The medical model is used to understand what services for a patient’s or group’s needs by looking at their deficits. The empowering model, which follows the strength-based approach, understands a client’s or group’s needs by building from their strengths. Empowerment model emphasizes five components: creates and works from a collaborative partnership with the clients and social worker or therapist, emphasis was capacities rather than on incapacities, focus on the physical and social environment, views clients as active subjects, and the empowerment model builds from something rather than building from nothing (Bransford, 2011; Conger & Kanungo, 1988). The empowerment model can be used in various different fields in the helping profession for various different reasons, events, and situations.
When groups are empowered, it effects them at all levels. When a groups is empowered, they empower themselves, micro level, the group empowers each other, mezzo level, and they can use what they learned to empower their communities, macro level. When groups are empower to overcome hardships that newly found empowerment can spread faster than the individual level within a short time than a whole community (Holcomb‐McCoy & Bryan, 2010; Bransford, 2010). …show more content…
Group empowering can be found in simple tasks such as organizations like KaBOOM! and City Repair help empower community groups by building and restoring parks and playgrounds. These organizations have been show to do team building exercises that builds on strengths, bring a feel of community, changing community’s negative views to a positive one, encourages healthy behaviors, and empowers groups in the community to make the town a safer and cleaner environment. These programs have be very successful in helping with crime and safety, poverty, lack of community identity, substance abuse issues, and high rates depression (Wilson, Marshall, & Iserhott,