to Succeed
This study is an evaluation of the use of the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) by a community-based AIDS service organization in Dallas, Texas. The program is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The study examined how well the SPF was used by the program in its first year. The evaluation was conducted through a qualitative method of use of program documents, guided conversations with staff memb…
Dating Violence Policy
Dating violence rates affect an unacceptably high percentage of youth. This paper tests a model to understand the considerable variation in state dating violence policy comprehensiveness. Independent variables in the model are state political culture, partisan control of political institutions, prevalence of dating violence, and median household income. Bivariate results show partial support for preliminary hypotheses. Regression analysis indicat…
Missing Links in Evidence-Based Practice for Macro Social Work
The paradigm of evidence-based practice includes a process for searching, appraising, and synthesizing evidence to answer a question. Two important elements related to macro social work practice must be addressed in this process. One missing link relates to the imperative to foster client self-determination and empowerment by allowing clients to choose among equally salient interventions. The second missing link is to ensure that the intervention…
Controlling the Levers of Power
The Federal regulation-writing process is vital to understanding how laws are translated into policy. This paper re-examines data on human services interest groups active in lobbying the executive branch to determine what factors influence their effectiveness. Building on findings from Hoefer (2000), structural equation modeling is used to re-analyze the original regression model of interest group effectiveness (IGE) on a sample of 127 Washington…
International Perspectives on Welfare to Work Policy
Learn what you can do to promote social policy initiatives that really workInternational Perspectives on Welfare to Work Policy presents the latest available research on the various interpretations of “welfare-to-work” in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Hong Kong, and on the role social work plays in cr
An Evaluation of a Family Strengthening Program for Substance Abuse Offenders
Family strengthening programs have been shown to be effective in preventing many types of problems with children. This study expands on prior research by evaluating the effectiveness of a family strengthening program for substance abuse offenders. Results indicate that the program is associated with significant changes on the four main variables of concern to program staff and funders: family resilience, opportunities for pro-social involvement o…
Altering State Policy
Because social policy making continues to devolve to the state level, social workers should understand how advocacy and policy making occur at that level. Interest groups active in the human services arena were surveyed and data were used to test a model of interest group effectiveness in four states. The independent variables were amount of resources invested, strategy used, relationships with key actors, use of coalitions, and policy positions …
Highly Effective Human Services Interest Groups
Based on information collected from Washington, D.C.-based interest groups active in influencing social welfare policy, I have identified seven tactics that highly effective groups use more than least effective groups. Highly effective groups work more often to develop consensus among experts, pursue issues in court, aid the election of particular candidates, participate in public hearings, bring current regulations to executive branch attention,…
Making a Difference
Social workers increasingly understand the importance of political action to affect legislative policy-making. This paper sheds light onto the unexplored subject of interest group influence on the executive branch, specifically on the writing of program regulations for social welfare programs. It describes groups active in the process and what they do in their quest for influence. It also presents a preliminary model of interest group influence o…
Human Services Interest Groups in Four States
The NASW Code of Ethics requires social workers to try to improve the system for clients as well as to help people empower themselves. One method to achieve these goals is to develop and use interest groups in the political process. Little empirical research exists in the social work literature about interest groups active in social welfare policy-making. This paper describes the demographic characteristics of groups active in social welfare poli…
Protection, Prizes or Patrons? Explaining the Origins and Maintenance of Human Services Interest Groups
Little work has been done to understand the origins of human service interest groups or how they maintain themselves once founded. This paper tests three models of interest group origins and maintenance: a pluralist approach in which groups form and con tinue because they protect members' interests; a rational actor model in which groups form and are maintained because they offer members "prizes" that are more valuable than the costs of joining; …
The Social Work and Politics Initiative
Social work is becoming a more politically oriented profession. In addition, social work education is including politics as a greater part of the curriculum. Still, much more can be done to increase the amount of political content in social work education. This paper describes a model for involving students in political social work without drastically altering current arrangements. The model consists of two parts: a class on politics and social w…
A Conceptual Model for Studying Social Welfare Policy Comparatively
Courses in international or comparative social welfare have many benefits, but require a framework for systematic comparisons between countries. This article presents an institutional political process model for studying social welfare policy comparatively. The principal elements of the model include each country's societal values, government institutions (operationalized as the role of interest groups), policy goals, and system implementation (t…
Altering State Policy
