This conclusion presents some closing thoughts of key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book illustrates the emerging importance of social justice when developing the nonprofit leader of the future. It describes the importance of financial management skills for the nonprofit leader. The book explores the changing role of a nonprofit board that includes more accountability and a higher level of demands. It analyzes many diverse functions within the nonprofit ecosystem and discusses how social justice is now an absolutely essential skill set when developing leaders in this field. The book examines the evolution of nonprofit boards from its humble beginnings as a neighborhood organization to its current state of a more formal entity. It indicates the definition of ‘social justice’ as creating an egalitarian society that is based on equality and solidarity where human rights and the dignity of each individual is of utmost importance.

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book reviews both the management and social change skills and knowledge needed by nonprofit executives to succeed as nonprofit leaders. The value of social justice and advocacy is very important for a nonprofit leader to incorporate in the organization’s work. The book promotes an integration of business and social service with a focus on social justice advocacy, it would be ideal to have an organizational culture that is supportive of this work, that is, all staff united with a culture of care rather than complaint. Hiring and supporting a diverse workforce are inextricably linked for nonprofit leaders who want to develop and maintain a nonprofit agency committed to social justice. Our goal is to make a commitment to social justice and advocacy key to the organizational culture of the nonprofit organization.

Theories of individual and family development provide an important knowledge base for direct social work practice. These theories are particularly helpful in the data collection and assessment phase of helping because they direct the practitioner to explore the potential significance of issues that individuals and families commonly face at different stages of development. Although individual and family development theories are primarily explanatory, they often provide general ideas for intervention.

Individual and family development theories can best be studied together, as families are made up of individuals and 66% of individuals live within families. This chapter focuses specifically on the individual development theory of Erikson, and the family life cycle theory of Carter and McGoldrick within a changed and continually changing social context. There are also discussions of Kohlberg’s moral stages of development and Gilligan’s feminist perspective on moral development.

Because the United States is increasingly culturally diverse, these developmental theories are viewed through a cultural lens. Family assessment tools including the ecomap (Hartman & Laird, 1983), genogram and culturagram that can help clinicians apply development theories to their work with individuals and families are presented.

From the beginning of the profession, social workers have stressed the importance of respect for clients from diverse backgrounds. The most recent Code of Ethics advises social workers to understand cultural differences among clients, to demonstrate competence in working with people from different cultures, and to work against discrimination based on immigration status. This chapter discusses the culturagram, a family assessment instrument that grew out of the recognition that families are becoming increasingly culturally diverse and that social workers must be able to understand cultural differences among and within families. Completing a culturagram for a family can help a clinician develop a better understanding of the sociocultural context of the family, which can shed light on appropriate interventions to take with the family. The chapter examines the ten aspects of the culturagram and provides case vignettes.

Health issues and care impact all people. This chapter takes an intersectional approach in looking at people from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, as well as other intersectional factors such as social-economic status, education, age, immigrant status, and gender that impact on their health issues and access. A major factor that influences access to healthcare is immigration status. Some immigrants came when they were children and have lived in the United States for most of their lives. Other immigrants are recent arrivals and may have initially come as visitors, students, or with work permits. While children of immigrants now attend schools that teach about healthy life practices, adult migrants did not benefit from learning about preventive health measures. In addition to holding varied views on prevention, members of an immigrant family may pursue different health providers.

Family therapy is often the most value-conflicted and ethically challenging of therapies because family therapy often evokes strong countertransference of feelings in the practitioner. Although professionals may not have had the same experiences as their individual clients, almost all family therapists share a similar experience with their clients as the former have also grown up in families. This concluding chapter discusses the ethical issues and future directions of family therapy. It briefly describes how the new edition of this book integrates new research and understandings related to family therapy. In this book, there are four new chapters written by psychologists, which address important emerging issues in family therapy such as multiracial families. Furthermore, it adopts an intersectional approach to deepen the understanding of families from diverse backgrounds, a most necessary and important consideration, as the number and combination of cultures expand. The culturagram, which is a family assessment tool, has been expanded to include this intersectional approach.

This chapter looks briefly on international policies on immigrants and then focuses on immigration patterns in the United States. The importance of migration is discussed followed by a brief history of changing immigration policies. Policies are often determined by social and economic trends as well as concerns for human rights and justice. The application of these policies at the current time and its implications for social work practice and education conclude this chapter.

Effective practice with immigrants promotes their well-being and should be guided by several considerations that include a multisystem perspective, theoretical perspectives that illuminate their challenges and lived experience, and is based on family assessment and culturally competent skills. In line with this, this chapter focuses on several specific considerations. For one, there is a need to understand immigrant experiences within a multitude of considerations that include psychological, emotional, interpersonal, familial, economic, and government policy factors. Moreover, family systems and ecosystems theories are proposed to illuminate family and intergenerational dynamics, adaptation, and contextual factors that are essential to apply in the process of individualizing what is unique to immigrant clients. Perspectives such intersectionality, oppression, and cultural humility are discussed as essential for social workers to engage and work with immigrants. We emphasize how current perspectives on culturally relevant practice are premised on antioppression values and skills. Finally, we focus on the importance of practitioners having knowledge and skills in the application of the culturagram as a family assessment tool and culturally relevant, antioppression intervention with immigrants.