需求取向社区贫困家庭志愿服务的探索

贫困救助是我国社会服务的永恒主题,城市最低生活保障制度和农村五保制度为解决贫困问题提供了制度保障。但是,贫困是一个复杂的持续性的社会问题,社会保障政策的公共性与弹性要求以及社会的不断变迁,使得贫困救助需求的差异性和变化性难以得到有效满足。社区志愿服务以其贴近居民生活的服务特点,可以有效地填补社会救助政策的漏洞。本文描述了社区贫困家庭的现状及其特点,揭示了当前社区服务和社会政策存在的缝隙;立足社区贫困家庭的需要,提出了社区贫困家庭志愿服务应该提供的主要服务内容,寄望建设一个符合中国社会文化情境和具体家庭需求的社区贫困家庭志愿服务。     

山西省忻州市：加大对贫困老年人救助力度

“十一五”期间，山西省忻州市动员社会力量，以老年人、残疾人、优抚对象等为重点，不断加大对贫困老年人的资金救助力度，深人开展城乡社区志愿服务、互助服务，在全社会形成一个帮贫助老、关爱老人、共建和谐的良好社会氛围。     

民政部:保民生 着力提高“三个群体”生活保障水平

健全社会求助体系 保障和改善困难群体的基本生活 城乡低保和受灾群众是社会救助的主要对象.目前,我国城乡低保人数共6619万人,其中绝对贫困人数有1400多万.去冬今春还有6100多万受灾群众亟待救助.中央要求"切实保障农村贫困家庭、城镇困难家庭基本生活水平不下降".我们必须从保障困难群体的基本生活需求出发,加大救助力度,努力改善他们的生活.     

丹麦的志愿服务及对北京的启示

志愿服务是丹麦社会福利保障工作的重要方面。其基本特点是 :历史悠久 ,拥有人数众多的志愿者队伍和规范化的志愿服务组织 ;服务的形式多种多样 ,涉及社会生活的所有领域 ;政府是志愿服务组织的坚强后盾 ,社区则是志愿服务发挥作用的广阔平台。本文系统介绍和分析了丹麦志愿服务的历史、现状和特点 ,并简要分析了其对北京市志愿服务的借鉴意义     

城市贫困的延续性研究

城市贫困在我国城市已经突显出来,并可能在已有的贫困者和贫困家庭中延续。本文通过贫困家庭主体成员的工作情况来分析贫困代内滞留的可能性,通过他们对子女教育的态度来分析贫困代际传递的可能性,从而了解城市贫困的代内和代际的延续性。为改变贫困家庭的现状,要注重向贫困家庭提供机会,对贫困家庭子女的教育给予必要的救助。     

志愿服务在救助机构内的发展——基于成都市未保中心志愿服务的工作实践

近年来,未成年人流浪乞讨的现象得到来自社会各界的极大关注,也得到了较大改善。但是流浪未成年人的预防、救助、监护、安置和矫治工作是一个系统工程,需要政府各部门、家庭、学校、以及广大群众的积极参与。另一方面,志愿服务方兴未艾,已成为一项推动社会发展、催生现代文明的世界性社会运动,志愿服务正渗透生活的方方面面,逐渐成为衡量社会文明程度的重要标志。成都市未成年人救助保护中心通过综合利用各类社会资源,开展志愿服务,促进了     

加强社区救助建设 完善社会救助体系

社区救助是建立在社区层面的社会救助,是社区为履行国家和社会责任,为保障困难群众的基本生活而建立的运行于社区之中的社会救助制度。通常是指社区内的居民成员在享受了国家和单位及社团的保障待遇同时,因各种原因造成临时或长期的特殊困难,影响本人和家庭的基本生活,社区给予的一种补充的救助。     

后扶贫时代社会救助政策的调适

贫困治理阶段性变迁的过程也是我国社会救助政策不断调适的过程。迈入后扶贫时代,治理主动性的冲突、治理助力的削弱、治理失灵的出现,进一步加剧了贫困治理的复杂性、多变性。因此,在面对后扶贫时代的四重转变即扶贫向防贫的转变、绝对贫困向相对贫困的转变、物质需求向发展需求的转变、农村为主向城乡协同的转变时,当前的社会救助政策就会表现出四大不适即功能不适、标准不适、需求不适、城乡不适。需要通过一系列的政策调适来增强社会救助的政策弹性,将"安全网"变为"助跳网"。在顺应后扶贫时代转变的基础上,增强社会救政策的适应性,进一步提升贫困治理的效能。     

