Overview of Social Welfare
What is Social Welfare?
Broader definition: …a nation’s system of
programs, benefits, and services that help people
meet those social, economic, educational, and
health needs that are fundamental to the
maintenance of society.
--Dolgoff & Feldstein (2003)
What is Social Welfare?
> Covers practically everything that men do
for the good of society
> The organized system of social services
and institutions, designed to aid individuals
and groups to attain satisfying standards of
life and health ( Walter Friedlander )
-
What is Social Welfare?
> Includes those laws, programs, benefits and services
which assure or strengthen provisions for meeting
social needs recognized as basic to the well-being of
the social order (Elizabeth Wickenden ):
+ strengthening existing arrangements
+ mitigating the hardships of particular and individuals and
groups
+ pioneering new services
+ stimulating a better adaptation of the social structure
including creation of new programs as needed
+ combination of the above to address social needs!
What is Social Welfare?
Encompasses the well-being of all the members
of human society, including their
PHYSICAL
MENTAL
EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING
SOCIAL
ECONOMIC
SPIRITUAL
Domain of Social Welfare
Social interventions that are intended
to enhance or maintain social functioning
of human beings.
--Dolgoff & Feldstein (2003)
What are the goals of social welfare?
Humanitarian and Social Justice Goals
Social Control Goals
Economic Development Goals
Social Welfare:
Humanitarian/Social Justice Goals
This goal of social welfare is rooted in the value of
democracy and social justice.
It is based on the belief that the human being has the
potential for self-actualization. Physical/biological,
social, economic, psychological and other factors
sometimes prevent or block such self-realization.
Social Welfare:
Humanitarian/Social Justice Goals
This concept submits that it is only right and just
for a human being to help another human being,
hence, the provision of social services.
This goal involves the identification of the most
afflicted, the most dependent, the most neglected
and those least able to help themselves, and making
them the priority target for the investment of scarce
resources.
Social Welfare:
Social Control Goals
Recognizes that unmet needs, deprived, marginalized or
disadvantaged groups in a society are capable of striking
out, individually or collectively, vs. what they consider to
be an alienating or offending party.
Therefore, society has to secure itself against the threats to
life, property, and political stability in the community
posed by the those who are deprived of resources and
opportunities to achieve a satisfying life.
Social services to dissidents and juvenile and adult
offenders exemplify the social control goal of social
welfare.
Social Welfare involves
many people…
with different competencies.
Medical doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, economists,
nurses, social workers, priests/pastors/imams,
psychologists, nutritionists, dentists, guidance counselors,
occupational/physical therapists, professional
managers/planners, politicians, police, etc.,
contribute their expertise to social welfare. They have their
own functions and responsibilities.
Social Welfare cuts across…
the concerns of various agencies, institutions and
organizations with varied interests and responsibilities
like health, nutrition, education and training, housing and
resettlements, labor and industry, community
development, livelihood development, social insurance,
population management, disaster management, natural
resource management, child & family welfare,
agriculture, asset reform, labor migration, tourism, peace
and order, prisoner rehabilitation, human rights, etc.
Categories of Social Welfare Programs
Social Security –
( employer liability, provident funds,
social insurance)
Personal Services –
(counseling, therapy & rehabilitation,
institutional services, child protective services &
treatment)
Categories of Social Welfare Programs
Public Assistance -
(material/concrete assistance provided by
government agencies to people without means
to support themselves & their families due to
loss of job, natural disasters, etc.
In many countries, public assistance is simply
called “WELFARE”
What is Social Development?
It is a social process aimed at empowering poor
people by increasing their social assets and capacities
and
to promote inclusive institutions, thereby increasing
poor peoples’ opportunities for more secure
livelihoods.
contributes to increased development effectiveness
and helps projects, programs and policies better meet
their goals and objectives.
What is Social Development?
It refers to the rise in the levels of living, a more
equitable distribution of income and wealth, a better
system of socio-economic stratification and greater
social mobility
As a program, the major components of social
development are:
-human resource development
-institutional and structural change
Social Development is concerned with
these challenges…
Empowerment: giving poor people voice and
choice
Inclusion: making institutions more inclusive
of poor people’s needs and aspirations and more
effective in delivering services to them
Security: enhancing social stability and
human security
Social Welfare in Development
Functions of Social Welfare in the context of
Development
1.Remedial Social Welfare
aims at supplementing and substituting the
inadequate care provided by the family, group
or community i.e. supplemental, rehabilitative.
aims to reduce stresses of change
Social Welfare in Development
Functions of Social Welfare in the context of
Development
2. Rehabilitative Social Welfare
programs and services to restore
productivity of individuals who find themselves
faced with problems which hinder their ability
to cope unaided with life situations adequately.
Social Welfare in Development
Functions of Social Welfare in the context of
Development
3. Residual Social Welfare
programs and services to meet basic human
needs provided in times of crisis such as when
the normal structures of supply, the family and
the marker breakdown. It is withdrawn when
no longer needed e.g. Disaster relief
it carries stigma of “doles” or “charity”
Social Welfare in Development
Functions of Social Welfare in the context of
Development
4. Preventive Social Welfare
- aimed at strengthening the family and
other existing groups and communities, which
attention is also given to preventing behavior.
- it helps create new patterns of social
relations and new social institutions.
Social Welfare in Development
Functions of Social Welfare in the context of
Development
5.Development Social Welfare
- strengthen the maximum potential in individuals,
groups and communities
- is oriented towards and makes direct contribution to
the process of development. These interventions promote:
> human resource development
> social change
> people’s participation in decision-
making and nation building
