Social Welfare Commons^™

Women And Economic Empowerment, Kitty Dukakis, Vivian Li

New England Journal of Public Policy

This article proposes a women's economic agenda to help fulfill the needs of working women. The first component outlined is the appointment of women who are sensitive to the needs of all women, including the poor, to key decision-making positions. The agenda then calls for employers to recognize changing workforce demographics by initiating programs that can accommodate the needs of single-person as well as dual-income households. The final component is an argument for the implementation of pay equity.

The Organization And Administration Of Korean Social Welfare: A Review Of The Literature, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper is an effort to provide an overall view of the organization

and administration of Korean Social Welfare. It is based upon a literature

review of published materials on the subject in both Korean and English.

This study is part of a research initiative on East Asian social administration

at the West Virginia University School of Social Work. The basic effort is to

examine aspects of social administration in East Asian countries and

compare them with administrative practices in the Anglo-American tradition.

The paper was prepared with the assistance of two doctoral students.

Ms. Younock Kim and Mr. Sienam …

The Children's Agenda: A Promising Beginning, Marlene Johnson

Journal of the Minnesota Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between A Private Voluntary Organization And The Government Of A Developing Country In The Delivery Of Public Education: A Case Study In Rural Guatemala, Timothy John Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

As government agencies face a complexity of economic and political issues the availability and utilization of resources through private voluntary organizations (PVOs) have become increasingly important. A review of the literature covering the role of PVOs in developing countries indicates the significant contribution these agencies can have in the development process. There are only a handful of situations where small organizations are working directly with a government agency in the provision of a public service. Theoretically, PVOs are adaptable to a variety of settings, are effective conduits for delivering aid to the grassroots level, and are able to initiate long …

Social Agency Accountability In Two Cultures, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The research reported in this paper is an effort to shed empirical light on traditional accountability in a cross-cultural perspective. Because of the suspicion of a connection between the persistence of the issue in the United States and indigenous cultural factors (most notably the uniquely enduring influence of the Protestant ethic) it was decided to investigate the issue through a comparison of some of the accountability practices of American social agencies with those outside the United States. This study compares the operation of certain accountability dynamics in samples of social agencies in the Appalachian region of the United States and …

Spindrift Gazes, Ronald Charles Kurtenbach

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Spindrift Gazes is a collection of short stories that thematically relate to how human dignity is engendered and how that sense of dignity is challenged, undercut, and regained. These fictional constructions are particularly concerned with issues of transformation, how and why change takes place. Of particular emphasis is how differing kinds of human relationships are instrumental in the nature of those changes. Of fundamental concern is to give fictional form to human rights issues.

Advisor: Judith Slater

Conversion Of The Coldwater Regional Mental Health Center: The Impact On Employees, Connie Dunham Dykman

Dissertations

The objective of this study was to determine what effects the conversion of the Coldwater Regional Mental Health Center from a facility serving developmentally disabled residents to one serving mentally ill residents had on the lives of its employees.

Deinstitutionalization has been taking place nationwide at the same time prisons have been expanding. In Coldwater, Michigan, buildings that were left empty as a result of deinstitutionalizing mentally retarded individuals were taken over by the Department of Corrections to be used as prisons. This action inspired advocates for retarded citizens to call for the closure of the Coldwater Regional Center. Instead …

Focal Point, Volume 04 Number 01, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

Improving collaboration between parents ,family members and professionals has recently become a central theme in efforts to improve services for children c.md adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders. In this issue, conceptual issues and practical applications of parent-professional collaboration are presented. Here, we examine the rationale for collaboration, some common barriers to effective partnership and key elements that enhance a collaborative relationship. Accompanying articles describe a broad array of activities occurring throughout the country to promote collaboration, support parent organizing efforts, and enhance family support policy and practice.

Treasuries, Repertories And Collections In The Production Of Common Goods, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

What types of resources are involved when members of a voluntary association combine their efforts in pursuit of joint goals or common goods? This paper examines the question from the vantage point of a rational choice theory termed endowment theory. Endowment theory is concerned with the rational allocation of productive surpluses to associations and other voluntary groups in pursuit of identified common goods. At least three distinct types of resource dowries can be identified in the current world of nonprofit associations. Treasuries are endowments of money and market-priced resources. Two other categories of "priceless" resource endowments are also evident among …

Focal Point, Volume 03 Number 03, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

We are concerned about parents who have children with emotional disabilities in need of a range of services -- particularly out-of-home placement -- who have, in countless instances, been required to transfer custody of their children to the state for the sole purpose of obtaining necessary services at public expense. This requirement appears to stem, primarily, from the following: (1) a mistaken belief on the part of the state and local officials that federal reimbursement under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act is available only where legal custody of a child has transferred to the state; and or (2) …

Factors Affecting Competition In State Contracting For Human Services, Peter M. Kettner, Lawrence L. Martin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Competition has long been recognized as a necessary ingredient of our economic system. Competition, it is argued, is needed to combat the negative effects of monopoly.

