This assignment contains four parts that flow together and complem.docx

This assignment contains four parts that flow together and
complement one another. I've included the point value for each
section. Again, the page number references are from the book,
The One Page Marketing Plan. You will also find additional
resources at the bottom and in the module.
1. Create your USP – 10 points. State in paragraph form why
your business exists. Why should they buy your product/service
and why should they buy it from you or specifically, what sets
you apart from your competition?
2. Write a succinct elevator pitch (examples on p. 54 – think
problem, solution, proof) - 10 points.
3. Create a Business/Company Profile - 20 Points - see links
below
How to Write a Business Profile (Links to an external site.)
https://m.wikihow.com/Write-a-Business-Profile?amp=1
7 Creative Company Profile Examples (Links to an external
site.)
https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/company-profile
In addition to these two articles, I encourage you to also review
company profiles of companies similar to yours to get ideas.
These can be smaller, local companies.
4. Give your business or service a name. 10 points
Be sure to choose clarity over cleverness, but if you can do
both, then do it. If it is an established business or franchise,
write why you choose this business and if you would revise it
based on
.................
Elevator Pitch ExampleElevator Pitch Examples with Chris
Westfall (Links to an external site.)Links to an external
site.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98WlZJqscVk
6 Elevator Pitches for the 21st Century –Daniel Pink6 Elevator
Pitches for the 21st Century (Links to an external site.)Links to
an external
site.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvxtC60V6kc

Make Your Pitch Perfect – Youtube video:Make your Pitch
Perfect: The Elevator Pitch (Links to an external site.)Links to
an external
site.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZTWx2bftaw
School Social Work with Grieving Children
Lisa Quinn-Lee
The purpose of the research reported in this article was to
advance understanding of the
work of school social workers with grieving students. This
research was aimed at answering
the following question; What are school social workers'
experiences working with grieving
children? There were two steps in this study. Fifty-nine school
social workers in the Twin
Cities, Minnesota, agreed to participate in the preliminary e-
mail survey. Of these partici-
pants, 22 school social workers were interviewed in person for
approximately 45 to 60 min-
utes. This exploratory study required an open-ended, inductive
approach using qualitative
methods. Interviews were transcribed and coded. Major codes
were developed using the
guided interview questions. Constant comparison was also used.
The data analysis identified
four main themes in the responses; (1) harriers to helping
grieving students, (2) variations on
how grief is defined, (3) social workers' preparation for dealing
with grief and loss issues, and
(4) referrals of grieving students to outside resources.
Subthemes were developed under each
theme.

KEY WORDS: children; grief; loss; school; social work
D
eath is a part of life, and many children
will experience the death of a loved
one. According to the Social Security
Administration, in the United States, an estimated
3.5 percent of children younger than 18 years
(approximately 2.5 million) have experienced the
death of a parent (Haine, Ayers, Sandier, & Wol-
chik, 2008). There are 70 million children under
the age of 18 in the United States, with 36 million
enrolled in kindergarten through eighth grades and
14 million enrolled in ninth through 12th grades
(Huxtable & Blyth, 2002). There are more than
15,000 school social w^orkers across the United
States who interact with grieving children (Consta-
ble, McDonald, & Flynn, 2002). The topic of child-
ren's grief, school social work, and the school
system is important, because it affects so many people.
Social workers "can play a crucial role in strengthen-
ing the foundation of a child who suffers the death of
a parent" (Hope & Hodge, 2006, p. 125).
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Grief in School
A student's reactions after a loss may include a
decline in school performance and difficulty mas-
tering new academic material (National Center
for School Crisis and Bereavement, 2006). The
National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement
recommends that "students should be offered addi-
tional supports, such as tutoring or participating in

mentoring programs to assist them in maintaining
their academic progress before academic failure
occurs, which would represent an additional Stres-
sor" (p. 6).
School social workers encounter children who
have experienced a wide variety of stressful events
on a daily basis. Therefore, they need a working
knowledge of crisis intervention, grief work, and
treatment for posttraumatic stress. Although many
school-age children experience grief reactions, "the
impact of the death of a parent often is not appreci-
ated in all its importance by school personnel," even
though it can affect a child's academic performance
and social behavior (ZambeEi & Clark, 1994, p. 3).
Children in our society are referred to as the forgot-
ten moumers (Wolfelt, 2004). Children grieve, but
all too often they do not get the opportunity to
express their feelings openly.
Holland's (2003) research in England with adults
who were bereaved as children found that, for these
individuals, returning to school was sometimes a
negative experience. In fact, children's return to
school was often challenging, with school person-
nel and peers not knowing how to respond to them
once they returned to school. Children felt ignored,
isolated, embarrassed, uncertain, and different, and
they thought that their schools gave them little sup-
port or understanding.
Holland (2008) stated that schools are in a "uni-
que position to help grieving children" (p. 415).
d o i : 1O.1O93/cs/cduOO5 © 2014 National Association of

Sociai Wori<ers 93
Even though grief is a family issue, it has the potential
to affect children while they are in school, especially
because children spend so much of their time in
school. Schools can be a safe and supportive place
for students. It is important for school staff to establish
trust and rapport with grieving students and their
families. Staff who acknowledge the needs of griev-
ing students can help them cope with their loss.
Children's Grief
How one explains death to children and intervenes
with them in their grief depends on the children's
developmental stage. Age and developmental stage
may affect the nature of children's emotional re-
sponse to death, understanding of death, and ability
to deal with death. Webb (2010) identified three
age ranges that correlate with children's response
to death.
Children ages two to seven (a) do not understand
that death is final, (b) often believe that death is
reversible or temporary, (c) believe in magical
thinking, (d) may believe they caused the death,
(e) may ask repeatedly about the whereabouts of
the deceased, (f) may not show outward expected
signs of grieving, (g) may be afraid that someone
else may die, and (h) may be angry with the
deceased (or with the surviving parent or sibling).
Children ages seven to 11 (a) may have an inabil-
ity to deal with death, (b) may use denial to cope
with the loss and may act like the death did not

occur, (c) may hide their feelings in an effort not
to seem childish, (d) may do their grieving in pri-
vate, (e) may feel guilty and/or different from peers
because of the death, (f) may express anger or irri-
tabihty rather than sadness, (g) may overcompensate
for feelings of grief by becoming overly helpful and
engaging in the caretaking of others, (h) may
develop somatic symptoms of hypochondria, and
(i) may have anxiety due to an increased fear of
death.
Children ages nine to 12 (a) may feel helpless,
frightened, or numb, (b) may behave in a manner
younger than their years, (c) may feel conflicted
between the desire to behave in an adult manner
and the wish to be taken care of as a child, (d)
may experience guilt about teen behaviors, (e) may
use anger to defend against feelings of helplessness,
and (f) may respond in a self-centered or callous
way.
Children's grief differs from adults. Children's
immature cognitive development interferes with
their understanding about the irreversibility, uni-
versality, and inevitability of death. They have a
limited capacity to tolerate emotional pain. Child-
ren's acute feelings of loss may occur in spurts over
many years, and children are sensitive about being
different from their peers. Children have limited
ability to verbalize their feelings but are able to
express their feelings in play therapy (Webb, 2010).
By using the various theories of grief as a guide,
social workers can help students work through
grief. For example, the dual-process model (Stroebe

& Schut, 1999) depicts grief as an oscillating process
in which a bereaved individual uses two different
ways of coping with loss: loss orientation and resto-
ration orientation. Loss-orientation coping refers to
the person's acceptance of the suffering and involves
the grief work. Restoration-orientation coping
refers to attempts to sort through various life
changes and find ways to cope with these changes;
it provides respite or distraction from suffering.
School social workers can help students accept the
loss and find ways to cope with it.
Effective Interventions with Grieving
Children
It is important to make the distinction bet-ween
bereaved children who are struggling with adapta-
tion to the loss and those who have serious adjust-
ment disorders. The treatment and interventions
for children who are experiencing serious emo-
tional and behavioral difficulties following a loss
will be very different from the interventions offered
to children who are coping more adequately (Wor-
den, 1996).
Models of intervention with bereaved children
include peer groups, individual counseling, family
interventions (including communication, family
readjustment, and problem solving), and a combi-
nation of these (Worden, 1996). Activities for
intervention include art activities (drawing, clay
modeling, making puppets), writing activities
(journahng, letters, hsts, memorials), memory
book making, storytelling activities, and games.
Intervention activities are intended to help
bereaved children by facilitating the various tasks
of mourning, providing children with acceptable

outlets for their feelings (including ways to address
their fears and concerns), helping children get
answers to their questions, and helping counter
children's misconceptions about the death (Wor-
den, 1996).
94 Children ó" Schools VOLUME 36, N U M B E R 2 APRIL
2014
Because children only cope as effectively as the
adults around them (Anewalt, 2010), the best way
to support grieving children is to work with the
adults closest to them. Informing, including, and
involving parents and key adults is critical. School
social workers could meet with parents at a time
and a place that is convenient to parents, perhaps
meeting at the parents' place of employment or vis-
iting them at home in the evening or on the week-
end. School systems should provide education and
trainings for all personnel, including information on
grief, loss, death, trauma, and normal and compli-
cated signs of grief in children (Anewalt, 2010;
Goldman, 2000).
In addition to undergoing training on how to
identify and respond to a grieving chud, adult care-
takers must also advocate for these children. For
instance, caretakers and school personnel could (a)
pemiit the child to leave the room if needed with-
out explanation; (b) suggest the child choose a des-
ignated adult to talk with; (c) choose a designated
place for the child to go within school as a safe
space; (d) allow the child to call home; (e) invite
the chOd to visit the school nurse as a reality check;

