Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering foundational concepts, historical eras, key reformers, theoretical models, group/community work approaches, and child welfare policies from the social work lecture notes.

Social Work

A practice-based profession and an academic discipline focused on promoting social change, development, social cohesion, and the empowerment of power.

Social Welfare

A system of government where the state actively undertakes to protect the health and well-being of its citizens through providing essential social services and income security programs such as grants, taxes, and pensions.

Residual View of Social Welfare

An approach that treats social welfare as a temporary response to human need, implemented only when all else fails, with the belief that needs should be met through family and the market economy, offering benefits at a low level to discourage use.

Institutional View of Social Welfare

An approach that views social welfare as a necessary public response to help individuals attain a reasonable standard of life and health through a publicly funded system of programs and institutions, thereby evening out economic stratification.

Minimum Income Programs

Income security programs that provide monetary assistance for individuals and families who have no income.

Income Supplementation Programs

Income security initiatives that provide an addition to earned income.

Social Insurance Programs

Income security programs that follow the principle of shared risk, wherein only those who contribute to the system are eligible to receive benefits.

Demogrants

Flat-rate income security payments provided to individuals or households based strictly on demographic characteristics rather than income or need.

Social Policies

The overall rules, regulations, laws, and administrative directives that set the operational framework for state social welfare activity.

Social Programs

Specific initiatives and practical projects that implement social welfare policies.

Universal Programs

Social welfare programs available to everyone within a specific category (such as individuals aged $65$ and over, individuals with disabilities, or children) on equal terms as a fundamental right of citizenship.

Selective Programs

Programs targeting individuals found to be in need or eligible based on a means, income, or needs test, where benefits are typically reduced as income levels increase.

Direct Practice

A category of social work involving face-to-face work directly with individuals, groups, or communities.

Indirect Practice

A category of social work involving organizational work to formulate, analyze, develop, and evaluate social policies and social programs.

Micro Social Work

Direct social work practice conducted specifically with individuals.

Mezzo Social Work

Social work practice focused on working with groups and communities.

Macro Social Work

Social work practice focused on organizations and large communities.

Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW)

The professional organization that advocates for and supports social workers in Ontario.

Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers (OCSWSSW)

The regulatory body responsible for regulating the social work and social service work professions in Ontario.

Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW)

The national organization serving as the national professional voice for social work in Canada.

Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE)

The association responsible for accrediting and advancing social work education programs across Canada.

International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)

A global organization representing and promoting social work education internationally.

Human Rights

Basic freedoms and protections that belong to every single person from birth, regardless of who they are, where they live, or their background.

Era of Moral Reform

The $19^{\text{th}}$-century pre-colonial and colonial phase of social welfare characterized by the classification of individuals into the deserving and undeserving poor, sending the undeserving to workhouses.

Era of Social Reform

The period extending from the turn of the $20^{\text{th}}$ century to the $1930\text{s}$ (the industrial period), during which individualistic values were challenged by concepts of social justice and concern for community well-being.

Era of Applied Social Science

The mid-$20^{\text{th}}$-century welfare state period where governments recognized that social services were an indispensable component of an economy rather than a luxury.

Erosion of the Welfare State

The late-$20^{\text{th}}$-century era of social policy dominated by state efforts to restrain public spending and dismantle the welfare state.

Deserving Poor

A historical category of relief recipients comprising dependent children (boarded with community residents receiving a stipend) and the impotent (helpless) poor who were physically unable to work and supported in poorhouses or almshouses.

Undeserving Poor

A historical classification for able-bodied individuals living in poverty who were viewed as morally deficient and forced into labor within workhouses.

Charity Organization Society (COS)

A British movement that advanced self-help, used "scientific principles" and "friendly visitors" to root out scroungers, and argued that direct material handouts fostered moral failure and permanent dependency.

Settlement House Movement

A movement from the $1880\text{s}$ to the $1930\text{s}$ where educated middle-class youth lived among urban poor residents ("settling in") to pursue social reform, viewing poverty as a systemic social phenomenon.

Jane Addams

The social worker associated with the settlement house movement who founded Hull House in Chicago in $1889$ and became an influential pioneer of professional social work in the United States.

Sara Libby Carson

The social reformer who established Canada's first settlement house, the Young Women's Settlement, in Toronto in $1889$.

