SOCIAL WORK 761: Social Welfare Policy II- Family Policies
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Course Description
The theory, knowledge, research, values, and skills of social welfare--family policy and services analyses/advocacy/practice are examined. Emphasis is upon the processes and methods for understanding, analyzing, and advocating social welfare-family policies/services at the local, state, and federal levels from a community-base-family-practice perspective. Various welfare policy/services assumptions, socioeconomic political values, analysis frameworks, and research methodologies are explored. Various organizational and political processes used to implement/influence family welfare policies/services are reviewed. This course is designed to help students toward a fuller understanding of the evolution of social welfare policies and services that pertain to families within rural areas inline with the School of Social Work’s concentration of community-based, family practice. The course aims at broadening students’ repertoire of various family policies pertaining to ethnic minorities and other oppressed populations, and how to advocate for improving family welfare policies and services to attain greater social and economic justice.
Special consideration is given to policy analysis, values, knowledge, and skills that promote social welfare policy advocacy.
Through this course issues of discrimination, oppression, and injustice are explored. Students are exposed to policies and practices for change in the movement toward social and economic justice.
Prerequisites
Admission to the graduate program in social work or permission of the instructor.
Educational Objectives
Upon completion of this course students will be able to:
1. define, analyze and influence policy-making processes and the mechanisms for affecting family welfare policies.
2. recognize, understand and integrate the social/moral responsibilities of social workers in affecting the development, implementation, and refinement of family welfare policies that ameliorate/prevent adverse family-community circumstances.
3. demonstrate the use of policy analysis frameworks, values, knowledge, and skills in evaluating and influencing family welfare policies that exist locally (southwest urban/rural Virginia), regionally, and nationally.
4. apply knowledge of social welfare policies major areas of need, such as poverty, mental health, managed care, child welfare and education.
5. deal effectively with areas of discrimination and injustice as it affects populations-at-risk such as the poor, people with disabilities, ethnic and social/religious/regional minorities and other marginalized groups.
6. conceptualize the impact of the relationship between welfare policies and social work practice impact family welfare services.
7. address the socio-economic and political context in which social welfare policies are formulated and implemented
8. assess the importance of one’s own values and ethics as it relates to the NASW Code of Ethics and the socio-economic-political values and choices currently used in developing and implementing family community welfare policies.
9. apply political-social strategies that affect policy advocacy, development, refinement and implementation in agencies, small groups, communities, and legislative settings.