Social Welfare Commons^™

Exposing And Reframing Welfare Dependency, Elizabeth Bartle

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Defining the phrase welfare dependency from a feminist perspective offers a way to understand how the rhetoric around the use of this phrase continues to legitimize current changes in Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) while simultaneously diverting the public's attention from the real issues of poverty of and discrimination against women. This article includes a detailed definition of welfare dependency, a brief history of its usage, and a reconceptualization of women's use of AFDC on a long-term basis. This reconceptualization expands on international dependency theory and reframes dependency as interdependency that builds on women's strengths, women's rights, and …

Research To Practice: Disability Organizations' Perspectives On The Needs Of Youth With Disabilities Who Are Runaway Or Homeless, David Temelini, Sheila Fesko

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

Findings from a national survey of state-level disability organizations on issues regarding runaway or homeless youth who have disabilities.

Research To Practice: The Most Important Member: Facilitating The Focus Person's Participation In Person Centered Planning, Jean Whitney-Thomas, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This brief summarizes research that explored the participation of young people in person centered planning, and gives specific recommendations to assist facilitators in maximizing student participation.

Research To Practice: Building Authentic Visions: How To Support The Focus Person In Person Centered Planning, Jean Whitney-Thomas, Jaimie Ciulla Timmons

Research to Practice Series, Institute for Community Inclusion

This brief summarizes research on behavior during a planning session that increased or decreased participation of the focus person. Recommendations challenge team members to think about how their own behavior influences the focus person's participation.

Teen Mothers And The Revolving Welfare Door. Kathleen Mullan Harris

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Kathleen Mullan Harris, Teen Mothers and the Revolving Welfare Door. Philadelphia, Temple University Press, 1997. $ 39.95 hardcover.

Interfacing African American Churches With Agencies And Institutions: An Expanding Continuum Of Care With Partial Answers To Welfare Reform, Barbara W. Rogers, Douglas Ronsheim

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

It is unrealistic to presume that churches and other private charities can fill the void resulting from welfare reform (Sider,1995; Conniff, 1997); yet there are ways to structure an effective church- and community-based continuum of care that will help to do so. In this article African-American churches are viewed as major players. An explanation of the systems theory of isomorphic replication provides a key to understanding the success of this collaborative model, which addresses issues facing communities while building on their strengths and assets and reckoning with the challenges of working collaboratively. Recurring issues of race, culture, trust, and control …

Review Of Social Welfare In Global Context. James Midgley. Reviewed By Cryl Abrahams, University Of Calgary., Cryl Abrahams

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

James Midgley, Social Welfare in Global Context. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. 1997, $ 52.00 hardcover, $ 24.95 papercover.

Armut : Der Mensch Lebt Nicht Vom Brot Allein : Wege Zur Soziokulturellen Existenzsicherung, Isidor Wallimann, Susanne Schmid

Books

While the usual discussion about the poverty of the minimum financial security speaks, the authors ask what it could mean for to be living in a secure socio-cultural minimum. The fact is that poverty can be both "caused" by various forms of exclusion, as well as the socio-cultural exclusion promotes or "causes".

1996 Welfare Reform: Effects On Single-Parent Families In Rural Minnesota, Philip M. Kern

Honors Theses, 1963-2015

In 1996, historic legislation redirected and changed our national system of welfare, a structure that had been in place for over 60 years. Despite minor tinkering in various years since the 1960s, the distribution of welfare in this country for the most part has fallen under the same guidelines since its creation. However, the recent changes, at both the national and state levels, will have a profound impact on the lives of the most disadvantaged Americans. In this thesis, I will explain the 1996 national and state welfare reform laws and how they fail to provide the necessary solutions for …

Walking The Walk: An Affirmative Action Plan For Moving Welfare Parents Into The Workplace, Shauna Marshall

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Welfare "Reform": Com'in' Up On The Rough Side Of The Mountain, Loretta J. Williams, Roland Ward, Attieno Davis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Through the lens of an innovative community-university partnership in the Greater Boston region, the authors analyze how welfare reform organizing overtook a resident-driven empowerment project. Since a major goal of the Chelsea/Dudley Partnership in MA is to support residents in exerting greater power over the practices and policies of community agencies, projects have been initiated in the city of Chelsea and the Dudley neighborhood of Boston to organize, and to strengthen, low income women by training them as welfare advocates. This paper examines how the efforts evolved, and how the community and the university partners are playing a key role …