Welfare Reform: One State Alternative, Anthony P. Halter

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Welfare reform has received a great deal of public attention in recent months. Historically, many states have enacted welfare reform legislation, with mixed reviews. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania implemented a Welfare Reform Act in 1982 which reduced the able-bodied General Assistance population to a maximum of 90 days of cash assistance in any twelve-month period. This study decribes the previous occupations of a segment of the Transitionally Needy in Philadelphia, the Transitionally Needy who did and did not find work, and how many were still receiving some form of in-kind benefits after discontinuance of cash assistance.

Urban Emergency Food Center Clients: Characteristics, Coping Strategies And Needs, Marcia K. Petchers, Julian Chow, Karen Kordisch

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The clients of emergency hunger centers in an urban area were studied to assess the problem of hunger from the clients' vantage point. The findings indicate that hunger remains a problem even among those who have availed themselves of emergency food services. A great deal of time and effort is spent in activities to cope with hunger. The adequacy of the present system for meeting the needs of the hungry and implications for policy are discussed.

What's Right With Welfare? The Other Face Of Afdc, Ronald B. Dear

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Eleven million people, mostly mothers and children, depend on Aid to Families with Dependent Children, America's largest child welfare program. Much is wrong with AFDC welfare, and serious efforts are being made, again, to reform it. So far, no major attempts at reform have been successful. If reform is to succeed, we must understand what needs to be corrected and what does not.

What's right with welfare? This study, not an apology or excuse for AFDC, answers that rarely asked question. Part I surveys background. Part II cites myths and criticisms of AFDC and portrays poverty as it afflicts children …

The Work Incentive Years In Current Perspective: What Have We Learned? Where Do We Go From Here?, Leonard Goodwin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A review of the rationale, results, and research findings from worktraining efforts for welfare recipients is presented. Focus is on the Work Incentive (WIN) Program from its inception in 1968 to its heydays in the 1970s and its decline during the Reagan era. The review provides a basis for examining the recent welfare legislation and recongizing the elements needed for real welfare reform.

Towards A Construct Of Employment For Social Welfare And Economic Productivity, David C. Congdon

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article analyzes Marxian socialist, neo-classical, and Keynesian economic theories toward developing a construct of employment which supports social welfare and economic productivity. It considers their motivational approaches, outcomes, and requirements for social control. A Keynesian construct of employment is recommended as supportive of social well-being, high productivity, and a level of social control reduced from that in currently dominant economic systems. Implications and implementation issues are considered.

A New Paradigm For Social Welfare, David Stoesz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American welfare state has been contained by several developments that have influenced social policy: the traditionalist movement, neoliberal ideology, and the budget deficit. These are evident in the minimal welfare reform of the Family Support Act of 1988. A new paradigm for organizing thinking about American social welfare is proposed around themes that have become central to discussions of social policy: productivity, reciprocity, community, and privatization. In order to become a viable institution again, social welfare policy should emphasize specific themes: voluntarization, access to services, social choice, social control, social obligation, transitional benefits, community enterprise, and national service.

Caregiving For Parents And Caregiving For Children: The Differential Effects On Job Stress And Absenteeism, Linda Boise

Dissertations and Theses

An important area of contemporary research is the impact of family responsibilities on the workplace. Historically, caregiving responsibilities have been predominantly for minor children. Increasingly, caregiving involves caring for parents or other elderly or disabled adults.

The study reported in this dissertation compares the effects of caregiving on job stress and absenteeism for two groups of employees, one caring for parents and the other caring for children. It utilizes data from the "Work and Elder Care Project" conducted by the Regional Research Institute for Human Services and the Institute on Aging at Portland State University. Of the 9,573 employees who …

Welfare Reform: A Summary And Analysis Of Current U.S. Congressional Debate Over The Family Security Act Of 1988, Bette Woody

Trotter Review

Following a lengthy and protracted debate, the 100th U.S. Congress passed PL 100-485, the Family Security Act of 1988, the first major public assistance legislative reform package since passage of the Social Security Act of the late 1930s. The debate over welfare is a long and continuing one which is not expected to end with the current reform. This article presents a brief review of competing perspectives on current legislative reforms related to current law. It does not attempt to tackle the more fundamental debate over the validity or the objectives of welfare, nor does it tackle the complex set …

The Limits Of The Welfare State: New York City's Response To Homelessness, Joel Blau

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This research examines New York City's response to the growth of the homeless population. Reviewing the six policies that constitute the city's response, it identifies two patterns. These patterns-cost-reduction and preparation for work-are then explored as examples of the constraints on the development of policies for the homeless. Finally, three theories of the welfare state are advanced to analyze these constraints and illuminate New York City's behavior.