(f) assign a class helper; (g) create private teacher
time; (h) give the child more academic progress
reports; (i) modify some work assignments; and
(j) inform faculty, the Parent—Teacher Association,
parents, and children ofthe child's loss (Goldman,
2000).
PROBLEM AND SIGNIFICANCE
There is a great deal of infonnation in various dis-
ciplines on grief and loss; ho^vever, there is not as
much information on how to help students or
school communities deal with grief and loss. The
topic of grieving children appears "very minimally
throughout the social work literature" (p. 107) and
it is "very important for social workers to further
investigate children's grief. . . so that we can
know how best to intervene" (Hope & Hodge,
2006, p. 106). Death is a part of life, and schools
need to enhance their response to grieving children.
The available literature indicates there is a need for
school personnel to learn how death affects the stu-
dent and the school community, and there is a need
for schools to develop specific plans to respond to a
death, including in-service training programs
around grief and loss (Klicker, 2000).
Schools are not just buildings or classrooms but
are conceptualized as communities of families and
school personnel engaged in the educational pro-
cess; school social workers assist in making schools
real communities (Constable, 1992). For some chil-
dren, school is a respite from their problematic
home life; for others, school is a source of anxiety
and stress (Huxtable & Blyth, 2002). The larger
community and societal context affects schools; if

social supports are not present for children and their
families to buffer the consequences of issues and
problems affecting them, school success is unlikely
(Allen-Meares, 2004).
There are many grieving students in school dis-
tricts throughout the country (Anewalt, 2010).
Outside a child's immediate family, the most signif-
icant environment is the school. Consuming most
of children's weekday hours, school is their primary
source of social relationships and activities. School
personnel play an important role in helping students
cope with their grief (Anewalt, 2010).
Grieving children often experience some initial
depression and anxiety. Although this is normal,
these feelings can sometimes linger and become
problematic. Grief can sometimes lead to more seri-
ous mental health issues. Social workers are the
largest group of mental health providers in the
United States (NASW, n.d.), and it makes sense
that they would provide mental health services to
students in the schools.
School social workers who are clinically trained
can differentiate between normal and problematic
grief, depression, and anxiety. If school social work-
ers are given enough time to work with grieving,
depressed, and anxious students, they can help
decrease these symptoms, improve students' func-
tioning, and help them feel better emotionally.
School social workers help students and families
with coping with stress; family issues (divorce,
domestic violence, financial, parenting); gdef and
loss issues; medical and mental health issues; par-

ent education; physical and educational neglect;
physical, sexual, and emotional abuse; pregnancy;
relationship concerns; school-related concerns (ab-
sences and truancy, academic achievement, bully-
ing, dropout prevention, harassment, misbehavior,
school avoidance, special education, tardiness,
underachievement); sexuality issues; and substance
abuse (School Social Work Association of America
[SSWAA], 2012). Because school social workers
help many students with myriad concerns, it would
not be surprising if there is not enough time for
them to assist grieving children.
Q U I N N - L E E / School Social Work with Grieving Children
95
Social workers need to be available to all stu-
dents, not just students with special needs or in spe-
cial education. Schools need to enable every
student to reach her or his full potential (Constable,
1992). School social workers are in an excellent
central position to work with all types of students,
issues, problems, and needs, particularly those
resulting from changes in family structure (Consta-
ble, 1992). To provide assistance to the entire stu-
dent population, school social work involvement
must be increased in a multitude of issues and prob-
lems that students are facing, including grief (Con-
stable, 1992).
METHOD
Research Question
The purpose of this research was to advance the

understanding of the work of school social workers
with grieving students. This research was aimed at
answering the question: What are school social
workers' experiences working with grieving chüdren?
Design
The exploratory nature of the study required an
inductive, open-ended approach. The purpose
was to uncover rich meaning and thick description
to aid in a better understanding of school social
work with grieving children. The data analysis pro-
cess included discovering themes and pattems and
the relationships among them, which in tum would
lead to increased knowledge and understanding.
This study consisted of two stages. School social
workers from the Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota,
metropolitan area were invited to participate in a
preliminary, six-question e-mail survey and a 45-
to 60-minute in-person interview. This study was
approved by the institutional review board at the
University of Minnesota.
Sample
The sample consisted of school social workers in the
Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area. The par-
ticipants were licensed as school social workers by
the Minnesota Department of Education and the
Minnesota State Board of Social Work with one
of the following licenses: licensed social worker,
licensed independent social worker, and licensed
independent clinical social worker.
Purposive samphng is the dominant strategy in
qualitative research; this type of sampling seeks
information-rich cases that can be studied in depth

(Patton, 1990). A convenience sample of 105
school social workers was selected based on the fol-
lowing criteria: (a) currently licensed in Minnesota
as a school social worker, (b) currently employed as
a school social worker in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and
(c) currently a member of the Minnesota School
Social Workers Association (MSSWA). Approxi-
mately 105 school social workers were sent an invi-
tation via e-maü to participate in both parts of the
study. Fifty-nine school social workers agreed to
participate in the preliminary e-maü survey. Subse-
quently, 22 school social workers who agreed to
participate in the second part of the study were
interviewed in person for approximately 45 to 60
minutes.
To obtain a list of possible participants, I con-
tacted the MSSWA to obtain a list of names and
e-mail addresses of school social workers who
belong to this organization. There are approxi-
mately 105 school social workers who belong to
the MSSWA and work in Minneapolis-St. Paul
schools, and all of these members received an
e-mail invitation to participate in the study. Of
the 105 e-mails sent, 10 came back as undeüverable.
Therefore, only 95 participants received the e-mail
invitation. The e-maü invitation stated that con-
sent was implied if they chose to complete the
survey. Individuals who were interested in parti-
cipating in the preliminary six-question Internet
survey clicked on the link from the e-maü and
completed the survey. Individuals who were inter-
ested in participating in the 60-minute, in-person
interview provided me with their name and contact
information.

Data Collection
The first question that participants were asked was,
"Have you worked with grieving students?" Only
participants who answered yes to that question
could proceed with the rest of the survey and the
subsequent interview. There were no participants
who answered no to the first question; therefore,
all participants participated in the complete e-maü
survey.
One week later, I followed up by again contacting
possible participants via e-mail and asking them to
participate in the study. No participant was compen-
sated for volunteering to be part of this study. Before
in-person interviews, each participant signed a con-
sent form. The in-person interviews were face-to-face
and were audio recorded and transcribed.
96 Chi/dren & Schoo/s VOLUME 36, N U M B E R 2 APRIL
2014
Instrument
Two instruments were used in this study. The fint
instrument was a six-question survey distributed to
social workers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro-
politan area. The survey consisted primarily of
open-ended questions about what experiences
they had working with grieving children, including
types of services they had provided. Participants
were also asked to describe the death the child
was grieving (who died and how the person
died). Last, they were asked if they would agree
to be interviewed further on the topic.

The second instrument was an interview with six
open-ended questions. These questions asked par-
ticipants to describe their experiences working with
grieving children in the schools, the losses the stu-
dents had experienced, and barriers to helping
grieving students. All who volunteered to be inter-
viewed {N= 22) were asked the same questions.
The last question in the interview asked participants
if there was anything else they wanted to add to the
intervie'w.
Data Analysis
Data analysis was completed on both the online sur-
vey and the in-person interviews. The researcher
completed the transcription, the coding, and the
data analysis. There were no preliminary codes.
Data analysis on the six-question preliminary survey
began immediately and continued as more res-
ponses were received. The sixth survey question
was used to identify those participants who were
willing to be interviewed, and the researcher con-
tacted these subjects immediately. The researcher
collected survey data via the Web site https://
www.surveymonkey.com, which also notified
the researcher when responses were received. Data
analysis on the in-person interviews began immedi-
ately after transcription. As soon as possible after
transcription, the researcher began coding to sepa-
rate and categorize the data using NVivo 9 analysis
software (QSR International Pty Ltd., 2010). Cod-
ing grounded the analysis in the actual data.
Triangulation—using different or multiple
sources of data, methods, investigators, or theory
—affords research credibility (Lincoln & Guba,

1985). The researcher used several techniques to
address credibility: data triangulation, methods tri-
angulation, a second (interrater) coder, and mem-
ber checks. The coding unit was at the level of a
phrase, and each coding unit could be placed into
only one category. Each of the two coders inde-
pendently coded the data. During the course of
the first coding, each coder placed participant
responses into various themes. The two coders
then met to delineate themes and agree on the
labels. During the second coding, each coder placed
responses into the themes and subthemes. If the
two researchers disagreed about which theme to
categorize the response, they discussed it until
they both agreed.
Lincoln and Guba (1985) discussed the confirm-
ability of research, which is the degree to which the
researcher can demonstrate the neutrality of the
research interpretations, through a "confirmability
audit." The researcher of this study provided an
audit trail consisting of raw data, analysis notes,
reconstruction and synthesis products, process
notes, personal notes, and preliminary develop-
mental information (Lincoln & Guba, 1985).
RESULTS
When the data obtained from both methods used in
this study were triangulated, the findings were con-
sistent. Of the 59 participants who responded, 43
provided services at the elementary school level,
19 at the middle school level, and 15 at the high
school level. Many social workers pro'vdded services
at more than one level.