Four Commentaries: How We Can Better Protect Children From Abuse And Neglect, Leroy H. Pelton

Social Work Faculty Research

The fundamental structure of the public child welfare system is that of a coercive apparatus wrapped in a helping orientation. Agencies ostensibly having the mission to help are mandated to ask whether parents can be blamed for their child welfare problems, and these agencies have the power to remove children from their homes. Thus, the public child welfare agency has a dual-role structure: On one hand, the agency attempts to engage in prevention and support, and to promote family preservation; on the other hand, it also has the task of investigating complaints against parents and removing children from them. This …

The Educational Needs Of Welfare Recipients And The Role Of The Community College As An Agent Of Social Change, Carolyn L. Browning

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate two underlying questions related to welfare reform and its impact on participants in the Cumberland Plateau Region: (1) What are the training and other noneducational needs of the participants in the VIEW program? and (2) What is the projected success of the impact of the training on the lives of the participants? The research study included 47 interviews with four distinct groups of individuals--VIEW participants, case managers, administrators, and trainers. Three focus group interviews were conducted with individuals who were participants in the VIEW program or professionals actively involved in the administration …

Human Services: A Discussion Paper, David Wiles

Research outputs pre 2011

Human services is an emergent field of study and work in Australia. Its definition is complex, needing continuing 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, particularly including members of the social 'underclass'. With much of its origins in volunteerism and the voluntary sector, human service organisational theory is now developing, and is helping workers and students …

Incommensurability And Cost-Benefit Analysis, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Law And Incommensurability: Introduction, Matthew D. Adler

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Trends. Political Psychologies Of Welfare, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses the pros and cons of government welfare programs.

The Use Of Profiling To Target Services In State Welfare-To-Work Programs: An Example Of Process And Implementation, Randall W. Eberts

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

The purpose of this paper is to provide preliminary information about the design of a pilot project to test the efficacy of profiling and referring welfare-to-work participants. Welfare reform requires welfare recipients, with few exceptions, to participate in work activities and ultimately become economically self-sufficient. Welfare recipients possess a wide variation in job readiness skills, ranging from those who are ready and able to work to those who face significant barriers to employment. The challenge of the local administrator of welfare-to-work programs is to target services to those who need them the most. Yet, most programs provide the same services …

Trends. Mother Teresa And The War On Poverty, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses Mother Teresa's views on poverty.

Eastward Ho: Issues And Options In Regional Development For The Metropolitan Boston Region, Robert C. Wood, Laura C. Ghirardini, Lori L. Prew, Aundrea Kelley

McCormack Graduate School General Publications (active until 2013)

Conventional wisdom suggests that the basic job of public policy studies (and public institutions, for that matter) is to deal in a timely and practical fashion with pressing public issues of the day. The focus typically is on 'ripe' topics, 'hot' political problems. If a study can be ahead of the curve, in John Kingdon's apt phrase "an idea whose time has come," so much the better. But unlike more traditional academic research, where the focus is timeless — i.e., an explanation of previously inexplicable phenomena, timeliness is a prime reason for initiating a policy study.

In this context, analyzing …

The Future Of The Third Sector, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The U.S. "nonprofit sector" and other forms of contemporary national third sectors which are currently spreading around the world arose in a unique historical moment and for distinct historical reasons and are unlikely to outlast that moment in history. Voluntary action on the other hand has deep roots reaching far back in human history and is likely to be around far into the future.

A Man Without A Job Is A Dead Man: The Meaning Of Work And Welfare In The Lives Of Young Men, Kathleen A. Kost

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Little is known about the use of welfare by young men as most research and debate have concentrated on the use of welfare by families headed by single women. This research includes young men in this debate by examining the personal characteristics, events that precipitated their use, why they exited, and the barriers they faced in obtaining employment. Data are from qualitative interviews of 20 young men who resided in Madison, Wisconsin. Findings suggest that these men use General Assistance as a type of unemployment insurance between jobs. Policy, program and research recommendations are made regarding the need for assistance …

African-American Facilities For Dependent And Delinquent Children In Chicago, 1900 To 1920: The Louise Juvenile School And The Amanda Smith School, Anne Meis Knupfer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article examines two "homes" and later industrial schools founded in the Chicago area for African-American dependent and delinquent children during the Progressive Era: the Louise Juvenile Home and Industrial School; and the Amanda Smith Industrial Home and School. The juvenile court's inception and expansion, especially through the Chicago Woman's Club, as well as African-American club women and probation officers, is first described. The African-American women's activism in fighting segregation and in fund-raising for the schools is especially highlighted. Nonetheless, both schools' success, as well as eventual demise, were due largely to their economic dependence upon the juvenile court.

