Social Welfare Research Resources

The Penn School of Social Policy and Practice enjoys a reputation as Penn's social justice school, for its faculty actively strives to translate the highest ideals into workable programs that better people's lives. In this election year, as Americans debate issues like immigration, crime, mass incarceration, policing, and welfare reform, and express concerns over increasing inequality, tax policy, and divisions by race, sex, and class, "SP2," as the school is colloquially known, offers its expertise in addressing the pressing matters of our day. The practical solutions on offer in this volume showcase the judgment and commitment of the school's scholars and practitioners, working to change politics from blood sport to common undertakings.

Social Work Practice With Older Adults by Jill Chonody and Barbra Teater presents a contemporary framework based on the World Health Organization's active aging policy that allows forward-thinking students to focus on client strengths and resources when working with the elderly. The Actively Aging framework takes into account health, social, behavioral, economic, and personal factors as they relate to aging, but also explores environmental issues, which supports the new educational standards put forth by the Council on Social Work Education. Covering micro, mezzo, and macro practice domains, the text examines all aspects of working with aging populations, from assessment through termination. 

A comprehensive collection on the topic of whiteness from writers in the field of mental health and activism. An up-front, close, and fresh examination of the impact of whiteness and how it contributes to our troubled race relationships, this book posits that whiteness is a pervasive ideology that is rarely overtly identified or examined, although it has profound effects on race relationships in therapy and beyond. Being intentional about naming, deconstructing, and dismantling whiteness is a precursor to responding effectively to the racial reckoning of our society and improving race relationships, addressing systemic bias, and moving toward the creation of a more racially just world. Contributors to the volume are from different backgrounds and trainings, and write on such topics as: the vicious cycle of white centrality; being Black in a world of whiteness; undoing internalized white supremacy; intersectionality and the contradictions of a white, Jewish identity; becoming an antiracist leader; and building an antiracist clinical practice.

This book aims to continue keeping the lives of women and the issues that affect and matter most to them at the forefront of the discussions about society and social services. The text will help readers to gain an understanding of populations of women that they might/will work with in the field of human services. Using demographics, case studies, and best practice/evidence-based programs, the authors collectively provide students and practitioners with a comprehensive knowledge of women from a feminist perspective.

The expansive practice text examines international concerns and content associated with the LGBTQ+ movement and ongoing needs related to health, mental health, policy and advocacy, among other areas of concern. Specific highlights of the chapters include narrative that blends conceptual, theoretical, and empirical content; examination of current trends in the field related to practice considerations and intersectionality; and snapshots of concerns related to international progress and ongoing challenges related toequality and policy. Additionally, as a classroom support for instructors, each chapter has a corresponding power point presentation which includes a resource list pertaining to that chapter's focus with websites, film, and video links as well as national and international organizations associated with the LGBTQ+ community.

This book examines issues across the lifespan of transgender and nonbinary individuals whilst synthesizing conceptual work, empirical evidence, pedagogical content, educational experiences, and the voices of transgender and nonbinary individuals. While there is currently unprecedented visibility and increasing support, members of these communities still face shockingly high rates of violence, victimization, unemployment, discrimination and family rejection. Significant need for services and support coupled with social, clinical, and medical service systems ill-equipped to provide culturally responsive care illustrates the critical need for quality education and training of educators, practitioners, and service providers in best practices of working with members of the transgender and nonbinary community.

This book examines six core areas of healing through a holistic lens that is grounded in a decolonizing perspective. Situating integrative healing within social work education and theory, the book takes an interdisciplinary approach, drawing from social memory and historical trauma, contemplative traditions, storytelling, healing literatures, integrative health, and the traditional environmental knowledge of Indigenous Peoples. In exploring issues of water, creative expression, movement, contemplation, animals, and the natural world in relation to social work practice, the book will appeal to all scholars, practitioners, and community members interested in decolonization and Indigenous studies.

This contributed volume offers a holistic understanding of social work practice in deprived communities through its thematization of understanding deprived communities globally, the development of competencies for social work practice in and with deprived communities, social work education as a community development tool, and the empowerment of social workers in deprived communities. Deprived communities, used in this book to mean slums, ghettos, favelas, and low-income, remote, underserved, vulnerable, impoverished, underdeveloped, disadvantaged, or less-favoured communities, exist worldwide and are conceptualized under different terms and concepts. this volume features contributions that: provide a conceptual clarification of many different terms that are used for describing deprived communities and offer a systematic literature review on community processes and effects on well-being in underdeveloped communities; map different fields of social work involvement in deprived communities with concrete practice examples; and, stress why social work as a profession needs support and how it can be empowered to improve its capacities in deprived communities.