1.Describe the history, current structures and issues of social welfare policies and the major ideological themes that underlie them. (Program Obj. 5; EPAS 2.1.8)
Through this course I learned that many of the current issues we see as a society stem from the structures that we create. We discussed how politically speaking; parties often create even more issues by not being able to create a program that both sides agree upon. During these discussions we talked about various political programs or bills that have been created in hopes of creating relief to many of the issues discussed in class, like poverty. Throughout the history of social welfare policies are society has seen, we discussed that even though many policies or programs have been created that because of the political spectrum of conservatives and liberals, many of these things have failed, or not lasted long enough to see results.
The reason for this that we talked about throughout the course is that conservatives generally have the idea that there is an individual responsibility versus society’s responsibility to take care of them. Whereas liberals generally feel that our government should help individuals because they can not help themselves. For this reason political officials struggle to find effective ways to benefit society in terms of programs and policies.
2. Engage in policy practices that advance social and economic justice. (Program Obj. 5; EPAS 2.1.4)
In this course, I think we really learned about how advocacy was an important skill in social work. I learned that even though I should be aware of the policies that effect my clients, I do not have to create a policy to make it important. I can simply advocate to raise awareness for a policy or even a group of people seeking a policy change or something. During our project my group participated in an advocacy project in which we raised awareness for an act that we felt was something that would benefit many, we had people sign letters that could be sent to their Senators in support of the act.
Through various readings and discussions throughout the course I learned many different ways that I can participate in advocating for my clients or the group of clients I might be working with. By raising awareness for a particular social or economic justice issue, I can very well be apart of bringing about change for my clients.
3. Apply social work values, standards and ethics in analyzing and influencing policy formulation, implementation and advocacy. (Program Obj. 5; EPAS 2.1.8, 2.1.2)
Before this class I did not really pay too much attention to policy. But now I know that it is important to be aware of the policies that are being made or proposes because they could have and affect on whatever population I choose to work with. I am suppose to advocate for my clients, and I wont be able to do that if I do not know what is going on within the political world.
The Social Work Code of Ethics also says that social workers need to be competent. I would think that if I am unaware of policies that have an affect on my clients then I would be incompetent and ineffective in working with them. So I learned from this class that even though the political world overall scares me and I want to stay away from it. I need to pay attention to what is going on so I can be effective in assisting my clients.
4. Analyze and apply the results of policy research in contexts relevant to social service delivery. (Program Obj. 6, 2; EPAS 2.1.8, 2.1.6, 2.1.9)
For the project I worked on for the class, my group and myself had to research about our population and issues relevant to them, as well as things that are going on to help them and raise awareness for their oppression. This required us to look at past policies that were made and current policies that have been made. Through this research we were able to know more about what was going on with our population and we felt more passionate about seeing our Act supported.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Policy Blog over "The Tipping Point"
Prompt: Using one of the books, Fast Food Nation; Nickel and Dimed; The Tipping Point; or Three Cups of Tea as a stimulus, project what you believe social welfare provision will need to look like in the next 25 years in the United States.
In the book The Tipping Point the author Malcolm Gladwell talks about change and what it takes to truly make change happen. Mainly he mentions the kind of people it takes for change of any kind to occur and to make change lasting and “sticky”. This book has so many examples of where we as a society have been affected by all different levels of change because the idea was heard by a certain person who has the capability of spreading the word better than your average person. I believe that things don’t change overnight. Change is a process, it takes time, however after reading this book, I was convinced that society could see change happen quicker if the right kind of people got involved. Much like how in his book, Gladwell discussed that if these special social salesmen personality type people were not happy or satisfied with a certain product or idea, then most likely the product or idea would not go very far because these people are the people responsible for creating a word of mouth epidemic and making it have a more lasting effect. They are the people who tell everyone about something they think is fantastic. They are the ones who go about selling something to the public. As a society we need to find these people and get them on board with ideas about social welfare over the next 25 years. I hear a lot of people share lots of beautiful hopes and dreams for our future, but I think in order to see these things come true, we need to come up with a better way of making them attainable, in my opinion that would start by more people being a little more realistic about how they go about changing the world. If we as a society truly desire to see change, then we need to take some smaller steps to get there.
