THE RELEVANCE OF SOCIAL GROUP WORK METHOD IN YOUTH GROUP LIVELIHOOD INTERVENTIONS: THE CASE OF GEDEO ZONE, DILLA ZURIYA WEREDA YOUTH GROUP LIVELIHOOD

Abstract

This study investigates the relevance of social group work method in youth group livelihood interventions. It was carried out at Gedeo Zone, Dilla Zuriya woreda in five kebeles. In order to get a cost and time effective result, the study was limited into a single woreda’s of five rural kebeles, whereby the youth unemployment is high. The main objective of the study was to assess the application and relevance of social group work method in youth group livelihood interventions. Its aim was to solve factors affecting the effectiveness and sustainability of group youth livelihood interventions in the study area. The study was employed mixed research approaches of qualitative and quantitative. The study was used focus group discussion, observation and interview tools of data collection from diverse respondents such as youth group, social workers and group workers. This research is an exploratory. Likert scale and close ended questionnaires were used for to identify application of social group work in group youth livelihood. The finding of this research indicates that, social group work method was not applied at the group youth livelihood interventions. In order to effectively intervene in the group youth livelihood, concerned bodies didn’t give sufficient attention for the relevance of social group work method. The study revealed that, since the current government economic policy is in favor of group intervention, there are vast opportunities to apply social group work method in different levels. Even though, social group work method propose different values and principles which are essential for the success of group interventions, there is no satisfactory level of response from respondents for the application of all these values and principles in the group youth livelihood intervention. The finding also indicates that, there was no organized application of social group work method in youth livelihood interventions. Therefore, it can be understood that this is the primary factor for the in-effectiveness of the group youth livelihood interventions in the study area.