Because social policy making continues to devolve to the state level, social workers should understand how advocacy and policy making occur at that level. Interest groups active in the human services arena were surveyed and data were used to test a model of interest group effectiveness in four states. The independent variables were amount of resources invested, strategy used, relationships with key actors, use of coalitions, and policy positions …
Highly Effective Human Services Interest Groups
Based on information collected from Washington, D.C.-based interest groups active in influencing social welfare policy, I have identified seven tactics that highly effective groups use more than least effective groups. Highly effective groups work more often to develop consensus among experts, pursue issues in court, aid the election of particular candidates, participate in public hearings, bring current regulations to executive branch attention,…
Human Services Interest Groups in Four States
The NASW Code of Ethics requires social workers to try to improve the system for clients as well as to help people empower themselves. One method to achieve these goals is to develop and use interest groups in the political process. Little empirical research exists in the social work literature about interest groups active in social welfare policy-making. This paper describes the demographic characteristics of groups active in social welfare poli…
Corporatism, Pluralism, and Swedish Interest Group Influence in Social Welfare Policymaking
Corporatism and pluralism predict different characteristics of interest groups; their environments are important in understanding the level of influence that these groups have. This article describes variables related to these theoretical approaches and tests them as determinants of two operationalizations of interest group influence, one objective and one reputational. Results of these tests on Swedish interest group information indicate that, a…
The Social Work and Politics Initiative
Social work is becoming a more politically oriented profession. In addition, social work education is including politics as a greater part of the curriculum. Still, much more can be done to increase the amount of political content in social work education. This paper describes a model for involving students in political social work without drastically altering current arrangements. The model consists of two parts: a class on politics and social w…
Swedish Corporatism in Social Welfare Policy, 1986–1994
Recent literature suggests that Swedish politics is decorporatizing. This article reports on the results of a survey of Swedish interest groups active in social welfare policy, administered in 1986 and 1994. The results cast considerable doubt on the decorporatization thesis. Little change is discernible between the two surveys on indicators of key corporatist behaviours on the part of interest groups and government. The immediate goal of the art…
Living Up to the Code’s Exhortations? Social Workers’ Political Knowledge Sources, Expectations, and Behaviors
The National Association of Social Workers' (NASW's) Code of Ethics urges social workers to engage in political action. However, little recent research has been conducted to examine whether social workers support this admonition and the extent to which they actually engage in politics. The authors gathered data from a survey of social workers in Austin, Texas, to address three questions. First, because keeping informed about government and politi…
Making a Difference
Social workers increasingly understand the importance of political action to affect legislative policy-making. This paper sheds light onto the unexplored subject of interest group influence on the executive branch, specifically on the writing of program regulations for social welfare programs. It describes groups active in the process and what they do in their quest for influence. It also presents a preliminary model of interest group influence o…
Geographic Information Systems and Human Services
Geographic Information Systems (GISs) are pictorial representations of information and are quite useful in understanding social welfare problems and showing social work clients in their environment. This paper presents GIS as a potential tool for social work research, planning, management, and administration. It includes sections defining GID, explaining the possibilties for GIS use in human services, presenting a case study using geographic info…
The Dangers of Social Justice Advocacy
Advocacy in social work has a long history. In some ways it is the beginning point of the profession, and by any measure advocacy for social justice is one of the most influential and enduring ideas within social work. Befittingly, it is well acknowledged by both the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) (2017) and the Council on Social Work Education (2015). By understanding the ideas and practicing the skills needed, anyone can join in …
Protection, Prizes or Patrons? Explaining the Origins and Maintenance of Human Services Interest Groups
Little work has been done to understand the origins of human service interest groups or how they maintain themselves once founded. This paper tests three models of interest group origins and maintenance: a pluralist approach in which groups form and con tinue because they protect members' interests; a rational actor model in which groups form and are maintained because they offer members "prizes" that are more valuable than the costs of joining; …
Domestic Violence Shelters’ Efforts to Prevent Teen Dating Violence
This research note reports data from a national survey of 213 domestic violence shelters regarding their teen dating violence (TDV) prevention efforts. More than half of the shelters reported that they provide TDV programing to at least 1/2 of the high schools in their communities; about 1/3 of shelters provide TDV programming to parents. Approximately 85% of shelters reported that they use or adapt a TDV curriculum. Shelters use information boot…
Controlling the Levers of Power
The Federal regulation-writing process is vital to understanding how laws are translated into policy. This paper re-examines data on human services interest groups active in lobbying the executive branch to determine what factors influence their effectiveness. Building on findings from Hoefer (2000), structural equation modeling is used to re-analyze the original regression model of interest group effectiveness (IGE) on a sample of 127 Washington…