Malcolm Gladwell in his book presents three things that he believes are needed to see a lasting effect brought on in social trends. These three things are “the law of the few”, “the stickiness factor”, and “the power of context”. The first one is where you see the power of the people. Although we all can talk and have ideas, there are some people in the world that are just gifted at talking to others, these people, know more than anyone else, they are more persuasive than anyone else and they are also the kind of person who will remember every new place or new person they encounter. These are the kind of people who Gladwell says are responsible for the idea of the word of mouth epidemic. The second one is the idea that if we want to see something be successful and make it last it has to stick. It has to be something that the public is going to want to keep around. By having the people from the first one, the “salesmen” as Gladwell referred to them as ideas become stickier, because they are normally in tune with what the public wants. The third one focuses on the importance that the surroundings have on a social trend or movement. I think that when trying to determine how to see change over the next 25 years these three things will be important to remember.
One thing that so many people are concerned about seeing eliminated, is poverty. The problem is that poverty is not going to just vanish overnight. Currently as Americans, it seems like our plan to eradicate poverty is to send our aid to other countries that have more poverty than we do. Why has this become the cure for the poverty epidemic? Why does it seem that it is more important to send aid to other countries rather than try to see change in our own system right here in America? The answer is actually simple I think. People, not just any people though, certain people who have the ability to influence millions. Celebrities, I believe that when it comes to having a sticky idea, celebrities are the stickiest way to get word out to the public. Organizations, groups, social movements flock to celebrities and try to persuade them to join their cause because they know that these celebrities are considered influential not only in the U.S, but in the world. This is what has happened. This is how our attention is drawn into eliminating global poverty, because a celebrity spokesperson that many consider a role model has told us that we should. Celebrities are the salesmen of our nation.
I think the idea of having these influential people join a cause and urge others to join is brilliant, however the causes that we are urged to support seem to all be more on a global context and they are not working because they are not realistic. We are urged to donate money to other countries to stop world hunger, when we ourselves are trying to figure out where our next meal is coming from. We are urged to send a Christmas gift to an orphan in another country because they will not a Christmas when we ourselves have so many children that will not have a Christmas either. We are urged to send resources to Africa, because their people are homeless and dying when we have homeless right down our street who are also dying. Where we have missed the mark is with Gladwell’s third rule, “the power of context”. Currently America is going through an economic crisis, whether people want to acknowledge it or not, we are. More and more families are forced into poverty every day, and we are not being effective in providing for them. How can we be expected to donate money to other countries, when there is no one donating money to our country to eliminate poverty? This is why there has not been a change in global poverty, because although the message is sticky and the spokesperson is influential and can persuade some, the context is all wrong. We can’t help others if we don’t stop for a second and help our own.
Let’s get these celebrities to join a cause that is even closer to home than Africa, let’s get them to consider America as a cause. I think that if want to see reform brought to our current welfare system then we are going to have to raise more awareness for the epidemic of poverty right here in America and I think we are going to need influential people to help do that. Anyone can sit and talk about how flawed our welfare system is and how ineffective we are at helping the poor and the homeless, but unless that person has the ability to influence other’s to speak up and take action, all it is, is talk. If we can somehow get these influential people to start raising more awareness on national poverty and urging people to speak up about their conditions, then we might be able to see more government officials take interest in creating reform in our social welfare system. The welfare system is not something that can just fix itself, it is not something that we can just sit back and hope improves. Let’s quit campaigning to send aid to other countries and campaign for more aid for our own country. America needs to pay more attention to its own poverty before we try to address the poverty in other countries. I believe that in order to see change and reform brought about to our welfare systems and what we are doing for our poor, and then it is going to take influential people who have the ability to speak for those who can not speak for themselves. We will need to see more causes for America for celebrities to join and help push for change. Do not just talk about the flaws of our system, come up with an idea that we can run with.
