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.