农村社区志愿服务发展的SWOT分析

近些年,社区志愿服务在国家民政部门的主导下取得了长足进展,农村社区志愿服务也逐渐丰富发展起来。当前农村社区志愿服务存在着农民参与意识不强,参与度低,"行政化"色彩浓厚,社会化水平低,制度体系不健全,服务水平偏低等问题。为了更好地促进农村社区志愿服务,应该坚持以人为本的原则不动摇,切实加强对农村社区志愿服务活动的指导和扶持,构建农村社区志愿者服务网络体系,建立健全农村社区志愿者队伍建设的制度体系,积极探索农村社工指导下的社区志愿服务模式。     

贫困的理论与社会救助问题的国际比较研究

贫困是一个非常复杂的社会现象,它具有一定的内在特性:贫困是一种持续的生活困境,仅靠贫穷者本人的努力短时间内难以摆脱;贫困既是一种经济现象,也是一种政治和社会现象;贫困是贫穷者社会权利的缺失.现代社会救助制度起始于西方国家,是以救灾济贫的形式出现的.尽管世界各国在救助的内容、水平和方式上各有特点,但也有很多共同之处.     

Applying a community needs profiling approach to tackling service user poverty

Summary Poverty across the United Kingdom is a growing phenomenon. Itsimpact on the users of social work services is well documented.This paper puts forward the argument that poverty is a legitimatepart of the social work agenda rather than being seen as a complexproblem which is somehow outside the scope of social work agenciesand best left to politicians and policy makers. Social workpractitioners and managers must not only begin to accept andacknowledge that poverty is a social work issue but also tobegin confronting this challenge in a changing society whereexclusion, social inequality, racism and oppression deny peopletheir citizenship. The community needs profiling approach is proposed as a usefultool in addressing service user poverty whereby practitionersand their agencies can become more aware of the needs of usersand the communities in which they live. It is argued that, armedwith this knowledge, social workers have the potential to becomepart of the solution rather than remaining on the margins ofthe lives of poor people. Using evidence and ideas drawn froma range of community needs profiling research studies and texts,the author offers working suggestions for applying the approach.     

Poverty‐aware social work practice: service users' perspectives

In recent years, there has been an increase in scholarly writing on the theory and practice of critical social work with people living in poverty. Yet there is a lack of research on the experiences and perspectives of service users regarding this kind of practice. This paper presents a qualitative study that explored the practice of a special poverty‐aware social work programme in Israel, through the experiences of women who took part in it. Using an interpretative interactionist approach, in‐depth interviews with nine women were held three times over a 2‐year period. Findings reveal a high degree of satisfaction with the programme on the part of the women. The satisfaction was derived from four main experiences: the experience of visibility, the experience of the active partnership in the fight against poverty, the experience of close, hierarchy‐challenging relationships, and the experience of responsiveness to material and emotional needs. The findings are discussed in terms of three principles of practice: intervention in a real‐life context, relationship‐based intervention and the focus on both the material and emotional needs and their fulfilment.     

Service Users with Experience of Poverty as Institutional Entrepreneurs in Public Services in Belgium: An Institutional Theory Perspective on Policy Implementation

In this article, we report on a qualitative and interpretative research project in which we gained in‐depth knowledge about dynamics in ten federal public policy units in Belgium where a service user with experience of poverty was employed. Starting from an institutional theory perspective, it was argued that these service users with experience of poverty can possibly feature as institutional entrepreneurs or agents of change who initiate a critical reflection in the mindset of fellow social administrators about taken‐for‐granted practices, routines and rationales. In order to fulfill this ambition, we equally stressed that service users with experience of poverty should be able to perform two other roles as well: to provide direct support to citizens, especially those living in poverty during their contacts with a public policy unit, and to formulate concrete propositions to change some of the policy units' internal procedures. Our research findings reveal that these two roles provide a necessary breeding ground for further interaction and (in)formal dialogue between service users with experience of poverty and fellow social administrators about the quality and accessibility of service delivery. However, installing this shared responsibility proves to be a valuable but also gradual process, and we argue that it is therefore undesirable when service users with experience of poverty act as so‐called ‘heroes’ in changing these taken‐for‐granted institutional practices, routines and rationales.     