A Snapshot Of Individuals And Families Accessing Boston's Emergency Homeless Shelters, 1997, Donna Friedman, Michelle Hayes, John Mcgah, Anthony Roman

Center for Social Policy Publications

This document summarizes key findings from a survey conducted on March 19, 1997 with 338 homeless individuals and 94 families sheltered or served by 33 of 40 shelter programs in the City of Boston. The data presented in this report were collected at one point in time. Point in time data results in an overrepresentation of the "longer term" homeless, and offers limited insight regarding the structural dynamics underlying movement from homelessness to residential stability (Culhane, Lee, Wachter, 1996; White, 1996). However, it does provide a snapshot of the men, women, and children who were spending the night in a …

Welfare Plastic: The Transformation Of Public Assistance In The Electronic Age, Mark Peyrot, William L. Harris, L. Mickey Fenzel, John J. Burbridge

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Several states have developed electronic benefit transfer (EBT) systems to deliver cash assistance and food stamp benefits. These systems establish electronic account balances which recipients access through the use of a debit card at terminals such as bank automatic teller machines or transaction authorization machines like those that validate credit card charges. We examine the potential effects of such systems on involved stakeholders, including government agencies, benefit recipients, financial institutions, and food retailers. Overall, each stakeholder group benefits from EBT, but some subgroups do not fare as well. Several key issues are identified.

An Afrocentric Perspective On Social Welfare Philosophy And Policy, Jerome H. Schiele

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although much of the literature on American social welfare philosophy and policy is progressive and sincere in its objectives to dismantle poverty and economic oppression, the literature is limited in two important areas: 1) identifying American social welfare philosophy and policy as primarily Eurocentric in its worldview, and 2) applying the cultural values of people of color as a conceptual base to advance and diversify views on social welfare philosophy and policy. To address this gap, this paper draws on the viewpoints of a cadre of social scientists called Afrocentrists and applies the Afrocentric worldview to deseribe how it conceives …

Short-Run Employment Persistence For Welfare Recipients: The "Effects" Of Wages, Industry, Occupation, And Firm Size, Timothy J. Bartik

Reports

No abstract provided.

Short-Term Employment Persistence For Welfare Recipients: The "Effects" Of Wages, Industry, Occupation And Firm Size, Timothy J. Bartik

Upjohn Institute Working Papers

Using data from 13 years (1983-95) of the March Current Population Survey, this study examines how the types of jobs held by welfare mothers during the preceding year affects their employment and earnings at the time of the March interview. The estimates suggest that the wages of last year's job affect current employment and earnings, but the effects of wages are more modest than might be expected. The industry and occupation of last year's job make a great deal of difference, with industry being more important than occupation. The industries with the most positive effects on current employment are hospitals …

The Relationship Between Social Support And Professional Burnout Among Public Secondary School Teachers In Northeast Tennessee, Jackie C. Walker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teaching is reported to be a stressful occupation and social support is thought to mediate stress. The purpose of the study was to identify relationships between the level of professional burnout and social support of high school teachers in Northeast Tennessee. In this correlational study, a sample of 228 secondary school teachers in Northeast Tennessee completed the Maslach Burnout Inventory and the Teacher Support Network Inventory (TSNI). Respondents' satisfaction with support and amount of support were ascertained from the TSNI. Data presentation included a demographic description of the sample and a description of teachers' work support, personal support, and recreational …

Focal Point, Volume 11 Number 01, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

In the discussion on the issues of juvenile crime, the nation has ignored the prevalence of mental disorders among youth who commit crimes, and it has failed to provide policy directives on how state systems should respond. With the nation’s attention riveted on youth violence, the issue of prevalence has began to emerge, with the realization that many of the violent acts are committed by a small percentage of young people. Policymakers are beginning to ask questions about the conditions that contribute to a young person’s tendency toward delinquency acts.