Of the 59 participants who completed the online
survey, 56 pro'vided social work services to grieving
children. The 10 services provided, in order of fre-
quency, were (1) individual counseling, (2) group
counseling, (3) family counseling, (4) referrals/
resources, (5) education and training on grief and
loss issues, (6) bibliotherapy, (7) play therapy, (8)
art therapy, (9) memorial services, and (10) advo-
cacy. Fifty-five participants stated that the students
they worked with were grieving the death of a par-
ent, 46 said the students were grieving the death of a
grandparent, 38 said the students were grieving the
death of a pet, 30 said the students were grieving the
death of a sibling, 28 said that the students were
grieving the death of a friend, and 20 said the stu-
dents were grieving the death of someone else
(including deaths of principals, teachers, aunts,
uncles, cousins, stepparents, and other relatives).
School social workers said that students experi-
enced loss from a wide variety of types of deaths,
including natural causes, stillbirths, homicides, sui-
cides, car accidents, cancer, drownings, shootings,
heart attacks, and bicycle accidents.
Q U I N N - L E E / School Social Work with Grieving Children
97
Grieving students were referred to school social
workers by several sources, including teachers,
principals, parents, students themselves, friends of
students, school nurses, and community profession-
als. Several participants stated that they learned
about students' losses from the media and then con-

tacted the students to offer support.
The themes that were identified are not unfamil-
iar to school social workers. Similar themes have
been identified in other areas of school social prac-
tice. However, the area of school social work prac-
tice related to grief and loss has not been explored as
closely as other areas of school social work.
Four main themes were identified: (1) barriers to
helping grieving students, (2) variations on how
grief is defined, (3) social workers' preparation for
dealing with grief and loss issues, and (4) referral
of grieving students to outside resources. Sub-
themes were identified under each theme. These
themes and subthemes were identified from both
parts of the study, but they were primarily drawn
from the interviews. T h e themes and subthemes
identified from the data are illustrated in Figure 1.
Theme 1: Barriers to Helping Grieving
Students
Participants reported many barriers to their effec-
tiveness in helping a child through the stages of
grief. Some of the barriers were minor, such as par-
ents being difficult to reach because they work, but
some of the barriers directly affected social workers'
ability to help the child. Major barriers included
parents, teachers, limited time, limited resources,
religious barriers, and lack of space to meet with
groups of students for counseling.
Parents. Participants reported that the greatest bar-
rier they experienced was either parents or teachers,
both of whom seemed to think that grief counseKng

interfered in some way with their rights and respon-
sibilities. Many participants said that parents often saw
them as part of "the system" that was there not to
help the families recover but instead to separate the
families. Parents did not want to be questioned about
how they raised their chud. Almost all of the social
worken reported that they often encountered resis-
tance from parents when it came to counseling chil-
dren. For example, participant 7 commented on
parents' mistrust of school social workers;
Language barriers, sometimes families have mis-
trust of social workers; you are going to remove
my kids. If one of their children dies, am I going
to get blamed for the death. Sometimes the
families are really hard to reach. They are hard
to get a hold of, to find out what is exactly
going on. They will keep the kids out of school
Figure 1: Themes and Subthemes
Parents
Teachers
Time
Resources
Spiritual
No private space
y
/
/
Barriers to
helping grieving
students

^
X
Variations on
how grief is
defined
Death
Divorce
Change
Other losses
V
Special courses
Little preparation
On-the~job experience
Social workers'
wide range of
preparation for
dealing with grief
and loss issues
Referring grieving
students to outside
resources Time
Resources
Outside agencies
Community groups
Why it is necessary
98 Children & Schools VOLUME 36, N U M B E R 2 APRIL
2014

for a long period of time and if you ask about
that, they get defensive.
Some parents believed the social worker was
invading the family's privacy. Participant 3 summed
up the privacy issue the best:
We say that in my school that I can see children
one time without a parent's consent, and after
that they have to sign a consent form. So, if
for some reason, the parent were to say no,
like if a parent, because, and I think this is a
legitimate thing too, I mean, these are cominu-
nity schools, do they want the school to know
everything that is going on in their family?
Well, maybe not. I respect their confidentiality
and their privacy and that they might not want
this looked at within the school for privacy sake
and you know, that's where all the neighbors of
this child are going, and you know that's how
schools work.
Although the social workers acknowledged the
difficulty that they faced because of the way that
parents perceived their role in schools, they main-
tained that parents did not understand how a child-
ren's grief influenced their school behavior and
achievement.
Teachers. Teachers were also considered a barrier
to helping children. The social workers reported
that teachers did not like children leaving the
instructional classroom. According to the school

social workers interviewed, teachers believe it is
more important that the child remain in the class-
room regardless of the situation. Participants said
that teachers do not cooperate when the school
social workers want to meet with students during
class time. Participant 1 described the situation:
In the school system, the barrier I run up against
most often is teachers not seeing that. . .
there are some teachers who don't think that
school is the time or the place to deal with per-
sonal issues. And so they will struggle with a
student leaving their classroom and that type
of thing.
Overall, social workers cited feeling very frus-
trated with the lack of support from teachers. One
participant wondered if teachers realized that the
only time a social worker could see the students
was during school time. Some participants thought
that teachers were not being sensitive enough to the
needs of these grieving children.
Time. Many participants stated that there is not
enough time in the school day to handle the issues
and problems of grief and loss. Though many social
workers try to create groups for grieving children so
that they can receive comfort from others who are
experiencing the same pain, participants reported
that there is very little free time during a school
day in which to hold these group sessions. Likewise,
there is almost no possibility of conducting any type
of group after school. Many participants in this
study thought that their job of helping children
cope with life's stresses was considered to be sec-

ondary to the child's academic performance.
Resources. Many participants stated that there are
not enough resources allocated to helping students
with grief and loss issues. School social workers
cited both time and money as resources that are
lacking. Often school social workers have to pay
for special books or games that children can use
during counseling sessions. Participants reported
having to be very creative with the limited resources
they do have.
Spiritual Issues. Participants described the spiri-
tual implications of answering children's ques-
tion regarding the whereabouts of deceased loved
ones. Because of the separation of church and state,
discussions of spiritual and religious issues must be
hmited in public schools. School social workers
stated that the spiritual aspect of grief, death, and
loss is often an important part of a student's coping
experience, but that they are limited as to how
much they can discuss this issue. School social
workers in this study agreed that it was important
to honor the separation of church and state, but
they also acknowledged that it is important to be
open to comments the children themselves might
make about religion and where people go after
they die. Some participants thought that spiritual-
ity was a big challenge for them when dealing with
grieving children. School social workers reported
that it was necessary to deal with spirituality on
some level in their jobs. Participant 6 described a
technique for addressing spiritual issues in public
schools:
I think that one thing that is really interesting is

the religion aspect and being in a public school.
The one way I get around that, is by saying to a
Q U I N N - L E E / Sehool Social Work with Grieving Children
99
child, where do you think your grandma is? I
can't share my beliefs with them and I would
never try to convince them, but I have said
oh, so you think that your grandma is in heaven,
what do you think she is doing up there? I
won't discourage their belief, hut I think spiri-
tuality and the separation of church and state
and what I can talk about with the student is
the biggest harrier.
Need for Private Space. Participants mentioned
that they often lack private office space where
they can meet with students, yet it is important to
provide confidentiality and privacy so that students
feel comfortable. As Participant 4 noted.
My office space is a barrier. I don't really have a
private, confidential area to meet with some-
body who might want to share.
They also noted that private spaces are necessary
for meeting with parents.
Theme 2: Variations on How Grief Is
Defined
Participants discussed students' grief related to the
death of a parent, extended family member, and
student. However, participants mentioned that

children grieve because of all sorts of losses and
that it is necessary to keep an open mind about
the definition of grief and loss for the students.
School social workers gave examples of many types
of grief and loss that students experience, which
include divorce, sexual abuse, absent parents, devel-
opmental transitions, moving, peers, and change.
Thus, a child's grief comes in many unanticipated
forms. Participants also discussed how a student's
grief affects the larger school community and peer
group. Participant 16 commented that losses other
than death can cause students to grieve:
Just about even with regard to divorce, when par-
ents have to separate, there is a grieving process
that goes along with that. Relocating, coming
into a new environment that can cause grieving
because they had been moved to a new state for
whatever reason, or you have a new student come
in and they start making new friends and then
they are uprooted again. Grief conies in düFerent
shapes and fomis—not just death.
Theme 3: Social Workers' Preparation for
Dealing with Grief and Loss Issues
There was a wide range of preparation for dealing
with grief and loss issues. Some school social workers
had a tremendous amount of background, training,
and preparation, and others had almost none.
Some social workers learned how to deal with stu-
dent grief entirely on the job, leaming through trial
and error. There was no standard of education or
training that social workers received regarding grief
and how to help grieving children. Often, social
workers who had a personal interest in the topic of
grief and loss sought out education and training on

the subject. Most did not receive specialized training
in grief and loss issues but rather chose to take elective
courses or trainings on the topic. Grief was not a
required topic in their social work training.
Special Courses. Several of the school social
workers noted a special interest in taking courses
to help them deal with grieving children because
they believed that their graduate training had not
placed enough emphasis on this topic. Participant
20 described pursuing grief and loss training outside
of a formal academic program:
Initially the graduate program I was in, we were
only allowed three choices of électives. I still
wish that I had had grief and loss as an elective.
I initiated leaming about it because I . . . knew I
needed more information. Fortunately I had
some experience with groups, hut even when
I started out as a social worker at this end, I
had a lot of great mentors. I really sought the
help that I needed. I do reading, I talk to my
colleagues, I go to conferences.
Little Preparation. At least half of the school
social workers reported that they had little prepara-
tion for dealing with grieving children. Some said
that they do not deal with grief that often. These
participants expressed their anxiety over dealing
with death and reported that they were unsure of
how to cope with a grieving child. For example,
participant 7 stated,
I feel Uke the jack of all trades, the master of none.
You feel Uke you know just about enough about
everything but you are not a master of any.

