Social Welfare Policy & Pract

Catalog description

This course critically examines, from both historical and current perspectives, the overall structure of the U.S. social welfare system with a focus on the disproportionate social, economic and political problems of marginalized populations. The course also considers the parallel historical development of the profession of social work, including the ways in which it responded to social problems across key periods of social welfare policy development. Students learn to use policy analysis tools to understand both how policy influences practice and how social workers can influence social welfare policy. Course content is sensitive to human diversity, specifically including materials on race, ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, physical challenges, spirituality, and socioeconomic factors as they affect human behavior and life span development. Students are required to utilize this material as a background for assessing strengths, limitations, risk, resilience and protective factors that affect clients' social functioning.