Crowdfunding Conference Participation for Social Work Service Users
This paper presents a project proposal for using crowdfunding platforms — specifically Kickstarter — to finance the participation of service users in national and international social work and disability services conferences. The proposal addresses the gap between the stated commitment to service user involvement in social work and the practical reality of their exclusion from major professional conferences. It outlines the project's aims, theory of change, logic model framework, resource requirements, and an estimated pilot-year budget of £44,000. A monitoring and evaluation plan using both theory of change and logic model approaches is described, along with appendices detailing the project logic model and fundraising cost structure.
- Introduction: Service User Voice in Social Work Conferences: Problem of service user exclusion from conferences
- Aims and Objectives: Pilot model for disability service user participation
- Theory of Change: TOC framework guiding project planning and evaluation
- Time-Frame and Scale: Four conferences, two users each, one year
- Resources and Funding: Staffing, in-kind contributions, and £44,000 budget
- Project Monitoring and Evaluation: Logic model and TOC for outcomes measurement
- Conclusion and Project Summary: Summary, costs, and coordinator's role
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What makes this paper effective
- The proposal grounds its rationale in documented real-world evidence — citing the attendance gap at the 2014 Melbourne and 2013 Stockholm conferences — making the problem concrete and credible.
- The use of both a theory of change (TOC) and a logic model framework demonstrates methodological rigor and shows that the author understands how strategic planning and tactical program management interact.
- The itemized budget breakdown (per conference, per participant, plus platform fees) gives the proposal practical credibility and transparency that abstract cost estimates lack.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates backward mapping as a planning methodology: beginning with the desired long-term outcome (funded service user representation at four conferences) and working backward to identify the specific preconditions, interventions, and indicators required. This technique, borrowed from policy implementation evaluation, is clearly explained and consistently applied throughout the proposal sections.
Structure breakdown
The paper follows a standard project proposal structure: problem statement and background, aims, theoretical and methodological framework (TOC), scope and timeline, resource and budget sections, and a monitoring and evaluation plan. A summary section (Part B) recaps the core proposal elements concisely. Appendices provide the complete logic model and fundraising cost details. The structure moves logically from problem to solution to evaluation, making it easy to follow and suitable as a model for students learning to write project proposals.
Introduction: Service User Voice in Social Work Conferences
Reporting on the Joint World Social Work Conference held in Melbourne, Australia, Peter Beresford wrote, "There are fears that policymakers have lost interest in ensuring the users of care services have their voices heard" (Beresford, 2014). Social workers established the involvement of service users and carers as a key priority in social service, pioneering efforts to advance user involvement on an international level (Beresford, 2014). As a profession, social work has led service user and carer engagement in education, policy, practice, and research (Beresford, 2014). The long-term impact goal of these efforts has been to equalize relationships between service providers and service users as a means of tapping into their experiential knowledge for the purposes of fostering authentic co-production and improving service provision (Beresford, 2014).
That interest in these goals appears to be waning was manifested by the attendance at the Joint World Social Work Conference in 2014, which is a key global event for the social work profession (Beresford, 2014). Academics were well represented at the conference, but very few service users and currently practicing face-to-face service providers were in attendance (Beresford, 2014). This pattern also held true at the global conference event held in Stockholm, Sweden, the year before (Beresford, 2014).
The Swedish organization PowerUs holds gap mending as a primary initiative. Gap mending is the name for inclusionary approaches that bring about more equal practice by including service users and making provision for their participation. Mutual learning situations foster gap mending, and PowerUs has developed a model in which social work students and students who come from service user organizations study together. Membership in the Social Work Action Network (SWAN) consists of social work practitioners, academics, students, and social welfare service users who are united in their concerns about social justice and the undermining of social work activity by marketization and managerialism, and the resultant stigmatization of service users. Shaping Our Lives is a user-controlled UK organization for people with disabilities that has published a report, Beyond the Usual Suspects, directed toward all people who wish to be more involved in — and have a say over — their lives and the services they depend on.
The policy and practice problem is that service user representation at social service national and international conferences does not align with the professed visions and rhetoric about increased, effective, and meaningful involvement of service users. Often, when service users do manage to find a place in conferences — either as presenters or members of panels — they have done so on their own initiative and funded their own way.
This project would help to fund participation in service-related national conferences by service users as representatives of their population group. The purpose is to ensure authentic and meaningful representation, giving a voice to service users, which is integral to the conference mission and process. A project coordinator and an assistant videographer would facilitate the process of obtaining funds to support service user participation by utilizing online Kickstarter and crowd-sourcing web-based platforms.
The purpose is both to obtain the funds for representation of service users and to legitimize service user participation by ensuring that conference sponsor or host organizations pursue funding, rather than placing that burden on service users, who are generally economically constrained. The project will be organized under IRS 501(c)(3) non-profit status in order to receive in-kind contributions and funding from public and private sources.
Aims and Objectives
The project is intended to serve as both a pilot and a demonstration model for facilitating the participation of service users in the educational conferences and outreach of organizations and member associations in the disability service area, and eventually in other types of service areas. The focus of the demonstration project is disability services, as that is the area in which the proposed project coordinator works.
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