On-the-Job Experience. T w o participants said
that they had learned how to deal with grieving
children through on-the-job experience. They,
2014
too, had not received training, so they did what they
could when presented with the problem. The fol-
lowing statement by participant 16 represents some-
one who learned through experience:
I feel comfortable. I have been around awhüe. If
I can't help, I feel really good knowing that
there other places that this chud can get help
that they need.
Theme 4: Referring Grieving Students to
Outside Resources
All of the participants said that outside referrals are a
necessity for a variety of reasons. First, not enough
resources or time exists in the educational system for
school social workers to deal with long-term grief
issues. Second, some social workers do not feel pre-
pared to deal with grief and loss issues. Third, some
students need famüy therapy to cope and recover
from certain types of grief and loss, and family ther-
apy may be outside the scope of the school social
worker's job description. Fourth, students need
and want assistance and resources when school is
not in session. All participants acknowledged the
need to rely on outside sources to support grieving
children. The following statements by two of the

participants represent the overall comments of the
participants. Participant 20 stated,
I can't give all the support. The more support
you have the easier it is to go through that heal-
ing process. I believe that the more support that
you can add, the more it helps that student.
Similarly, Participant 5 encouraged referrals to
outside sources, stating,
I always let parents know that there are some
other resources out there, because my part
with the child is only 30 minutes, say once a
week for 6 weeks' time, and kids usually need
more than that.
LIMITATIONS
There were several limitations to this study. First,
the transferabüity of the findings in this study is lim-
ited because the participants all came from a specific
geographical area in a specific state. Minnesota's
requirements regarding who can become a school
social worker may be different. It is possible that,
in some states, a prospective school social worker
may need to have formal grief training; however.
in Minnesota there is no such requirement. Hence,
the barriers that these participants face in the execu-
tion of their jobs may not be the same barriers faced
by school social workers in other areas of the
United States.
Second, only those school social workers who be-
long to the MSSWA were included in the study, and

therefore, results wül be limited only to those mem-
ben. Not au school social workers in Minneapolis-
St. Paul belong to the MSSWA.
A third limitation of the study is the small sample
size. Although 59 school social workers completed
the online survey, only 22 participants were inter-
viewed. This is only a smaü number compared with
the overall number of people (1,774) who are
licensed in Minnesota as school social workers.
For this reason, these findings cannot be generalized
to a larger population.
IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
This study generates knowledge and better under-
standing not only of school social work in general,
but also of the particular nature of school social
work with grieving chüdren. This study will serve
to help school social workers and other school staff
to recognize a forgotten population—grieving stu-
dents—and inform schools about how social work-
ers can help these chüdren. It brings awareness to
the issue of school social work with grieving stu-
dents, which has been ignored in the past. Perhaps
schools, social workers, and parents will be inspired
to advocate for increased services. This study could
assist parents and guardians of grieving children in
deciding whether they want to obtain additional
support for their children when they experience a
loss. The findings could encourage school adminis-
trators, school social workers, teachers, and other
school staff to discuss barriers to helping grieving
chüdren. This, in tum, may assist them in finding
ways to overcome these barriers so that they may
help these chüdren maintain both emotional health

and school performance.
The findings from this study generated a number
of ideas for school administrators, social workers,
teachers, staff, parents, and chüdren in dealing
•with grief and loss issues.
• Increase services for grieving children.
School social workers should be encouraged to
ask their supervisors if they can identify, assess,
and provide these services. If, subsequently.
Q U I N N - L E E / Schoo/ Socia/ Work with Grieving Children
101
services do not increase, more social workers
may recognize the need to refer grieving chil-
dren to other resources.
• Educate parents and teachers about child-
ren's grief.. Infomiation can be sent via letters,
teacher in-services, one-on-one discussions,
books, and videos. When informed, these
individuals may be more inclined to seek
out the services of a school social worker or
obtain additional support for their grieving
children.
• Facilitate communication hetween com-
munity and school social workers. Better
communication can decrease the duplication
of services and allow a more efficient way of
organizing and utilizing resources and services.

• Collaborate with families. Families should be
seen as part of the solution and part of the team.
• Inform social 'work degree programs
about the preparedness of their graduates.
Programs can evaluate whether grief and loss
should be covered in greater depth and length
in bachelor's and master's degree curricula.
• Use the skills of listening, encouraging,
and problem solving e to help grieving
students. Because working with grie'ving stu-
dents does not require different knowledge or
skills, school social workers should use the
knowledge of grief and loss that they gained
throughout their social work education (per-
haps in areas of child welfare, gerontology, dis-
abihties) as a parallel to grief around death.
• Provide ideas to support the research that
states intervention is necessary for griev-
ing children. The themes and subthemes in
this study reveal areas where interventions
can be provided and where further research is
needed.
• View parents and teachers as part of the
service delivery system. School social work-
ers need to help parents and teachers make the
link between the social workers' efforts with
students and parents' and teachers' goals for
these students. It is important for social work-
ers to show how their services can complement
and support rather than threaten the roles of
teachers and parents (Bronstein & Abramson,
2003).

• Collaborate with teachers. "Collaboration
between social workers and teachers is critical
in order to maximize students' achievement in
school" (Bronstein & Abramson, 2003, p. 323).
School social workers can help teachers under-
stand the connection between psychosocial
intervention and improved academic perfor-
mance, shew teachers that their emphasis on
academics is valued, and enhance teachers'
roles and ability to teach (Bronstein & Abram-
son, 2003).
• Address the issue of time as a barrier. This
study introduced the idea of the community-
school partnership and after-school program-
ming as ways to attend to children's psychosocial
issues that impact their class performance.
• Find creative ways to address spirituality.
Students may raise this issue with social work-
ers. Spirituality is often a part of grief, and it is
natural for children to want to discuss it. How-
ever, some school social workers are anxious
about discussing spiritual issues in school. It
would be helpful for school social workers to
have some training on how to talk to students
about this issue so they are more comfortable.
Also, social workers should take a holistic view
and collaborate with spiritual leaders in the stu-
dents' lives, so students receive all the spiritual
support they want or need.
This study revealed areas in which improvement
or further study is needed. Based on the literature,

most grieving children simply want someone to lis-
ten to them. Social workers should be reminded
that it is acceptable to not have the answers and
that, in fact, they should not have the answers.
Instead, they should listen and ask students ques-
tions, support them, and keep the dialogue open.
They should encourage students to continue talk-
ing about spiritual issues and to talk with their fam-
ily. School social workers can take on roles that best
address the needs of bereaved students in the
schools. CS
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National Association of Social Workers, (n.d.). Behavioral
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Guidelines for responding to the death of a student or school
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Lisa Quinn-Lee, PhD, MSSW, LICSW, is assistant pro-
fessor. Social Work, University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, 105
Gaifield Avenue, Eau Claire, WI54702; e-mail:
[email protected]
uwec.edu.
Original manuscript received March 13, 2012
Final revision received August 27, 2012
Accepted September 14, 2012
Advance Access Publication April 22, 2014
SOCIAL WORK
REFLECTIONS ON PRACTICE AND THEORY
CHRISTOPHER RHOADES DYKEMA
Forty Years in Social Work is a personal mem-
oir that blends a recounting of Christopher
Rhoades Dykema's experience with the
search for a theory of social work that helps
to explain the social and psychological con-
texts of his practice. This professional work
reveals many facets of Dykema's life as a

social worker from the 1960s into the first
decade of the 21st century. It is a testament
to his commitment to the profession's need
for theory building; it presents a history of
social welfare over 40 years; and it links
accounts of his interactions with clients to
an effort to place his practice experience in
the broadest possible context. The stories
are sometimes funny, sometimes tragic,
and sometimes poignant, but they are
always distinguished by Dykema's pursuit
of the theory or theories that would best
explain what he experienced.
ISBN: 978-0-87101-443-6. 2013.
Item #4436. 192 pages. $29.99.
1-800-227-3590 • www.naswpress.org
#NASW
NASW PRESS
CODE PAFY13

QUINN-LEE / School Social Work with Grieving Children 103
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articles for individual use.
RESOURCES FOR PRACTICE
Collaboration as an Essential School
Social Work Skill
Clara D’Agostino
Essential collaboration skills are introducedin the formal
academic training that MSWstudents receive and are a
cornerstone of
social work practice (Graham & Barter, 1999). For
the purposes of this article, collaboration is defined as
“a relational system in which two or more stake-
holders pool together resources in order to meet
objectives that neither could meet individually”
(Graham & Barter, 1999, p. 7). As a way to high-
light joint decision making, interprofessional col-
laboration emphasizes the collective value of
coordinated student support services as it relates to
student outcomes, teacher support, and commu-
nity engagement that reduces barriers to learning.

