STREETWORKING: CHALLENGES OF DEINSTITUTIONALIZATION AND PROFESSIONALIZATION OF COMMUNITY OUTREACH PRACTICE

<ns3:p>The article presents the reality of street work based on existing data and information from sources such as reports, articles, books, websites and databases. It discusses examples of concepts utilizing the ideas of empowerment and fostering positive change include, among others, a solution oriented approach, harm reduction approach, the accompaniment principle or an approach based on the creation and development of ‚hard to reach’ communities. This article examines the challenges surrounding deinstitutionalization and professionalization of the street-level work. On the one hand, street work as individualized community outreach practice allows for empowerment, personalization, formatting assistance to a person’s needs, fitting into the rhetoric of deinstitutionalization. Simultaneously, great importance is attached to standards in contemporary street work and new forms of professionalization of the street workers’ job. They involve a shift towards hybrid professionalism, where traditional occupational standards are adapted and integrated with new demands and contexts. The goal of considerations was to show the processual nature of the changes, that focus on developing and promoting new, diverse and socially desirable - inclusive and activating - principles of organizing support at the community level.</ns3:p>