Social Work Commons^™

E-Advocacy In Human Services, Lauri Goldkind

Social Service Faculty Publications

E-advocacy, or the constellation of electronic tools used for policy advocacy, offer cost-effective approaches for engaging constituents to create social change. Providers of human services may face challenges when trying to implement these tools. While many electronic tools have low barriers for entry, other factors may inhibit their use in agencies. This article explores the organizational characteristics related to the use of electronic advocacy strategies. Based on a survey of nonprofit executives, the study uses path modeling to describe the connections between organizational characteristics and the use of electronic advocacy tools. Implications of these findings are discussed.

Analyzing Health Education Training Of Human Services Students, Christine W. Thorpe

Publications and Research

Human services programs across the country are charged with training students to address social problems of individuals and families through delivering services that enhance the standard of living of all people. The coursework generally offered in accredited human services programs are within the framework of mental health and social work, yet human services workers play a critical role in health care delivery and need to convey good health practices to the clients they serve. Hence the need for human services students to have coursework in health education to develop their skills in addressing client health behavior. The purpose of this …

An Introduction To The Special Section On Professional Standards In Human Services, Tammi F. Milliken, Edward S. Neukrug

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics related to human services including accreditation, code of ethics, and assessment tool.

The Growth Of Nonprofit Accounting And It's Impact On Human Services, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Changes in nonprofit accounting standards and practices have spearheaded a quiet revolution in financial management practice in social agencies and the delivery of human services during the past three decades. These changes have gone hand-in-glove with other changes in the political arena to dramatically transform the ways in which human services are organized and delivered. At the core of this transition has been the movement from fund to enterprise accounting, together with such larger political developments as the expansion of grant-based relations with government into the performance management environment of purchase of service contracting.

Silverwire, University Of Maine Center On Aging

Maine Center on Aging Education and Training

The Silverwire Newsletter is a publication that highlights the work of the UMaine Center on Aging. The topics covered in this edition of the Silverware Newsletter include the plans of the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services to visit Maine, new grants and filled positions, the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Summit for Grand families, the Legal Colloquium, and older adult alcohol abuse needs, resources, and readiness assessment analysis.

Multiple Roles Of A Rural Administrator, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Basic administrative procedures are similar in rural and urban areas. Even so, rural human service administrators are often not prepared for the many roles they must assume in small and underfunded rural agencies. The roles may include personnel director, budget officer, accountant, fundraiser, supervisor, building and maintenance supervisor, volunteer coordinator, group developer, community organizer, public educator, policy analyst, and director of public relations and marketing.

Partnerships Of Nonprofit Organizations And Business For The Development Of Community Social Welfare Activities: The American Experience, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Partnerships between traditionally non-profit social services (the theme of the conference), funded by various donative arrangements and subsidized by government contracts, and any type of commercial business ventures are still relative rare in the mainstream of U.S. social work today. We can identify three distinct positions on the question among scholars in the U.S. today: A general management perspective found in business schools, a public affairs perspective found in schools of public administration, and two perspectives among social workers. The vast majority of those social work have undoubtedly never heard of this issue. Yet, a very small portion of social …

Online Fundraising In The Human Services, Jerry D. Marx

Social Work

This paper examines emerging possibilities for use of the Internet in human service fundraising. Human service managers must compete for limited funds with their counterparts in educational, religious, health, and other nonprofit organizations. There is enormous potential for raising funds over the Internet; yet, this approach to resource development may not be appropriate or effective in some instances for certain human service agencies. The selection of fundraising approach must be consistent with the organizational context in which it is used. This paper provides examples of cases where use of the Internet may prove to be an effective method for human …

Rural Social Work Bibliography (1999), Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This bibliography was assembled in response to a request from OUP for a rural bibliography on their website prior to publication of our edited book on Rural Social Work Practice (Oxford University Press. 2005).

Cost Measurement, Roger A. Lohmann, Nancy Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This article, which originally appeared in the 1997 Supplement to the Encyclopedia of Social Work is an overview and introduction to cost concepts as they are used in social work and human services. A few important ideas and concepts that have come into the picture since the original publication have been added to this version.

Human Services: Australian Explorations, David Wiles

Research outputs pre 2011

Human services is an emergent field of study and work in Australia. Its definition is difficult, needing ongoing theoretical and empirical clarification. Despite the contemporary decline of the Australian welfare state; human services has emerged in cultural congruence with historic Australian notions of a 'fair go', of social equity, and of social egalitarianism. Human services constitutes a nascent profession, which - in the main - helps people with problems including mostly members of the social 'underclass'. Human services draws upon a variety of models, but the generic 'problem-solving' methodology applies across all of its fields of service. Thus human service …

Service Centers: The Neglected Role Of The Town, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The dichotomy of urban and rural areas does not fit the circumstances of contemporary social life in the United States. Although needy populations redistributed across the social landscape, almost no social service agencies serving rural populations are, or ever have been, located in either urban (city) or rural (countryside) areas. Social agencies serving rural populations are nearly always located in towns. The town is a unique and distinctive rural social, economic and political institution. An adequate approach to conceptualizing rural social work must begin with recognition of one of the fundamental insights of contemporary urban theory: the regional character of …

