Ready For School to Be Over!!

So the year is finally narrowing down and I can't wait! I have been here for four years and it is respectively my time to go. There is so much work still left to be done and soemtimes it feels as though, time is going by so slowly... But as time dwindles down, I look over my past years and realized I have learned a lot about myself. I have been able to experience independence as a woman and the many different life long lessons you go through with your transition into adulthood. I have learned a lot about social work, including the skills and methods used in the profession. My hope is to carry the knowledge I have learned into the real word and be the best social worker I can. My short term goals consist of graduating, getting accepted into graduate school, and just succeeding. My long term goals is to graduate from graduate school and acquire and adequate career. Hopefully both goals are met! I am happy to say that I feel as though all my hard work has paid off and I will be reaping the benefits pretty soon!

Lessons Learned for Protection and Education Children after the Gulf Coast Hurricanes- Required Reading

This article speaks about protecting protecting and supporting children in the Gulf Coast that have been affected by hurricanes. Although there have been many conscious efforts done to prevent the issue, there are lessons that should be discussed in order to hurry future responses to severe events and disasters. The following were some ideas that could be implemented in order to improve responses to disaster. "Sate and local disaster plans could better protect children if they integrated the needs of child welfare and education agencies." For example, schools can reopen more quickly when local relief officials work with school personnel to coordinate how resources will be allocated. This will also allow for child welfare and education agencies to better prepare and respond to large scale disasters by maintaining emergency contact information for staff and foster parents and developing evacuation instructions.

The Art of Advocacy- Advocacy Handbook

This handbook is great for those who are interested in advocacy tactics and offers precise guidelines on the concept of advocacy. The first part of the handbook consists of guidelines for registered charity advocacy. This handbook gives us an overview of the types of political activities prohibited by charities, how much charities can spend on permitted political activities, and the different aspects which separate charitable and political activities. The next section discusses six things you must do before you start an advocacy campaign. The article then discusses seven steps to creating an effective legislative strategy. There are different tools that can be used when advocating such as writing letters for a certain cause and so forth. It is also important to participate in government consultations as well as work alongside the media to gain more exposure.

Economic Security Book

This article is composed of many different policy briefs. This article is presented to us by the NASW. It breaks down different social policies such as Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, SSI, and many more programs. The article offers a description of the program, policy challenges that that policy may face, and the potential direction in which the policy is going. The article starts off by giving us a brief description of Medicare and the three parts associated with this policy. The three parts are hospital insurance, supplementary medical insurance, and part C which is the Medicare+Choice Program. The information in this article can be used by advocacy efforts at the national, state, and local levels. The article also goes on to give us a brief over of Medicaid and it's function within the low income communities. Medicaid is the U.S's major financial provider for long term care services.

Humane Society Article: Attending Town Meetings

As a homework assignment, I was asked to read an article from Humane Society.org. The article I chose to read was about attending town meetings. The article focused mainly on the importance of attending town meetings and the positive effect it can have on an issue you are supporting. Town meetings may allow you to engage with your congressmen, legislators, media and the people in your community. The article also offers tips and strategies you can use before attending a town meeting. One of the strategies is to inquire about the Legislator's schedule and keep note of it. This is so you will be able to get your message across and hopefully gain more support for your cause. The article was informing and interesting. The tips which were offered throughout my reading were insightful and good to use if you were ever interested in engaging in a town meeting.

Best Practice Briefs #4

This article focuses on several forms of community mapping. "Community Mapping" is used to refer to a process of inventorying resources or assets available to a specified neighborhood or community ("Best Practice Briefs", 1998-1999). This particular approach is called "community asset mapping". It includes identification of community assets for individual development and the inventorying of public capital and cultural resources. Then there is "community relationship mapping" which includes the visual presentations of relationships. Mapping is widely used for community, social and youth development ( Best Practice Briefs, 1998-1999). It is an appealing approach to building developmental aspects to avoid risky behavior.

WORK WORK WORK!!!