Urban Service Delivery System And Federal Government Bureaucracy: A Structural Analysis Of Spatial Distribution Of Water Supply In A Suburban Community Of Metropolitan Lagos, Michael Udochukwu Mbanaso

Dissertations and Theses

This study identifies the prevailing scarcity of urban public services and the conceptual relations among service delivery, patronage, bureaucratic activities and structural factors in the Lagos Metropolitan region. It examines the extent to which clientelism, bureaucratic decision rules and structural theoretical models explain water service delivery patterns in Festival Town (Festac), a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria.

The unprecedented pace of growth of the Lagos Metropolis since the mid-twentieth century gave rise to the spectacular spatial expansion of the continuous built up region. Urban industrial and governmental institutions have not kept pace with the population growth rate of Lagos. This demographic …

The State, Law And Urban Poverty In Tanzania, Joe Lugalla

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

This paper is about the state, law and urban poverty in Tanzania. The paper examines how the state in Tanzania has been trying to solve the problem of urban poverty. The main argument is that the state's conception of urban poverty is not realistic. The urban poor are seen as responsible for their poverty. This is confirmed by the kind of coercive policies, legislation and other measures which have been instituted by the state in order to solve the problem. The paper argues that due to lack of a critical analysis of the causes of poverty, the state has been …

Disability Rights Mandates: Federal And State Compliance With Employment Protection And Architectural Barrier Removal, Stephen Percy, United States Advisory Commission On Intergovernmental Relations

Office of the President Publications and Presentations

The findings of this study indicate that the existence of national mandates does not necessarily eliminate the need for citizen groups to be attentive to state capitols and city halls. Ironically, one factor in the rise of regulatory federalism has been the desire of interest groups to concentrate their resources on one government, namely, the national government, rather than 50 different state governments. Yet, success in the national arena is often only partial, and sometimes only largely symbolic. It is the implementation of national rules that takes one back to states and localities.

The findings of this study also suggest …

The Gerontology Institute: The First Years, 1984-1987, Gerontology Institute, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Gerontology Institute Publications

During the first years of its existence, the Gerontology Institute has worked with older people to convert "retirement years" into opportunities for continuous growth and learning, while simultaneously seeking to re-examine social, political, and economic roles for elders in society. It is hoped that through such engagement of older individuals, the Institute has inspired a more positive attitude in society towards its aging population.

"New" Directions In The Welfare Reform Debate: The Problems Of Federalism, W. Joseph Heffernan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper reviews the problem of federalism and welfare and presents statistical data about the relative welfare practices among the states over the last 25 years. The relevance of these problems and practices to the current hopes for welfare reform and policy conflicts within Congress are discussed.

Community Mental Health: A View From American History, Mary Ann Jimenez

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The limitations of the movement for deinstitutionalization of the chronically mentally disordered have been the subject of a repeated series of investigations and analyses in the last 10 years. These critiques can be summed up in the undeniable observation that the chronically mentally disordered have by and large failed to benefit from deinstitutionalization in the ways that the original advocates and planners of this policy had hoped. The promise of community mental health, at least as articulated by the scores of witnesses before Congressional committees in the early 1960's, has not been realized for this population.

Social Welfare In The Emerging World Culture, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The end of the cold war brought with it a new period of globalization and an emerging world cultural consensus in which social welfare values of the welfare state figure importantly. An essential element of this development has been indigenization in which universal social welfare values, like those on display at various United Nations agencies and in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights are adapted and fitted to the unique demands and requirements of individual cultures.

Social Welfare In Emerging World Culture, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

The paper argues for the emergence of a world-wide universal pluralistic culture, in which a common core of humanitarian values will eventually be institutionalized in the major institutions of each society in ways which are consistent with the unique historical, cultural, economic and political context of that society. It is this process of adaptation of universal, or at least trans-cultural, values to the unique circumstances of individual cultures which can be called "indigenization".

Focal Point, Volume 03 Number 01, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

Cultural competence is a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that come together in a system, agency or professional to work effectively in cross-cultural situations. The word culture is used because it implies having the capacity to function effectively. A culturally competent system of care acknowledges and incorporates - at all levels - the importance of culture, the assessment of cross-cultural relations, vigilance towards the dynamics that result from cultural differences, the expansion of cultural knowledge and the adaptation of services to meet culturally unique needs.

"Our Town": A Case Study Of Ideology And The Private Social Welfare Sector, William M. Epstein

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This case study explores the relationship between ideology and the performance of the voluntary social welfare sector in Western New York. Data were collected from the directors of 22 of the largest and most important voluntary social welfare agencies relating to their own social attitudes and those of their boards. The common expression of similar agency attitudes toward a variety of social policies were in narrow conformity with the conservative values of the current national administration. The common core of conservative values, suggesting that the agencies perform an ideological role within the community in addition to their service role, may …