Collaboration is essential to identifying and priori-
tizing unmet needs and determining evidence-
based strategies to implement. Although collaboration
has been a common word in school-based and
other types of social work, changing realities in
funding, legislation, and conceptual frameworks
for optimal educational learning environments
have created a new emphasis on this skill.
Collaboration involves all key stakeholders in the
school community, including, but not limited to,
students, parents, teachers, administrators, commu-
nity members, and community organizations. Cross-
system collaboration requires effectively engaging
parents and community members as well as estab-
lishing partnerships with local service providers,
including community mental health agencies.
“Arguably, social workers are uniquely prepared to
augment their important clinical roles and responsi-
bilities with macro-level practice involving other
school-serving agencies, families, and communities”
(Anderson-Butcher et al., 2010, p. 161).
Collaboration emphasizes the collective effective-
ness of professionals from different training pro-
grams, creates a mutual respect for fellow professions
and professionals, and recognizes the worth of each
member of the intervention team. Building collabo-
ration skills with individuals can be generalized to
collaboration with larger groups (Bronstein, 2003)
such as school board members and other educa-
tional administrators.
School social workers practicing from a collabo-
rative and culturally competent perspective actively

seek parent involvement and teacher assistance
(Teasley, Canifield, Archuleta, Crutchfield, &
Chavis, 2012). They also create stronger collabora-
tive relationships with teachers, training them to
detect the early warning signs of depression and
suicide risk, and codevelop protocols and strategies
to address crises and mental health concerns.
Partnering locally with school social work peers,
statewide with school social work associations, and
nationally through professional social work organi-
zations helps school social workers create a collabo-
rative network of support and information that can
potentially lead to broadened knowledge of fund-
ing sources to sustain or enhance their services.
Those who are practicing in remote areas with lit-
tle opportunity to have face-to-face contact with a
school social work community can benefit from
new methods of collaboration through technol-
ogy. They can seek consultation assistance via vir-
tual conferencing, engage in distance learning, and
access online resources.
FUNDING REALITIES
Increased social problems combined with decreased
resources make collaboration essential for efficient
practice (Bronstein, 2003). Recent trends in reduc-
tions of school funding magnify the need for
improved student support. In 2008, school districts
began receiving less public funding than they had
received in previous years. According to the Cen-
ter on Budget and Policy Priorities (Oliff, Mai, &
Leachman, 2012), elementary and high schools in
doi: 10.1093/cs/cdt021 © 2013 National Association of Social
Workers 248

26 U.S. states received less funding in the 2012–
2013 school year than they did in the previous
year, and 35 states’ school funding is currently
below 2008 levels. Economic changes resulted in
funding cuts to schools and heavier demands on
school social workers who retained their positions
(Issurdatt, 2009).
Funding sources largely define how the
day-to-day practice of any school social worker is
carried out. In the past, school social workers were
funded in very generic ways; currently, many social
workers are funded by specific “siloed” categorical
funding, which generally restricts the practice of
the school social worker (personal communication
with M. Pennekamp, retired adjunct professor,
Humboldt State University, August 23, 2013). Soft
monies such as grant funding can complement
existing programs but often cannot be relied on as
a long-term funding source. Therefore, school
social workers should leverage their collaborative
partnerships to educate themselves on various
funding streams that could be used to create a
broad base of support. School social workers
should use their skills as collaborators and organize
teams at their schools to seek federal funding
opportunities (Dube & Orpinas, 2009; personal
communication with M. Mandlawitz, government
relations director, School Social Work Association
of America [SSWAA], July 19, 2013).
PROFESSIONAL COLLABORATION
“Collaboration among individual professionals is a

first step in developing collaborative relationships
among community constituents, agencies, and
professional groups” (Bronstein, 2003, p. 298).
School social workers benefit by their affiliation
with national associations such as the School Social
Work Association of America, the American
Council for School Social Work, the International
School Social Work Association, and the National
Association of Social Workers. Membership in
these organizations represents an opportunity to
strengthen networking, enhance knowledge of
evidence-based practices, heighten awareness of
funding trends, and promote advocacy for essential
student support services.
Collaboration with other social work profes-
sionals through local, state, and national affiliations
should lead school social workers to engage more
with legislators on new legislation that improves
the lives of families and school children. It also
emphasizes the importance of the school social
work role in the education environment.
School social workers need to be establishing
and maintaining relationships with their mem-
bers of Congress, . . . and inviting members of
Congress and staff to their schools to see the suc-
cesses they are having, as well as the challenges
they face as staff is cut and school social workers
are responsible for more and more students.
(personal communication with M. Mandlawitz,
government relations director, SSWAA, July 19,
2013)
It is imperative to stay engaged in advocacy efforts

that promote both funding and access to needed
comprehensive student support services.
COLLABORATING WITH HIGHER EDUCATION
There are several tangible benefits to the local edu-
cational agency that partners with universities.
One such mutually beneficial partnership is the
creation of intern training programs. Establishing a
social work intern training program can potentially
lead to increased direct and indirect services to stu-
dents. Social work interns are often infused with
new ideas that energize a work environment, pro-
vide much-needed prevention and early interven-
tion services to students in need, and assist with
longer term projects such as grant writing, estab-
lishing collaborations with community partners,
and engaging families. Through micro, mezzo, and
macro interactions offered in school settings, social
work interns will develop stronger collaboration
skills as they work side by side with teachers,
administrators, students, community members, and
parents (Bronstein, 2003). Interns should also ben-
efit from this partnership through personal and
professional development, résumé building, and
professional contacts (Handy & Mook, 2011).
Due to an increase in Web-based graduate social
work programs, establishing an intern training pro-
gram is increasingly more viable now that there is
no need to be in close geographic proximity to an
MSW program. Schools and agencies across the
nation can partner with an accredited MSW pro-
gram to place social work interns directly at school
sites. These programs that “promote positive
collaborative experiences in field placements”
(Bronstein, 2003, p. 304) can also lead to additional

partnerships with higher education, including joint
D’Agostino / Collaboration as an Essential School Social Work
Skill 249
research initiatives, consultation opportunities,
establishment of pathways to college for K–12 stu-
dents, support of community-based programming,
and other creative collaborations.
STUDENT, FAMILY, AND SCHOOL
COLLABORATION
Research has shown that multilevel collaboration
addressing student behavior through positive behav-
ior intervention supports (PBIS) and youth develop-
ment has positive outcomes for students (Greenberg
et al., 2003; Minke & Anderson, 2005). Multitiered
systems of support, often referred to as response to
intervention, have heightened the importance of
interprofessional collaboration by emphasizing the
contributions of all support team members. This
collaborative prevention and early intervention
approach from all school personnel can improve
school climate and reduce barriers to learning; it is
also enhanced when families are included as collabo-
rative partners (Dimmitt, Carey, & Hatch, 2007).
School social workers are skilled at recognizing
the family as expert, “developing solid patterns of
collaboration [while] keeping the whole child and
family at the core of all . . . activities” (Pennekamp,
1992, p. 129). Including the student and the family
in the student success team is a prime example of
using families as collaborative partners in the

solution-focused approach to addressing student
needs. “Family-based interventions are an effective
way to support student learning, and there is con-
siderable research that family involvement in
schools promotes student achievement” (Dimmitt
et al., 2007, p. 64).
School social workers, their interns, other support
professionals, and contracted agency professionals
can play a strong role in ensuring that students feel
connected to school through direct student contact,
educating teachers to provide trauma-informed
classroom interactions, and emphasizing the impor-
tant role teachers play when they engage in caring
relationships with students (Search Institute, n.d.-a).
School social workers can also provide in-service
trainings to teachers on the importance of their con-
nections with families of students and how those
connections contribute to schoolwide efforts to
improve school climate and academic achievement.
It is within this safe, positive school environment
that students can begin to grow emotionally, estab-
lish bonds within the school community and, subse-
quently, excel academically.
COMMUNICATING RESULTS
Clearly communicating to stakeholders the efficacy
of school social work services is vital for sustainabil-
ity. School social workers should consider reporting
data publicly through school newsletters, during
presentations at school events, or at school board
meetings. These communications are intended “to
paint a picture that demonstrates the many ways
[they] are supporting student success” (Dimmitt
et al., p. 164). M. Mandlawitz, government relations
director for SSWAA, has suggested that school social

workers provide outcome data to local legislators
and invite them to visit and support a program with
proven positive outcomes (personal communica-
tion, July 19, 2013).
Systematic evaluation of school social work
services . . . can be a way to help modify and
improve social work services and programs and
can help provide evidence to stakeholders of
the value of the services [social workers] per-
form.” (Allen-Meares, 2010, p. 358)
RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION
Declining resources during times of heightened
social problems make collaboration essential for
efficient school social work practice and require
school social workers to take a proactive approach
to coordinated student support services. Children
and their families will benefit from interprofes-
sional collaboration that leads to improved treat-
ment planning, intervention fidelity, and team
decision making. Cross-system collaboration with
community partners is essential for accessing a
wide range of services for students.
Connecting with other school social workers
through professional organization affiliation will
help practitioners obtain both leadership and advo-
cacy skills. School social workers should expand
their collaborations to involve legislators, broaden
their knowledge of current legislation, and ulti-
mately parlay those partnerships into authoring new
legislation and advocating for increased student sup-
port services.
Establishing and maintaining professional and

collaborative relationships will help create an envi-
ronment of mutuality in which the integrated stu-
dent support team works together to meet the
needs of all students. Intern programs should also
be fully explored to advance interagency collabora-
tion with university partners, thus creating a
250 Children & Schools Volume 35, Number 4 October 2013
training environment in which collaboration skills
can be developed and modeled for another genera-
tion of school social workers.
Collaboration is one important skill for school
social workers to ensure that students are receiving
appropriate, comprehensive, and coordinated ser-
vices. Collaboration and communication should
occur at all levels with key stakeholders, including
student, family, school staff, district personnel,
community agencies, and state and national policy-
makers. These partnerships have the collective
potential to decrease barriers to learning, improve
school climate, achieve higher graduation rates,
increase academic achievement, and help moti-
vated youths realize their future as successful, con-
tributing adult members of society (Blonsky, Cox,
& Pennekamp, 2007; Search Institute, n.d.-b.)
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Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
Anderson-Butcher, D. D., Lawson, H. A., Iachini, A. A.,

