Let’s Re-Group: Facilitating Effective Online Groups & Meetings
Undoubtedly, the pandemic forced many social workers, educators, and therapists to deliver services online, most often, with little time to prepare, get training, or explore and consider effective practices. Most of us were given access to tools like Doxyme, Zoom, Google Suite, or myriad other telehealth and education platforms. We were faced with navigating an additional element; the mediating tool that allowed us to remain connected to our clients and colleagues. Now we were at the mercy of our computers and Zoom-like platforms to deliver the services we have been accustomed to delivering in-person in the sanctity and comfort of our offices, group rooms, conference rooms, or classrooms.
In this workshop, participants will have a chance to pause, look back, and reflect on their online group work in the last two years, consider and discuss aspects of online group and meeting facilitation that have worked well, identify practices and skills that have been especially effective, identify challenges & gaps in skills, and gather new tools to implement in their next online groups and meetings offerings. A checklist of effective online group and meeting facilitation strategies will be provided to participants.
About the Presenter
Mary Tinucci, DSW, LICSW
Mary Tinucci is a clinical social work supervisor in private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota and a full-time Core Faculty in the MSW Program of the Barbara Solomon School of Social Work Program at Walden University. She has 33 years of social work practice experience, most of which was centered in the St. Paul Public Schools (1991-2015). She was an adjunct faculty member (2003-2017) and a Visiting Assistant Professor (2017-2018) in the School of Social Work at St. Catherine University and the University of St. Thomas.
Through her private practice, Think in Possibilities she provides clinical supervision for social workers pursuing next-level social work licensure, offers career coaching for social workers exploring career development, facilitates writing circles/support groups, and provides training, strategic planning and program development support, team meeting facilitation, and consultation for school staff, teachers, social service providers, and training for mental health workers. Topic areas for consultation and training include LGBTQ youth and school issues, educational stability for youth in foster care, and the therapeutic use of poetry and creativity as a tool of mental health for youth and adults. Website: www.thinkinpossibilities.com
While is St. Paul Public Schools, Dr. Tinucci was an innovator, initiating and designing programs, leading teams, and supervising interns and school professionals to serve the most marginalized students. In 1994, she designed and implemented Out For Equity, the third district-wide school-based LGBTQ program in the country. In 2004, she created The Poetry LAB, (later known as The LAB) an arts and wellness-based special education program for youth with emotional/behavioral disorders. This program employed the therapeutic use of spoken word/poetry, visual art, music and experiential wellness with at-risk youth. The focus of her individual and group work practice has been on youth in special education who struggled with emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD); lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth, staff and families; youth in foster care, and middle school youth struggling with depression.