An Evaluation of a Family Strengthening Program for Substance Abuse Offenders
Family strengthening programs have been shown to be effective in preventing many types of problems with children. This study expands on prior research by evaluating the effectiveness of a family strengthening program for substance abuse offenders. Results indicate that the program is associated with significant changes on the four main variables of concern to program staff and funders: family resilience, opportunities for pro-social involvement o…
Postmaterialism at Work in Social Welfare Policy
Inglehart's theory of changes in personal values (postmaterialism) in industrialized societies is used to examine recent changes in Swedish politics and social welfare policy. Instead of looking only at survey research data to establish the presence or absence of postmaterialist values, actual changes in policy are cited to understand how much influence can be attributed to postmaterialism. It is found that postmaterialist values are useful in un…
Postmaterialism at Work in Social Welfare Policy
Inglehart's theory of changes in personal values (postmaterialism) in industrialized societies is used to examine recent changes in Swedish politics and social welfare policy. Instead of looking only at survey research data to establish the presence or absence of postmaterialist values, actual changes in policy are cited to understand how much influence can be attributed to postmaterialism. It is found that postmaterialist values are useful in un…
Corporatism, Pluralism, and Swedish Interest Group Influence in Social Welfare Policymaking
Corporatism and pluralism predict different characteristics of interest groups; their environments are important in understanding the level of influence that these groups have. This article describes variables related to these theoretical approaches and tests them as determinants of two operationalizations of interest group influence, one objective and one reputational. Results of these tests on Swedish interest group information indicate that, a…
Geographic Information Systems and Human Services
Geographic Information Systems (GISs) are pictorial representations of information and are quite useful in understanding social welfare problems and showing social work clients in their environment. This paper presents GIS as a potential tool for social work research, planning, management, and administration. It includes sections defining GID, explaining the possibilties for GIS use in human services, presenting a case study using geographic info…
Making Politics and Power Respectable
A Conceptual Model for Studying Social Welfare Policy Comparatively
Courses in international or comparative social welfare have many benefits, but require a framework for systematic comparisons between countries. This article presents an institutional political process model for studying social welfare policy comparatively. The principal elements of the model include each country's societal values, government institutions (operationalized as the role of interest groups), policy goals, and system implementation (t…
Swedish Corporatism in Social Welfare Policy, 1986–1994
Recent literature suggests that Swedish politics is decorporatizing. This article reports on the results of a survey of Swedish interest groups active in social welfare policy, administered in 1986 and 1994. The results cast considerable doubt on the decorporatization thesis. Little change is discernible between the two surveys on indicators of key corporatist behaviours on the part of interest groups and government. The immediate goal of the art…
Protection, Prizes or Patrons? Explaining the Origins and Maintenance of Human Services Interest Groups
Little work has been done to understand the origins of human service interest groups or how they maintain themselves once founded. This paper tests three models of interest group origins and maintenance: a pluralist approach in which groups form and con tinue because they protect members' interests; a rational actor model in which groups form and are maintained because they offer members "prizes" that are more valuable than the costs of joining; …
The Social Work and Politics Initiative
Social work is becoming a more politically oriented profession. In addition, social work education is including politics as a greater part of the curriculum. Still, much more can be done to increase the amount of political content in social work education. This paper describes a model for involving students in political social work without drastically altering current arrangements. The model consists of two parts: a class on politics and social w…
Making a Difference
Social workers increasingly understand the importance of political action to affect legislative policy-making. This paper sheds light onto the unexplored subject of interest group influence on the executive branch, specifically on the writing of program regulations for social welfare programs. It describes groups active in the process and what they do in their quest for influence. It also presents a preliminary model of interest group influence o…
Human Services Interest Groups in Four States
The NASW Code of Ethics requires social workers to try to improve the system for clients as well as to help people empower themselves. One method to achieve these goals is to develop and use interest groups in the political process. Little empirical research exists in the social work literature about interest groups active in social welfare policy-making. This paper describes the demographic characteristics of groups active in social welfare poli…
Highly Effective Human Services Interest Groups
Based on information collected from Washington, D.C.-based interest groups active in influencing social welfare policy, I have identified seven tactics that highly effective groups use more than least effective groups. Highly effective groups work more often to develop consensus among experts, pursue issues in court, aid the election of particular candidates, participate in public hearings, bring current regulations to executive branch attention,…
Altering State Policy
Because social policy making continues to devolve to the state level, social workers should understand how advocacy and policy making occur at that level. Interest groups active in the human services arena were surveyed and data were used to test a model of interest group effectiveness in four states. The independent variables were amount of resources invested, strategy used, relationships with key actors, use of coalitions, and policy positions …