In the book The Tipping Point the author Malcolm Gladwell talks about change and what it takes to truly make change happen. Mainly he mentions the kind of people it takes for change of any kind to occur and to make change lasting and “sticky”. This book has so many examples of where we as a society have been affected by all different levels of change because the idea was heard by a certain person who has the capability of spreading the word better than your average person. I believe that things don’t change overnight. Change is a process, it takes time, however after reading this book, I was convinced that society could see change happen quicker if the right kind of people got involved. Much like how in his book, Gladwell discussed that if these special social salesmen personality type people were not happy or satisfied with a certain product or idea, then most likely the product or idea would not go very far because these people are the people responsible for creating a word of mouth epidemic and making it have a more lasting effect. They are the people who tell everyone about something they think is fantastic. They are the ones who go about selling something to the public. As a society we need to find these people and get them on board with ideas about social welfare over the next 25 years. I hear a lot of people share lots of beautiful hopes and dreams for our future, but I think in order to see these things come true, we need to come up with a better way of making them attainable, in my opinion that would start by more people being a little more realistic about how they go about changing the world. If we as a society truly desire to see change, then we need to take some smaller steps to get there.
Malcolm Gladwell in his book presents three things that he believes are needed to see a lasting effect brought on in social trends. These three things are “the law of the few”, “the stickiness factor”, and “the power of context”. The first one is where you see the power of the people. Although we all can talk and have ideas, there are some people in the world that are just gifted at talking to others, these people, know more than anyone else, they are more persuasive than anyone else and they are also the kind of person who will remember every new place or new person they encounter. These are the kind of people who Gladwell says are responsible for the idea of the word of mouth epidemic. The second one is the idea that if we want to see something be successful and make it last it has to stick. It has to be something that the public is going to want to keep around. By having the people from the first one, the “salesmen” as Gladwell referred to them as ideas become stickier, because they are normally in tune with what the public wants. The third one focuses on the importance that the surroundings have on a social trend or movement. I think that when trying to determine how to see change over the next 25 years these three things will be important to remember.
One thing that so many people are concerned about seeing eliminated, is poverty. The problem is that poverty is not going to just vanish overnight. Currently as Americans, it seems like our plan to eradicate poverty is to send our aid to other countries that have more poverty than we do. Why has this become the cure for the poverty epidemic? Why does it seem that it is more important to send aid to other countries rather than try to see change in our own system right here in America? The answer is actually simple I think. People, not just any people though, certain people who have the ability to influence millions. Celebrities, I believe that when it comes to having a sticky idea, celebrities are the stickiest way to get word out to the public. Organizations, groups, social movements flock to celebrities and try to persuade them to join their cause because they know that these celebrities are considered influential not only in the U.S, but in the world. This is what has happened. This is how our attention is drawn into eliminating global poverty, because a celebrity spokesperson that many consider a role model has told us that we should. Celebrities are the salesmen of our nation.
I think the idea of having these influential people join a cause and urge others to join is brilliant, however the causes that we are urged to support seem to all be more on a global context and they are not working because they are not realistic. We are urged to donate money to other countries to stop world hunger, when we ourselves are trying to figure out where our next meal is coming from. We are urged to send a Christmas gift to an orphan in another country because they will not a Christmas when we ourselves have so many children that will not have a Christmas either. We are urged to send resources to Africa, because their people are homeless and dying when we have homeless right down our street who are also dying. Where we have missed the mark is with Gladwell’s third rule, “the power of context”. Currently America is going through an economic crisis, whether people want to acknowledge it or not, we are. More and more families are forced into poverty every day, and we are not being effective in providing for them. How can we be expected to donate money to other countries, when there is no one donating money to our country to eliminate poverty? This is why there has not been a change in global poverty, because although the message is sticky and the spokesperson is influential and can persuade some, the context is all wrong. We can’t help others if we don’t stop for a second and help our own.