Flaspohler, P. P., Bean, J. J., & Wade, R. R. (2010).
Emergent evidence in support of a community collab-
oration model for school improvement. Children &
Schools, 32, 160–171.
Blonsky, H. M., Cox, T., & Pennekamp, M. (2007). Com-
prehensive student learning support services: A Cali-
fornia educator’s toolkit. Los Angeles: California
Association of School Social Workers.
Bronstein, L. R. (2003). A model for interdisciplinary col-
laboration. Social Work, 48, 297–306. Retrieved from
http://search.proquest.com/docview/215270983?
accountid=14749
Dimmitt, C., Carey, J. C., & Hatch, T. (Eds.). (2007).
Evidence-based school counseling: Making a difference with
data-driven practices. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin
Press.
Dube, S., & Orpinas, P. (2009). Understanding excessive
school absenteeism as school refusal behavior. Children
& Schools, 31, 87–95. doi:10.1093/cs/31.2.87
Graham, J., & Barter, K. (1999). Collaboration: A social
work practice method. Families in Society 80(1), 6–13.
doi:10.1606/1044-3894.634
Greenberg, M., Weissberg, R., Utne Obrien, M., Zins, J.,
Fredericks, L., Resnick, H., & Elias, M. (2003).
Enhancing school-based prevention and youth devel-
opment through coordinated social emotional and
academic learning. American Psychologist, 58, 466–474.
Handy, F. F., & Mook, L. L. (2011). Volunteering and vol-
unteers: Benefit–cost analyses. Research on Social Work

Practice, 21, 412–420.
Issurdatt, S. (2009, December). The economic downturn: Impli-
cations for school social work. Retrieved from https://
www.socialworkers.org/login.asp?ms=restr&ref=/
assets/secured/documents/practice/ssw/Practice%
20Update%20Jan%202010%20School%20SW.pdf
Minke, K., & Anderson, K. (2005). Family–school collabo-
ration and positive behavior support. Journal of Positive
Behavior Interventions, 7(3), 181–185.
Oliff, P., Mai, C., & Leachman, M. (2012). New school
brings more cuts in state funding for schools.
Retrieved from http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?
fa=view&id=3825
Pennekamp, M. (1992). Toward school-linked and school-
based human services for children and families. Social
Work in Education, 14, 125–130.
Search Institute. (n.d.-a). Developmental relationships.
Retrieved from http://www.search-institute.org/
research/developmental-relationships
Search Institute. (n.d.-b). The 40 developmental assets.
Retrieved from www.search-institute.org/
developmental-assets
Teasley, M., Canifield, J. P., Archuleta, A. J., Crutchfield, J.,
& Chavis, A. M. (2012). Perceived barriers and facilita-
tors to school social work practice: A mixed-methods
study. Children & Schools, 34, 145–153.
Clara D’Agostino, MSW, LCSW, is adjunct field faculty
member, School of Social Work, University of Southern

Califor-
nia, Los Angeles; e-mail: [email protected]
Original manuscript received September 19, 2013
Accepted September 23, 2013
Advance Access Publication October 9, 2013
D’Agostino / Collaboration as an Essential School Social Work
Skill 251
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9
9
9
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/cs/31.2.87
http://dx.doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.634
http://dx.doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.634
https://www.socialworkers.org/login.asp?ms=restr&ref=/assets/s
ecured/documents/practice/ssw/Practice%20Update%20Jan%202
010%20School%20SW.pdf
http://www.cbpp.org/cms/?fa=view&id=3825

http://www.search-institute.org/research/developmental-
relationships
relationships
relationships
relationships
relationships
http://www.search-institute.org/developmental-assets
http://www.search-institute.org/developmental-assets
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Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Act I: The “Before” Phase

Chapter 1: Selecting Your Target Market
Chapter 2: Crafting Your Message
Chapter 3: Reaching Prospects with Advertising Media
Act II: The “During” Phase
Chapter 4: Capturing Leads
Chapter 5: Nurturing Leads
Chapter 6: Sales Conversion
Act III: The “After” Phase
Chapter 7: Delivering a World-Class Experience
Chapter 8: Increasing Customer Lifetime Value
Chapter 9: Orchestrating and Stimulating Referrals
Conclusion
About the Author
5
6
kindle:embed:0002?mime=image/jpg
I
Acknowledgments
“If I have seen further than others, it is
by standing upon the shoulders of giants.”
ISAAC NEWTON
wish I could tell you all the ideas in this book were my
inventions and that

I’m some kind of marketing and business genius. The truth is,
though I’m a
collector of elegant ideas, I rarely invent anything, and when I
do, it’s rarely
worth writing about.
An early business mentor of mine, Mal Emery, would often say,
“I’ve never
had an original idea in my life—it’s just too bloody dangerous.”
Yet he was
and continues to be an extremely successful businessman and
marketer. The
secret of his success, and subsequently mine, was to just model
things that
were known to reliably work rather than trying to reinvent the
wheel.
Reinventing the wheel requires you to be a genius, and even
then, it carries
with it a high probability of failure. I’m no genius and I hate
failing, so I prefer
to just closely copy the things that made others successful—at
least until I’ve
got a very good handle on the basics. This tilts the odds in my
favor and gives
me a high probability of success.
While I did create the system that has become the 1-Page
Marketing Plan
(1PMP), many of the direct response marketing concepts that
make it work are
the inventions and ideas of other great business leaders and
marketers.
Perhaps I flatter myself but the aphorism “Good artists copy;

great artists
steal,” repeated by Steve Jobs and attributed to Pablo Picasso, is
certainly a
philosophy I’ve held in mind when collecting these elegant
ideas over the
years and writing this book. Regardless of whether you consider
me a “great
7
artist” or a thief, I want you to benefit from the treasure trove
of the proven
business-building ideas that follow.
Certainly, there’s a place for creativity and invention but in my
opinion, this
should come after you’ve first mastered the basics. This book
contains many of
those basics. Some come from my own experiences but most
come from people
who’ve been “giants” in my business life and on whose
shoulders I’ve stood.
In no particular order, I’d like to acknowledge:
Mal Emery
Dean Jackson
Joe Polish
Pete Godfrey
Dan Kennedy
James Schramko
Jim Rohn
Frank Kern
Seth Godin

Some have been personal mentors to me, while others have been
mentors to me
through publications and other works they’ve produced. I try to
credit them in
footnotes throughout this book when, as far as I know, an idea
I’m presenting
has originated from one of them. However, I’m certain that I’ve
left other
people out or not acknowledged enough of the ideas of the
people above.
When you collect ideas over a period of many years it can
sometimes become
a blur when trying to recall where one originated. For that I
apologize in
advance.
The 1-Page Marketing Plan is an implementation breakthrough
rather than a
new marketing innovation or concept. It’s by far the easiest way
for a small
business to go from knowing nothing about marketing to
creating and
implementing a sophisticated direct response marketing plan for
their business.
The plan is literally reduced to a single page.
8
Please enjoy the ideas in this book and, more importantly,
implement them
in your business. Remember, knowing and not doing is the same
as not
knowing.