Last week was pretty rough. There were so many assignments that I had to complete for my Social Policy 445 class. Every other day, we had an assignment due, and they were very time consuming, especially when you are tyring to do a good job. We had to complete our policy paper draft which consist of over 40 pages, post comments on websites of our peers, and so many other things. Then next week, we have a set of policy term flashcards completed for Midterm. Then I also have a 10 page paper due in one of my other classes. Who knew college would be so much work? Yet and still, I am proud of myself, because I have been able to keep up...so far but I'm ready for this semester to be OVER! I am also so ready for this week to be over and done with so that I can enjoy a nice break. Luckily for me, this upcoming weekend starts our Spring Break session, which lasts for a week. During this time, I will get some well needed rest and focus on me for a change.

This is Why We Advocate!

Is This Guy Serious!- This is a Prime Example of Why We are Advocates!

According to Howard Hudsock from City Journal, " Housing projects radiate dysfunction and social problems outward, damaging local businesses and neighborhood property values. They hurt cities by inhibiting or even preventing these rundown areas from coming back to life by attracting higher income homesteaders and new business investment. Making matters worse, for decades cities have zoned whole areas to be public housing forever , shutting out in perpetuity the constant recycling of property that helps dynamic cities generate new wealth and opportunity for rich and poor alike".

In this article, Hudsock explains why public housing is harmful to society and contributes to social problems. His view of public housing is that it takes all the negative people in society such as welfare- dependent single-parent families " whose fatherless children disproportionately turn out to be school drop outs, drug users, non- workers, and criminals" ("Hudsock", 2003). Some of this may be true but what he says is not true for the majority of people to which he is referring to. Hudsock thinks that public housing is a s equally economically damaging as it is socially.

Link- http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_1_how_public_housing.html

Families on Welfare

This article takes a look into the economic situation of those families who have left cash assistance. Is there really a successful transition off of welfare? In order to answer this question, researchers take a look at the work or place of employment for these families. There are usually frequent turnovers in cash assistance programs, but little to no facts about whether or not families succeed after leaving these programs. Once people leave welfare ( welfare leavers), a lot of them do not find the best of jobs and end up working for minimum wage. About 2/3 of those employed work as clerical/administrative workers, service workers, or they work in the trade industry. These families are often referred to as "working poor" families. Then they also loose benefits such as Medicaid and child care subsidies. Welfare leavers with jobs tend to work in the same industries and occupations as those who are near poor and low income mothers.

" IF YOUR NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, THEN YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM"

The Future of Children: Policy Brief 2007

This article gives you an in depth overview of how the skills, values, and knowledge installed in children at a young age, reflects their abilities once they get older and go out into the world. In order for us to have and sustain a productive future, we must invoke adequate knowledge into our children, even the ones who reside in urban/poor areas, in which we tend to look over in society. As the article points out, this means we need well-trained teachers who are adequate in technical subjects such as math and science. The article also speaks of poverty and the economy. The article introduces three factors that affect poverty. These factors include the economy, changes in family composition, and changes in government spending. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the government does not spend much money on social issues, such as poverty and welfare as they do on war and other non-important entities. Poverty in female headed- families is four to five times higher than that of married families. It is a proven yet interesting fact that if American children were living with their married parents, then poverty would decline. The article also speaks about the welfare system in American society and the inequalities that are present within the system.

Facebook Group/ Wordpress site- " The Fundamentals of Public Housing"

I created a group in facebook for one of our social policy 445 assignments. This group offers you information you might want to know about public housing and what revolves around the particular concept. The group was also created for those of us who maybe unfamiliar with the concept of Public Housing. Many people , may be aware of public housing or may have heard he term before but may not know the fundamentals which the concept is built upon. I will be updating information about Public Housing throughout the semester and people are free to add their comments or suggestions at anytime. The link is as follows- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=313888625759&ref=ts#!/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=313888625759.

