Community Empowerment in Theory and Practice――A Social Welfare Service Corporation’s “Flower of Dreams Workshop”――

Abstract

The study aimed to clarify the effects of the “Flower of Dreams Workshop,” an event carried out by a future-focused social welfare service corporation, from the perspective of community empowerment. We evaluated the staff members of the corporation(n=24), who devote their professional attention to fostering the welfare of people with disabilities, the elderly, children, and former criminals. After the “Flower of Dreams Workshop,” which was carried out twice for the staff members, we conducted evaluations of its effects on motivation and peer relationships, using questionnaires. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to clarify the significance of changes statistically: significant improvement of items related to motivation and peer relationships was found. This result suggests that the staff members were empowered through their participation in the workshop.