IMPORTANT:
This book is designed to be interactive. For this reason, you’ll
find signposts along the way in this
book that will lead you to a special resources section of The 1-
Page Mark eting Plan website.
These resources are exclusively available to readers of this book
and are designed to go hand-in-
hand with it. They include the 1-Page Marketing Plan canvas
and examples, as well as links, videos,
and articles referenced throughout this book.
Acce s s the s e re s ource s at 1pmp.com
9
http://1pmp.com
I
Introduction
What’s This All About?
f I had to summarize the essence of this book in one sentence it
would be,
“the fastest path to the money.” I’ve purposely put this as early
as
humanly possible in the book because I don’t want to waste
your time.
I know for a certainty that this opening sentence will be off-
putting to a
large number of people and frankly I’d much prefer they read

someone else’s
business book full of ear-tickling clichés like “follow your
passion,” “work
hard,” “hire the right people,” blah blah blah.
If that’s what you’re after, then search Amazon. There’ll be a
gazillion
business books there for you on all these airy-fairy concepts and
much more,
mostly written by professional authors and researchers who’ve
never actually
built a high-growth business.
This book is blatantly and unashamedly about growing your
business fast
and reaping the rewards of that kind of success.
10
Running Out of Oxygen Really Sucks
As Zig Ziglar famously said, “Money isn’t everything... but it
ranks right up
there with oxygen.”
Yup, nothing—NOTHING—kills a business faster than a lack of
“oxygen”
(AKA money).
Why am I so unashamedly focused on the money getting? There
are a few
good reasons.
Firstly, there’s almost no business problem that can’t be solved

with more
money. Which is handy because almost every business I know
of is full of
problems. Money helps you solve the vast majority of things
that make
business a pain in the backside.
Secondly, when you’ve taken care of yourself, you have a
chance to help
others.
If you didn’t go into business to make money then you’re either
lying or you
have a hobby, not a business. And yes, I know all about
delivering value,
changing the world and so on, but how much of that are you
going to do if
you’re broke? How many people can you help?
When you board an airplane and they’re going through all the
safety
procedures, the airline attendant will inevitably get to a point
that goes
something like this:
Should the cabin experience sudden pressure loss, oxygen
masks will
drop down from above your seat. Place the mask over your
mouth and
nose and pull the strap to tighten. If you are traveling with
children
or someone who requires assistance, make sure that your own
mask is
on first before helping others.
Why fit your own mask before helping others? Because if

you’re slumped
over your seat suffering from a lack of oxygen:
11
1. you can’t help anyone else, and even worse;
2. we now have to deploy scarce resources to come and help
you, otherwise
you’ll soon be dead.
12
Knowing What to Do
In his book titled The Book of Survival, Anthony Greenbank
wrote:
To live through an impossible situation, you don’t need to have
the
reflexes of a Grand Prix driver, the muscles of a Hercules, the
mind of
an Einstein. You simply need to know what to do.
The statistics vary on exactly what percentage of businesses fail
within the
first five years. Some estimates put it as high as 90%. However,
I’ve never
seen this statistic being quoted as anything less than 50%. That
means that if
we’re being super-optimistic you have a 50 /50 chance of still
having your

doors open after five years.
However, here’s where it really gets worse. The statistics take
into account
only businesses that completely cease trading. They don’t take
into account the
businesses that plateau at a low level and slowly kill or make
the lives of their
owners miserable.
Have you ever wondered why most small businesses plateau at a
mediocre
level?
At one end of the spectrum there’s Pete the plumber who works
sixteen-
hour days, weekends and never takes holidays while barely
making enough to
keep his head above water. On the other end of the spectrum
there’s Joe who
runs a plumbing company with twenty plumbers working for
him. It seems like
his primary business activity is counting the huge sums of
money that keep
rolling in.
It’s very common for small businesses never to grow past the
point at
which they generate just enough profit for the owner(s) to make
a modest
living. It seems that no matter how hard the owner(s) try, their
efforts to get to
the next level just lead to frustration. At this point, one of two
things happens.
13

Either they get disillusioned or they just accept their fate—that
their business is
nothing more than a low-paid, self-created job.
In fact, the reality is that many business owners would probably
be better
off just finding a job in their industry. They would likely work
fewer hours,
have less stress, enjoy more benefits and have more holiday
time than in the
prison they have created for themselves. On the flip side, there
are a few
business owners that just seem to have it all. They work
reasonable hours,
have a fantastic cash flow from their enterprise and enjoy
continuous growth.
Many business owners who are struggling blame their industry.
It’s true
some industries are in decline—examples such as book stores or
video rental
stores immediately come to mind. If you are in one of these
dead or dying
industries, it may be time to cut your losses and move on rather
than torture
yourself to death financially. This may be particularly difficult
if you have been
in the industry for a long time.
However, for the most part, when people blame their industry
they are just
playing the blame game. Some of the most common industry
complaints I hear

are:
It’s too competitive.
The margins are too low.
Online discounters are taking customers away.
Advertising no longer works.
However, it’s rarely the industry that is truly to blame; after all
there are
others in that same industry that are doing very well. So, the
obvious question
is, what are they doing differently?
Many small business owners fall into the trap described in
Michael
Gerber’s classic book, The E-Myth Revisited. That is, they are a
technician,
for example, a plumber, hairdresser, dentist and so on, and they
are good at
what they do. They have what Gerber describes as an
“entrepreneurial
seizure” and they start to think to themselves, “Why should I
work for this idiot
boss of mine? I’m good at what I do—I’ll start my own
business.”
14
This is one of THE major mistakes made by most small business
ow ners. They go from working for an idiot boss to becoming an
idiot boss!
Here is the key point—just because you’re good at the technical
thing you do
doesn’t mean that you are good at the business of what you do.

So going back to our example, a good plumber is not necessarily
the best
person to run a plumbing business. This is a vitally important
distinction to
note and is a key reason that most small businesses fail. The
owner of the
business may have excellent technical skills but it’s his lack of
business skills
that causes his business to fail.
This is not meant to discourage people from starting their own
businesses.
However, you must resolve to become good at the business of
what you do—
not just the technical thing you do. A business can be an
amazing vehicle for
achieving financial freedom and personal fulfillment—but only
for those who
understand and master this vital distinction and figure out what
they need to do
to run a successful business.
If you’re good at the technical thing of what you do but feel like
you could
benefit from some help on the business side, then you’re in the
right place at
the right time. The whole point of this book is to take you from
confusion to
clarity—so you know exactly what to do to have business
success.
15

Professionals Have Plans
As a kid my favorite TV show was The A-Team. In case you’ve
never watched
it, I’ll give you the executive summary of 99% of the episodes:
1. Bad guys harass and threaten an innocent person or group.
2. The innocent person or group begs and pleads with the A-
Team to help
them.
3. The A-Team (a motley bunch of ex-soldiers) fight, humiliate
and drive
away the bad guys.
Episodes would invariably end with Hannibal (the brains of the
A-Team)
chomping down on his cigar and triumphantly mumbling, “I
love it when a plan
comes together.”
16
Look at any profession where the stakes are high and you’ll see
a well-
thought-out plan being followed. Professionals never just w ing
it.
Doctors follow a treatment plan.
Airline pilots follow a flight plan.
Soldiers follow a military operation plan.
How would you feel about engaging the services of any of the

above
professions if the practitioner were to say to you, “Screw the
plan. I’ll just
wing it.” Yet, this is exactly what most business owners do.
Invariably, when someone makes a mess of something it often
becomes
clear in the aftermath that they didn’t have a plan. Don’t let that
be you and
your business. While no one can guarantee your success, having
a plan
dramatically increases your probability of success.
Just like you wouldn’t want to be on a plane where the pilot
hadn’t
bothered with a flight plan, you don’t want you and your family
relying on a
business for which you haven’t bothered with a business plan.
Often the stakes
are almost as high. Marriages, partnerships, jobs and more are
often the
casualties of failed businesses.
It’s more than just your ego on the line so it’s time to “go pro”
and create a
plan.
17
The Wrong Kind of Plan
Early into my first business, I was smart enough to identify that
a business plan
was going to be important to my success. Unfortunately, that’s

where my smarts
ended.
With the help of a business consultant (who’d never actually
run a
successful business of his own), I ended up many thousands of
dollars poorer
but had a document that most business owners never bother
with—a business
plan.
My business plan was many hundreds of pages long. It had
graphs, charts,
projections and much, much more. It was an awesome-looking
document but
essentially was a bunch of nonsense.
After it was written, I shoved it in the top drawer of my desk
and never
saw it again until the day we were moving offices and I had to
clean out my
desk.
I dusted it off, flicked through it and tossed it in the trash,
angry at myself
about the money I’d wasted on that phony baloney consultant.
However, later when I thought about it more carefully, I
realized that while
the document itself was a bunch of nonsense, the process I went
through with
the consultant was valuable in clarifying some of the key
elements in my
business, particularly one key section of it called “the
marketing plan.”

In fact, a lot of what we did to create the marketing plan shaped
the
business and created much of our future success.
More on this in a moment but for now let me introduce a man
and his
concept that’s going to be the key to your business success.
18
My Friend Vilfredo Pareto and the 80/20 Rule
I never had the privilege of meeting Vilfredo Pareto, mostly
because he died
over half a century before I was born, but I’m sure we would
have been best
buds.
Pareto was an Italian economist who noticed that 80% of the
land in Italy
was owned by 20% of the population. Hence the Pareto
Principle, commonly
known as the 80 /20 rule, was born.
It turns out, the 80 /20 rule holds true for more than just land
ownership in
Italy. It holds true for almost anything you care to think of.
Some examples:
80% of a company’s profits come from 20% of its customers.
80% of road traffic accidents are caused by 20% of drivers.
80% of software usage is by 20% of users.
80% of a company’s complaints come from 20% of its
customers.