Poverty and experiences of insecurity. A qualitative interview study of 25 long-standing recipients of social security

The purpose of this study is to explore experiences of insecurity among people living in relative poverty in an affluent welfare society. Twenty-five long-standing recipients of social security were interviewed. The study finds that poverty and related factors give rise to a sense of insecurity to which respondents react affectively with apprehension and anxiety. Respondents, all of whom live in the same Norwegian town, report multiple causes of their emotions, and adopt numerous psychological methods to address their sense of insecurity. The study's findings are discussed in light of theories of needs and emotions and contextual and methodological factors.     

Adult and child deprivation in Hong Kong

There is growing interest in the application of Townsend's deprivation approach to provide estimates of poverty that more directly reflect the living standards of those on low income. The consensual approach is applied here using data from the second wave (conducted in 2015–2016) of the Trends and Implications of Social Disadvantages in Hong Kong survey. The article draws on a related study that identifies separate lists of items deemed “necessary for all” by a majority of adults (aged 18 years or older) and children (aged 10–17 years). Those unable to obtain at least three of these items are identified as deprived, and the profile of household deprivation is examined in terms of the family types most affected, age groups, and numbers of children. Further analysis focuses on the disparity between children identified as living in households identified as deprived according to information provided by adults and children whose deprivation status reflects their own views. Finally, the overlaps between deprivation and four measures of poverty—two objective and income based and two subjective and perception based—are examined and discussed. The results indicate that deprivation and poverty are different but that, however it is measured, more needs to be done to address poverty in Hong Kong, including further improvements in the coverage and adequacy of health service provision and social security benefits.     

Poverty and anti-poverty measures in China

During three decades of rapid economic development and governmental anti-poverty measures, China achieved considerable success in poverty alleviation. However, because poverty remains a severe problem, this research analysed the causes and implications of poverty as well as the associated social policies, based on official statistics and survey data. Three decades of successful anti-poverty measures, have largely reduced ‘absolute poverty’, yet ‘relative poverty’ is still severe and substantial challenges remain, caused by the changing socioeconomic circumstances. To enhance poverty alleviation, relevant social policies should be reformed, including changing the underlying approach from addressing absolute poverty to addressing relative poverty, increasing the beneficiary coverage and raising the level of benefits, increasing public funding and improving the relevant administrative systems.     

Beyond Income: A Social Justice Approach to Assessing Poverty among Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease

ABSTRACT

How social workers define and assess poverty is a matter of economic and social justice. Recent conceptual and measurement advances point to a multidimensional definition of poverty which captures material, social, and political deprivations. Using data from a survey, this article describes how nephrology social workers assess poverty among older adults living with a chronic kidney disease (N = 52). Results suggest respondents already conceive of poverty as a multidimensional experience, support awareness-raising about poverty, and primarily assess poverty by employment status, income, access to transportation, and education. Opportunities to expand poverty assessment in future work are promising.     

Prioritizing Choice: Perceptions of Neighborhood Social Cohesion for Residents in Subsidized Housing

ABSTRACT

Many families living in poverty rely on housing subsidies. Housing subsidies restrict the housing stock and neighborhood choices for families living in poverty. Fortunately neighborhood social cohesion can protect families from many of the deleterious consequences associated with living in a low-income neighborhood. This study uses panel data from the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Making Connections initiative to test the role of public housing types on perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion. The probability sample used in the study consists of 2,470 households living in low-income neighborhoods in ten cities in the United States. Results show that public housing residents, both housing choice voucher users and non-housing choice voucher users, on average, report lower neighborhood social cohesion than their non-public housing neighbors. Results also show that moving to a new neighborhood consistently predicts improved neighborhood social cohesion while moving to public housing predicts declines in perceived neighborhood social cohesion. Choice in where one lives seems to play an important and positive role in perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion. Based on these data, it is suggested that policy makers and housing providers prioritize choice in the development and delivery of public housing.     

Globalization and Social Work: International and Local Implications

Globalization can seem a remote process, related only to theeconomic and commercial world. However, it impacts (differentially)on the work opportunities and living conditions of populationsaround the world and has also influenced thinking about welfarepolicies, including through state provision. It thus has implicationsfor the practice and education of social and community workersin both affluent and poverty stricken states. In addition tosocial professionals who seek opportunities to work internationally,globalization is also affecting the practices of those who wouldpreviously have seen their work as essentially rooted in localconditions and community needs. This paper therefore gives someexamples of the ways in which local practice may have cross-borderand international dimensions, drawing on experiences in thechild-care field, particularly in the UK and European context.The author indicates how international social work courses areaiming to equip specialist international social workers, whilealso arguing for the development of educational programmes whichprepare ‘local’ social workers for practice in aninterdependent world.