There is also information available to you at http://www.policy445.wordpress.com/ about Public Housing. This site offers more information that is both sufficient and helpful to those wondering minds. Information on this site will also be updated throughout the semester. So far on this site, I have discussed information about Public Housing and a brief introduction which speaks about the scope, target population, history, and etc. about Public Housing.

Kirsten Gillibrand [New York State Senator]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2010, from United States Senator Web site: http://gillibrand.senate.gov/

Chapter 9- Political Institutions

For this assignment, I located the Senator and Congressional Representatives of New York state which is my home town. The two senators of New York state are Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer. The Congressional Representative is Carolyn Mcarthy. Both websites offer you adequate and sufficient information. They both offer you information on social issues such as the senators website offers you information about the economy, health care, education, etc. The Congressional Representatives website also offers information about education and health care but this particular website gives you more choices of issues to choose from and read about, whereas the senators website is a little more narrow. Information on each website is adequate and they offer a lot of information. Both seem to focus from a liberal point of view with their focuses both being on social justice and their views of health care. On Senators Kirsten Gillibrand's website, she makes reference to the economy. She states that economic development and job creations were her first priority when she became senator. Congressional Representative Carolyn Mcarthy makes reference to the health care issues. It says that she has been working hard to provide a well trained and strong forced health care workforce that can meet growing demands. Governor David Paterson also has a lot of information on his website as well, only this information doesn't really seem to be about anything besides his speeches and bill reforms.

Welfare Leaver Study for New York State- MCcall, C. (2000). Staff Analysis of New York State’s Welfare Evaluation Report-MCcall, C. (2000).

In July 1999, The Rockefeller Institute of Government (RIG), The New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA), and Department of Labor (DOL), released a report entitled " After Welfare: A Study of Work and Benefit Use After Case Closing", which was about families that left TANF. The studies findings are as follows: 83% of the 8,983 families that met the studies criteria and left the welfare rolls in 1997 were not on welfare one year after closing. Between 71 and 75 percent of the sample found employment at some time during the one year study period, with the statewide average being 66%.

My assessment of the quality of study and about the researches is that it is a bit unreliable because the state failed to disclose that 3,300 families that left the welfare rolls, came back into the rolls about 2 months later. The fact that 27% of the caseload returned to the rolls within 2 months sends a red flag about the underlying administration of the State's Welfare Program.

Based on the study we can conclude that only 21 % of the caseload returned to welfare within one year of leaving the rolls. This could be due to the fact that they found employment during the four quarter period and showed continuous employment in all four quarters.

- Citation- MCcall, C. (2000). Staff Analysis of New York State's Welfare Evaluation Report- MCcall, C. (2000)

Chapter 4: Agency in Policy Turmoil

In this case, Dr. Breeze built an "non-traditional" agenda that applied to both the patients and staff of the San Marcos Community Health Center. He used the tasks of problem analyzing by realizing that there was a problem with the methods that the original staff used such as long term therapy, supervisions, and he also suspected that a few of the staff members were letting the client's race or ethnicity get in the way of them being able to provide adequate services and case management. He proposed that the long term therapy, long waiting lists, and supervision areas were unnecessary. He implemented an advisory board that consisted of people from the community, extended staff hours, and questioned the chief of police about the way emotionally ill people were being handled. I believe that Dr. Breeze was trying to implement "responsible change" within the center. He wanted to invent ideas, he felt would be beneficial to the patients.

Chapter 14- Understanding Generalists Practice

The main focus of this chapter is advocacy. Advocacy is referred to as the obligation we have as social workers to speak on behalf of our client's rights either when they are being violated or not exercised at all. There are times when we will face situations in which our clients are denied their civil and legal rights, then it is our job to intervene in such circumstances. An uprising of advocacy came forth during the Great Depression. This was a time of great need for many people and relied on the help of social workers. Advocacy is a big part of being a social worker. You must be assertive and not afraid to speak your mind in a professional manner, especially when it is beneficial to your client.

The Destruction of Haiti!!