80% of wealth is owned by 20% of people.
Woody Allen even noted that 80% of success is showing up.
In other words, the Pareto Principle predicts that 80% of effects
come from 20% of causes.
Maybe it’s just my laziness talking but this gets me seriously
excited.
It’s often said that necessity is the mother of invention but I’d
argue that
laziness is, and my friend Vilfredo is my mentor in that pursuit.
So essentially, you can cut out 80% of the stuff you’re doing,
sit on the
couch eating nachos instead and you’ll still get most of the
results you’re
getting.
If you don’t want to sit on the couch chowing down on nachos
80% of the
time, then doing more of the 20% stuff is your fast track to
success. And in this
context, success = more money while doing less work.
19
20
The 64/4 Rule
If you think the 80 /20 rule is exciting, the 64 /4 rule will blow

your mind.
You see we can apply the 80 /20 rule to the rule itself. So we
take 80% of 80
and 20% of 20 and end up with the 64 /4 rule.
So 64% of effects come from 4% of causes.
Put another way, the majority of your success comes from the
top 4% of
your actions. Or put yet another way, 96% of the stuff you do is
a w aste of
time (comparatively).
The most surprising thing is that the 80 /20 rule and 64 /4 rule
still hold up
in a remarkably accurate way. If you look at wealth distribution
statistics from
the last century, you’ll notice that the top 4% own about 64% of
the wealth, and
the top 20% own about 80% of the wealth. This is despite this
being the
“information age.” You’d imagine that a hundred years ago only
the wealthy
had good access to information, hence it’s understandable why
they held 80%
of the wealth. Yet this wealth distribution statistic still holds up
today, an age
where information has been democratized and where even the
poorest people
have pretty much the same access to information as the
wealthiest people.
This proves that lack of information isn’t the issue holding back
the bottom
80% of business owners—it’s human behavior and mindset.
That certainly

hasn’t changed in the last 100 years.
1
21
The Best Kept Secret of the Rich
In my observation of and work with numerous business owners
around the
world, there’s one thing that differentiates the wildly successful
and wealthy
ones from the struggling and broke.
Struggling business owners will spend time to save money,
whereas
successful business owners will spend money to save time. Why
is that an
important distinction? Because you can always get more money,
but you can
never get more time. So you need to ensure the stuff you spend
your time on
makes the biggest impact.
This is called leverage and leverage is the best kept secret of
the rich.
These big impacting, leveraged activities are the things that
make up the
key 20% of the 80 /20 rule and the 4% of the 64 /4 rule.
If you want more success, you need to start paying attention to
and expand
the things that give you the most leverage.

There are various areas of your business where you could start
looking for
leverage points. You may look at getting 50% better at your
negotiation skills.
This, in turn, may help you renegotiate with key suppliers and
get an
incremental improvement in your buy price. While this is great,
at the end of
the day after all that time and effort you’ve still just improved
your bottom line
incrementally. This is not what I’d call massive leverage. We
want exponential
improvement, not incremental.
By far the biggest leverage point in any business is marketing.
If
you get 10% better at marketing, this can have an exponential or
multiplying
effect on your bottom line.
Willie Sutton was a prolific American bank robber. During his
forty-year
criminal career he stole millions of dollars and eventually spent
more than half
of his adult life in prison—and also managed to escape three
times. Sutton was
asked by reporter Mitch Ohnstad why he robbed banks.
According to Ohnstad,
he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” When it comes
to business the
22

reason we want to focus so heavily on marketing is the same—
because that’s
w here the money is.
23
Applying the 80/20 and 64/4 Rules—
Your Marketing Plan
Back to my earlier story about the wrong type of business plan.
While my
business plan document ended up being a useless mess of
management speak
and nonsense, the part of the business planning process that
proved hugely
valuable to me was creating the marketing plan.
The marketing plan ended up being the 20% part of the business
planning
process that produced 80% of the result.
This has been the case in every business I’ve started and run
since then.
With this in mind when I started coaching small business
owners, a large
part of my focus was getting them to create a marketing plan.
Guess what? Very few of them ever carried through with it.
Why? Because
creating a marketing plan was a complex, laborious process that
most small
business owners simply won’t do.

So, again, laziness becomes the mother of invention. I needed a
way to take
the core essence of the marketing planning process and make it
simple,
practical and useful to small business owners. The 1-Page
Marketing Plan was
born.
The 1-Page Marketing Plan is the 4% of effort that generates
64% (or
more) of the result in your business. It’s the 64 /4 rule applied
to business
planning. Using this process, we can boil down hundreds of
pages and
thousands of hours of traditional business planning into a single
page that can
take as little as 30 minutes to think about and fill in.
Even more exciting is that it becomes a living document in your
business.
One that you can stick on the wall of your office and refer to
and refine over
time. Most of all, it’s practical. There’s no management speak
or jargon to
understand. You don’t need an MBA to create it or understand
it.
The 1-Page Marketing Plan has been a marketing
implementation
breakthrough. I’ve seen compliance rates among coaching
clients significantly
24

improve. Small business owners who would have never had the
time, money
or know-how to create a traditional marketing plan now have
one. As a result,
they’ve reaped the massive benefits that come from having
clarity around their
marketing.
I’ll introduce the 1-Page Marketing Plan shortly, but first I
think it would be
valuable to start at the beginning and not assume anything.
Marketing itself is a
vague term that is poorly understood even by so-called
professionals and
experts in the industry.
So let’s quickly get a quick and simple understanding of what
marketing
actually is.
25
What Is Marketing?
Some people think marketing is advertising or branding or some
other vague
concept. While all these are associated with marketing, they are
not one and
the same.
Here’s the simplest, most jargon-free definition of marketing
you’re ever
likely to come across:

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying
“Circus Coming
to the Showground Saturday,” that’s advertising.
If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into
town, that’s
promotion.
If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed and the
local
newspaper writes a story about it, that’s publicity.
And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public
relations.
If the town’s citizens go to the circus, you show them the many
entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have
spending money at the
booths, answer their questions and, ultimately, they spend a lot
at the circus,
that’s sales.
And if you planned the whole thing, that’s marketing.
Yup, it’s as simple as that—marketing is the strategy you use
for getting
your ideal target market to know you, like you and trust you
enough to become
a customer. All the stuff you usually associate with marketing
are tactics.
We’ll talk more about strategy vs. tactics in a moment.
However, before we do that you need to understand that a
fundamental shift
has occurred in the last decade and things will never be the
same.

26
The Answers Have Changed
Albert Einstein was once giving an exam paper to his graduating
class. It
turned out that it was the exact same exam paper he had given
them the
previous year. His teaching assistant, alarmed at what he saw
and thinking it to
be the result of the professor’s absentmindedness, alerted
Einstein.
“Excuse me, sir,” said the shy assistant, not quite sure how to
tell
the great man about his blunder.
“Yes?” said Einstein.
“Um, eh, it’s about the test you just handed out.”
Einstein waited patiently.
“I’m not sure if you realize it, but this is the same test you gave
out last year. In fact, it’s identical.”
Einstein paused to think for a moment, then said, “Yes, it is the
same test but the answers have changed.”
Just as the answers in physics change as new discoveries are
made, so too
do the answers in business and in marketing.
Once upon a time, you placed an ad in the Yellow Pages, paid
them a

truckload of money and your marketing for the year was done.
Now you have
Google, social media, blogs, websites and a myriad of other
things to think
about.
The Internet has literally opened up a world of competitors.
Whereas
previously your competitors may have been across the road,
now they can be
on the other side of the globe.
As a result of this, many who are trying to market their business
become
paralyzed by the “bright shiny object syndrome.” This is where
they get caught
up in whatever the currently “hot” marketing tactics are like
SEO, video,
podcasting, pay per click advertising, and so on.
27
They get caught up with tools and tactics and never figure out
the big
picture of what they’re actually trying to do and why.
Let me show you why this will lead to a world of pain.
28
Strategy vs. Tactics

Understanding the difference between strategy and tactics is
absolutely key to
marketing success.
Strategy is the big-picture planning you do prior to the tactics.
Imagine
you’ve bought an empty block of land and want to build a
house. Would you
just order a pile of bricks and then just start laying them? Of
course not. You’d
end up with a big old mess that likely wasn’t safe.
So what do you do instead? You hire a builder and an architect
first and
they plan everything out from the major stuff like getting
building permits,
down to what kind of tap fittings you’d like. All of this is
planned prior to a
single shovel of dirt being moved. That’s strategy.
Then, once you have your strategy, you know how many bricks
you need,
where the foundation goes and what kind of roof you’re going
to have. Now
you can hire a bricklayer, carpenter, plumber, electrician and so
on. That’s
tactics.
You can’t do anything worthwhile successfully without both
strategy and
tactics.
Strategy without tactics leads to paralysis by analysis. No
matter how good
the builder and the architect are, the house isn’t going to get
built until someone

starts laying bricks. At some stage they’re going to need to say,
“Okay, the
blueprint is now good. We’ve got all the necessary approvals to
build so let’s
get started.”
Tactics without strategy leads to the “bright shiny object
syndrome.”
Imagine you started building a wall without any plans and then
later found out
that it was in the wrong place, so you start pouring the
foundation and then you
find out it’s not right for this type of house, so you start
excavating the area
where you want the pool but that isn’t right either. This clearly
isn’t going to
work. Yet this is exactly how many business owners do
marketing. They string
together a bunch of random tactics in the hope that what they’re
doing will lead
29
to a customer. They whack up a website without much thought
and it ends up
being an online version of their brochure or they start
promoting on social
media because they heard that’s the latest thing and so on.
You need both strategy and tactics to be successful but strategy
must come
first and it dictates the tactics you use. This is where your
marketing plan
comes in. Think of your marketing plan as the architect’s

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