Social Planning And The Problems Of Old Age, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper includes a review of the evolution of social planning in the context of human services. It also includes an elaboration of nine approaches to social planning for aging services: community planning councils, the aging network, Title XX planning, state health planning, service reorganization initiatives, the national network of policy institutes, long-term care planning and housing planning. The paper concludes with a consideration of social planning technology, including needs assessment, resource analysis, comparison of alternatives, determination of priorities, implementation and evaluation. It concludes that social planning has been a primary tool in the long-term development of new institutions and …

Finances And The Social Settlement: The Management Of Hull House, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The development of social welfare history has powerful implications for the study of community practice theory. This historical study examines the Hull House social settlement as an actual, working social service establishment, rather than simply the stage for the activities of its most famous resident, Jane Addams. Hull House is examined as an organization, a campus, and a pioneering set of social programs. Its incorporation, by-laws are examined and all board members serving during Addams' 40 years there are identified. Various aspects of dealing with important donors, cash flows from donations and accountability issues are identified and discussed, as are …

The Executive Director As Keeper Of The Past, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper outlines a rationale for the materials which ought to be preserved by executives of local agencies, identifies some of the legal issues involved in record keeping for historical issues and resources available at local and state levels and discusses access issues.

Normalisation Training Project: An Evaluation Study, Rod Underwood

Research outputs pre 2011

The Normalisation Training Project was funded by the Commonwealth Department of Community Services and Health for a period of twelve months during 1987. Under the auspices of the Centre for the Development of Human Resources of the Western Australian College of Advanced Education the Project provided eight training workshops for human service workers on the principles of Normalisation.

There were two types of workshops. A two-day programme was offered on "An Introduction to Normalisation (Social Role Valorisation)". These workshops were introductory and designed for people who had only limited exposure to the principles of Normalisation. Participants examined many of the …

The Social Work Scholar: An Integrated Approach To Computing In Social Work Education, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is a progress report of a set of personal professional development efforts by a faculty member at a school of social work in a state land-grant university. The common theme of this effort is applications of available computer technology to the ordinary faculty tasks of teaching, research and public service over a 15-year period.

A Commentary On Unicorns And Efficiency, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The issue of efficiency in human services parallels in many respects the principle that unicorns should receive fair treatment. People have paid lip service to the idea that human services should be delivered efficiently for most of the last century. Yet, in all of that time there has not been a single study published showing clearly whether a particular instance of service delivery was, or was not, efficient.The underlying issues involved in defining and measuring efficient service delivery are complex and difficult and administrators, boards and other stakeholders have typically done little more than pay lip service to the idea.

Breaking Even: Preface To The Revised Edition, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Breaking Even: Financial Management in Nonprofit Human Services (Temple University Press. 1980) was the first book-length discussion of nonprofit financial management ever published in English. This preface was prepared, along with several new or rewritten chapters and additional changes for a possible revised edition of the book. The publisher decided not to do a second edition and the original first edition continued to sell in its small market niche for 25 years.

Private Human Services In Welfare Society, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is an effort to propose a moderately optimistic future for the personal care sector of human services. It is proposed that the best available future scenario for personal care services between now and the year 2019 is to concentrate on privatization of service delivery on a small-scale basis. Government, in this model should be limited largely to three roles: 1) source of venture capital; 2) regulation of service delivery; and 3) income maintenance for the poorest populations. In this future, the main burden of personal care services will be carried by the private sector. Dramatic improvements in the …

Resource Development: Is There A Case For Commercial Personal Care Services?, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The years since 1980 have been particularly troublesome and challenging for human service leaders at all levels in the United States. If the human services are to rediscover the future and with it a viable program for meeting identified needs, some acceptable alternative to the progressive vision of a service state must evolve.

Social Work Practice With The Rural Aged, Nancy Lohmann, Roger A. Lohmann, Ellen Netting

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Approximately 27 percent of America’s aged live in rural areas. Despite similar problems, however, there are substantial differences in the nature of human services designed to meet these needs in cities and rural areas. This chapter examines rural problems and services in health, income, housing and social integration. In addition, unique rural issues of community outreach and professional relationships in rural areas are examined.

Natural Language Processing And Computer Use In Social Work, Roger A. Lohmann, Jay Wolvovsky

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Can computers do social work? Can social workers do computers? This article seeks to outline a text-oriented approach to answering these questions through an approach labeled Natural Language Processing.

The Politics Of Aging And Rural Social Services: An Exploratory Analysis, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The advent of federal funding for rural social services during the late 1960s and 1970s brought about changes in the political organization of rural America. A host of new organizational actors, like Area Agencies on Aging and various local aging agencies were created in rural communities across the country, in the wake of Baker v. Carr with its “one man/one vote” principle and funding through programs like the Economic Opportunity Act and the Older Americans Act. This article details a leadership succession model suggesting that local leadership of aging interests went through at least four distinct phases during this time: …

The Measurement Of Personal Influence In Organization And Community, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Discussions of personal influence in organizations and communities are ordinarily abstract and theoretical.In this paper, a practical method for the measurement of influence in interactional terms. The approach combines the use of Likert scales, sociometry and a simplified version of block modeling using matrices. The approach is illustrated with a hypothetical human service agency with a staff of seven professionals.

Matrix Analysis And Social Planning, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This study is a follow-up to an earlier (1971) proposal for the application of Input-output analysis to social planning in human services (Repository item #753), and predates current models of human services as part of the nonprofit, or third sector. The manuscript details a study of financial inputs and service outputs in human services in the United Way system of Knoxville TN, noting a variety of quantitative ratios and measures of the human services delivery system, and assessing some of the strengths and weaknesses of the matrix approach.