International Perspectives on Welfare to Work Policy
Learn what you can do to promote social policy initiatives that really workInternational Perspectives on Welfare to Work Policy presents the latest available research on the various interpretations of “welfare-to-work” in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Hong Kong, and on the role social work plays in cr
An Evaluation of a Family Strengthening Program for Substance Abuse Offenders
Family strengthening programs have been shown to be effective in preventing many types of problems with children. This study expands on prior research by evaluating the effectiveness of a family strengthening program for substance abuse offenders. Results indicate that the program is associated with significant changes on the four main variables of concern to program staff and funders: family resilience, opportunities for pro-social involvement o…
Controlling the Levers of Power
The Federal regulation-writing process is vital to understanding how laws are translated into policy. This paper re-examines data on human services interest groups active in lobbying the executive branch to determine what factors influence their effectiveness. Building on findings from Hoefer (2000), structural equation modeling is used to re-analyze the original regression model of interest group effectiveness (IGE) on a sample of 127 Washington…
Missing Links in Evidence-Based Practice for Macro Social Work
The paradigm of evidence-based practice includes a process for searching, appraising, and synthesizing evidence to answer a question. Two important elements related to macro social work practice must be addressed in this process. One missing link relates to the imperative to foster client self-determination and empowerment by allowing clients to choose among equally salient interventions. The second missing link is to ensure that the intervention…
Dating Violence Policy
Dating violence rates affect an unacceptably high percentage of youth. This paper tests a model to understand the considerable variation in state dating violence policy comprehensiveness. Independent variables in the model are state political culture, partisan control of political institutions, prevalence of dating violence, and median household income. Bivariate results show partial support for preliminary hypotheses. Regression analysis indicat…
New Horizons for Policy Practice
Planning to Succeed
This study is an evaluation of the use of the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) by a community-based AIDS service organization in Dallas, Texas. The program is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The study examined how well the SPF was used by the program in its first year. The evaluation was conducted through a qualitative method of use of program documents, guided conversations with staff memb…
Developing Nonprofit and Human Service Leaders
Developing Nonprofit and Human Service Leaders comprehensively prepares students with the skills to successfully manage human service organizations. Authors Larry D. Watson and Richard Hoefer explore core managerial competencies tailored to the unique environment of these organizations, including administrative responsibilities, values and ethics, organizational theories, leadership, boards of directors, fundraising, supervision, research, cultur…
Living Up to the Code’s Exhortations? Social Workers’ Political Knowledge Sources, Expectations, and Behaviors
The National Association of Social Workers' (NASW's) Code of Ethics urges social workers to engage in political action. However, little recent research has been conducted to examine whether social workers support this admonition and the extent to which they actually engage in politics. The authors gathered data from a survey of social workers in Austin, Texas, to address three questions. First, because keeping informed about government and politi…
The Motivation and Persuasion Process (MAP)
This article proposes a new model of community intervention called the Motivation and Persuasion Process (MAP), a community intervention model to equip community members with specific skills on how to engage in productive community advocacy. This article describes the principles behind the MAP, its objectives, and its application. Implications for community practice, policy advocacy, and research are addressed
Domestic Violence Shelters’ Efforts to Prevent Teen Dating Violence
This research note reports data from a national survey of 213 domestic violence shelters regarding their teen dating violence (TDV) prevention efforts. More than half of the shelters reported that they provide TDV programing to at least 1/2 of the high schools in their communities; about 1/3 of shelters provide TDV programming to parents. Approximately 85% of shelters reported that they use or adapt a TDV curriculum. Shelters use information boot…
A Quantitative Evaluation of the Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Prevention Services (Maps) Program to Protect Children and Strengthen Families
This article presents the results from an evaluation of a state-funded, prevention-based, pilot program called the Multi-Disciplinary Approach to Prevention Services that was designed to reduce the potential for child abuse and neglect. The program served 64 families of various races and ethnicities over two years. A quantitative pretest–posttest design was used to analyze existing program data related to client outcomes including parenting skill…
Strengthening Advocacy Coalitions
Social workers who are active in the area of intimate partner violence (IPV) must understand how to structure their coalitions for maximum effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to examine the communication strategies, organizational structures, and relationships between one IPV coalition and its membership to glean recommendations for the field. The authors purposively sampled ten subjects from one state, including staff from the state IPV…
Political science (26 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Law (17 works) · Politics (16 works) · Law (15 works) · Public relations (14 works) · Social Work (13 works) · Economics (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Computer Science (10 works)