Haiti has been the highlight of recent news. This is because on Jan. 12, 2010, Haiti suffered the consequences of a brutal earthquake which left Haiti in an uproar. There were hundreds and thousands of deaths which took place due to this disaster. Homes, buildings, and families have been destroyed. People have died from being buried under buildings. People are starving and have no food to eat and it's quite a sad situation. At least the U.S and other surrounding areas are responding to this faster than they did Katrina! There are many efforts being put forth by ordinary people such as ourselves to help out Haiti during their time of need.

Understanding Generalist Practice- Chap 4

This chapter focuses on community/organizational based social work. There are many social functions of a community. The main social function of a community is production, distribution and consumption of food and services, social support and mutual support. Social workers also use practice evaluation techniques such as task achievement scaling in order to better assess the needs of a community. This chapter also discusses program budgets. These are budgets that look into the financial means of different agencies such as foster care or adoption agencies. When working in a community, we as social workers must act as Mediators in order to present the views of organizations to others. Sometimes the technique of field studying is used to gather ideas and opinions from those in the community in which we are working with. We do this through interviews and observations.

Oreo Video Commentary

This video explains matters concerning the federal budget. When alot of people hear the term " federal budget", they think "well what do I care?" But you should care because it affects everyone. The federal budget consists of our money school budget, college scholarship, and is one of the primary reasons why so many children end up in poverty. We have important programs and issues such as education, world hunger, alternative energy, headstart and so many other programs that are deprived of so much money that can actually help sustain them due to military and armed forces. The main theme of the video is that more money should be spent towards like education rather than a war that has no purpose.

Pop Quiz # 1

This blog entry discusses the details of a video we had to watch for class which revolved around social welfare policies. Social welfare policies are very important and major role in the field of social work . They also have a vital role and impact on our clients. There are alot of policies, as social workers, we must know so that we can advocate for our clients and make sure their rights are not bieng violated. Ploicies can also act as keys to gaining certain assistance or benefits for our clients.
As I said earlier, public policies and their issues have a vital impact on our clients. First we need to take a look at entitlement programs. There are two main criteria for determining what can be considered an entitlement program. 1) Benefit or service is a legal right- the right is enforcable in a court of law. 2) Funding to apy for benefit is automatically provided without any need for authorization or appropriation by congress in contrast to most social service programs where there is a specific amount of money provided by congress. Entitlement programs make up most of the U.S social policies and they are the most important section of social legislation in the U.S. They are also the most important law for social workers.
There are 5 major catorgories of programs listed under the Social Security Act of 1935. They are the following: 1) Social Insurance Programs: Unemployment Insurance Program and OASDI 2) Federal Assistance Programs: TANF 3) Medicare 4) Medicaid and 5) Foster Care. There are two other programs besides the Social Security Act which fall under legislation. They are the food stamp program and the earned income tax credit program, which is a low icome tax credit for low income working families with children.
The U.S lacks many entitlement programs. 1) National Health Insurance 2) child/family allowances for all for all families of children 3) maternity or paternity benefits 4) sick benefits for workers 5) Housing allowances for to offest the cost of housing. There are still alot of questions being discussed amoungst scholars and advocates concerning entitlement programs. People want to know whether or not welfare reform was a good idea. Then also, What impact has welfare reform had on children and families?

Entry # 1 1st Few Days of Class

The first day of class was pretty informing. We were able to ask different questions concerning the syllabus and the calender. It's good to discuss things such as assignments and deadlines as a group because alot of times we all have the same or similiar questions. At first, I was a litle confused about where to post some of the assignments because there are so many websites that we have listed as to where we are to post our work and so forth. But I usually catch on pretty quick, so I'll just figue it out as time progresses. I was also happy that we discussed that somedays we will not be meeting in person if we are able to get our work done in a timely fashion. I'm not much of a morning person, so the whole "work from home" thing is right up my alley. I think that this semster, I will try to get most of my work done early, therefore I can equally focus on each of my other classes and still be able to have free time for myself.