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Full-Text Articles in Social Work

Attuning To Need: Reconceptualizing “Help” In Poor Rural Areas, Jennifer M. Frank, Laura Brierton Granruth, Brittany Leffler, Rachel Preibisch, Dawn Watson, Heather Girvin, Mary Glazier Jan 2021

Attuning To Need: Reconceptualizing “Help” In Poor Rural Areas, Jennifer M. Frank, Laura Brierton Granruth, Brittany Leffler, Rachel Preibisch, Dawn Watson, Heather Girvin, Mary Glazier

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Social isolation is closely linked to overall health and well-being and is a serious concern for those in rural areas. Our research seeks insights into the needs experienced in poor rural areas by utilizing letter writing between students and community agency participants as a research methodology. In the letters, we observed that community participants relied upon friend and family style relationships and even viewed their agency relationships as such. This suggests that transforming "professional helping relationships" into alliances that are less impersonal might be in order. Such relationships and connections seemed conducive to the development of empowering self-efficacy. This finding …


Workfare In Toronto: More Of The Same?, Ernie Lightman, Andrew Mitchell, Dean Herd Dec 2005

Workfare In Toronto: More Of The Same?, Ernie Lightman, Andrew Mitchell, Dean Herd

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper uses a recent survey of welfare leavers in Toronto to examine Workfare, a uniquely American initiative introduced into Canada, with its different welfare state history and traditions. When classic American workfare was imported by an enthusiastic government in Ontario, its application led to employment outcomes remarkably similar to those in the US (reduced caseloads, insecure and contingent employment, high recidivism). Yet, Canada's earlier commitment to community and collective responsibility have not been entirely subsumed below the overarching American umbrella. Welfare programs in Canada-specifically, workfare-reflect both the difficulties of maintaining great difference, and also the possibilities of following an …