THE ROLE OF PLANNING IN ENSURING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF GROUP SOCIAL WORK
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.46991/BYSU.F/2026.17.1.011Keywords:
group social work, group work planning, needs assessment, SMART goals, monitoring and evaluation, social inclusionAbstract
Planning is one of the key components of successful group social work, which ensures its targeted, systematic and effective implementation. This article presents a comprehensive review of the theoretical and professional literature on group social work planning, focusing on the main stages of planning։ needs assessment, formulation of SMART goals, selection of participants, group formation, development of meeting structure, risk management, as well as monitoring and evaluation processes. In order to present the domestic experience of group social work planning, the experience of the “Shogh” community-based day care centers for children operating under the Armenian Evangelical Association of America (AMAA) was studied. The presented experience shows how systematic and conscious planning can contribute to the social development, well-being and social inclusion of children and families. The article pays special attention to the interdependence of planning and evaluation as a continuous professional process, which allows not only to organize the work of the group, but also to assess its effectiveness and make necessary improvements. Thus, the analysis of both theoretical sources and practical experience proves that effective planning contributes to increasing the quality of group activities, strengthening professional accountability, and ensuring more sustainable and significant results for beneficiaries.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Anna Voskanyan, Anahit Sahakyan
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