Let’s get these celebrities to join a cause that is even closer to home than Africa, let’s get them to consider America as a cause. I think that if want to see reform brought to our current welfare system then we are going to have to raise more awareness for the epidemic of poverty right here in America and I think we are going to need influential people to help do that. Anyone can sit and talk about how flawed our welfare system is and how ineffective we are at helping the poor and the homeless, but unless that person has the ability to influence other’s to speak up and take action, all it is, is talk. If we can somehow get these influential people to start raising more awareness on national poverty and urging people to speak up about their conditions, then we might be able to see more government officials take interest in creating reform in our social welfare system. The welfare system is not something that can just fix itself, it is not something that we can just sit back and hope improves. Let’s quit campaigning to send aid to other countries and campaign for more aid for our own country. America needs to pay more attention to its own poverty before we try to address the poverty in other countries. I believe that in order to see change and reform brought about to our welfare systems and what we are doing for our poor, and then it is going to take influential people who have the ability to speak for those who can not speak for themselves. We will need to see more causes for America for celebrities to join and help push for change. Do not just talk about the flaws of our system, come up with an idea that we can run with.
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Editorial 2
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/opinion/30tue2.html?_r=1&ref=editorials
This article talks about the Dream Act and the hope it brings to future immigration reform if it passes.
What kind of future reform will it bring though? The Dream Act proposes that we essentially provide amnesty for undocumented immigrants who are college students or serve in the military. This seems like something that Americans should be okay about because these individuals hopefully would be a benefit to our society. If this is something that passes, okay fine...but what next? What are some of this future immigration reforms America will also see passed or try to be passed? I can't help but think that something like this would further encourage immigrants to continue coming across the border undocumented. So these undocumented individuals go to college and serve our in our military which will benefit our society I guess in the long run, but would it not also benefit our society to deport them? I am not against immigration, as long as it is done the right way and through the proper systems. I realize it takes a long time for the process, so I propose that if we continue to allow immigration, why not make the process for coming easier to encourage them to come legally. Many who discuss the Dream Act and advocate for immigration reform often talk about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and how they have the same rights as I do fail to realize that it says "citizen" if they are undocumented in this country, they are not a citizen, therefore these do not apply to them. Immigration reform should mean that we either start to crack down on those coming illegally to our country or we make the process for them to come legally easier and quicker. Our country is in a crisis whether people think so or not, if something doesn't change we will not have the resources to support our nation and we will continue to see a crappy economy and more and more poverty.
This article talks about the Dream Act and the hope it brings to future immigration reform if it passes.
What kind of future reform will it bring though? The Dream Act proposes that we essentially provide amnesty for undocumented immigrants who are college students or serve in the military. This seems like something that Americans should be okay about because these individuals hopefully would be a benefit to our society. If this is something that passes, okay fine...but what next? What are some of this future immigration reforms America will also see passed or try to be passed? I can't help but think that something like this would further encourage immigrants to continue coming across the border undocumented. So these undocumented individuals go to college and serve our in our military which will benefit our society I guess in the long run, but would it not also benefit our society to deport them? I am not against immigration, as long as it is done the right way and through the proper systems. I realize it takes a long time for the process, so I propose that if we continue to allow immigration, why not make the process for coming easier to encourage them to come legally. Many who discuss the Dream Act and advocate for immigration reform often talk about the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence and how they have the same rights as I do fail to realize that it says "citizen" if they are undocumented in this country, they are not a citizen, therefore these do not apply to them. Immigration reform should mean that we either start to crack down on those coming illegally to our country or we make the process for them to come legally easier and quicker. Our country is in a crisis whether people think so or not, if something doesn't change we will not have the resources to support our nation and we will continue to see a crappy economy and more and more poverty.
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