Social Gospel Movement

A movement uniting social justice and social action under the belief that service to human beings is a form of service to God, leading to the creation of many early Canadian settlement houses.

J. S. Woodsworth

A Methodist minister and social reformer who served as superintendent of All People Mission, founded the Social Welfare League in $1913$, and became the first leader of the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation (CCF).

Scientific Philanthropy

An approach that originated in England in the $1860\text{s}$ which rejected moral judgment in favor of a systematic, "scientific" assessment of human behavior and evidence-based solutions.

Quiet Revolution

The rapid social, political, and cultural modernization of Quebec during the $1960\text{s}$, triggered by the $1960$ election of Premier Jean Lesage, which transitioned Quebec into a secular welfare state.

J. J. Kelso

A social welfare advocate known for championing the protection of children and animals, and the founder of the Children's Aid Society.

Mary Richmond

A Charity Organization Society practitioner who developed the "medical model" of casework, involving social data collection, diagnosis, and client-centered case plan formulation.

Marguerite Bourgeoys

A French-born religious pioneer, educator, and the first female Canadian saint in the Catholic Church.

Ida B. Wells

An African American investigative journalist, suffragist, and prominent civil rights leader.

W.E.B Dubois

An American sociologist, historian, author, editor, and civil rights activist.

Foundational Theories

Broad conceptual frameworks derived from foundational disciplines like psychology, sociology, economics, and political science that explain why human behavior and societal conditions occur.

Practice Models

Social work action models built on foundational theories that prescribe actionable, step-by-step intervention strategies for real-world social work practice.

Individual-Level Theories

Social work perspectives that focus on the individual person and their immediate interpersonal interactions with others.

Structural-Level Theories

Social work perspectives that emphasize how broader social structures, institutions, systems, and economic processes shape human experiences.

Stages of Direct Practice with Individuals and Families

The sequential four-step process consisting of: 1. Intake, 2. Assessment and planning, 3. Intervention, and 4. Evaluation and termination.

Forming (Group Work)

The initial stage of group work focusing on planning the group, defining its structure, and getting it started.

Storming (Group Work)

The second stage of group work that occurs when conflict, competition, or disagreement emerges among group members.

Norming (Group Work)

The third stage of group work where expectations, standards, roles, and common practices are established, building trust among group members.

Performing (Group Work)

The working stage of group work during which members collaboratively work toward achieving the group's outlined goals.

Adjourning (Group Work)

The final stage of group work where the group completes its tasks and moves toward termination.

Locality Development

A community development approach that focuses on addressing issues relevant to a specific neighborhood or geographic space.

Social Planning

An expert-driven community work method commonly utilized by city planning departments and social planning councils to coordinate and design social services.

Social Action Approach

A community practice approach that employs social protest, mobilization, and confrontation to challenge injustices and alter institutional policies.

Saul Alinsky

The organizer widely regarded as the founder of modern community organizing, who championed confronting power structures within capitalism to redistribute resources to marginalized communities.

Paulo Freire

An educational theorist who criticized the passive "banking approach to education" and promoted a questioning, dialogical approach applied extensively in community practice.

Bill Lee

A community work theorist who conceptualized community practice as a method for pursuing empowerment and social justice beyond mere administrative coordination.

Child Saving Paradigm

The historical foundation of the child welfare system based on the perceived necessity of rescuing children from abusive or neglectful parents.

Best Interests Approach

A child protection approach that prioritizes the safety, protection, and overall well-being of the child above all other considerations.

Least Restrictive Approach

A child welfare principle emphasizing courses of action that minimize disruption, striving to keep the child with their family whenever possible.

Family Group Conference (FGC)

A collaborative decision-making model where family members, community networks, and professionals meet collaboratively to develop a safety and care plan for a child.

Signs of Safety

A strengths-based child protection approach involving active collaboration between family members and child protection workers focused on safety planning.

Duty to Report

The mandatory legal obligation requiring every individual to report suspected child abuse or neglect whenever reasonable grounds exist to believe a child needs protection.

Risk Assessment (Child Welfare)

A standardized evaluation that estimates the likelihood of future maltreatment toward a child as well as the potential severity of harm should an incident occur.

Indigenous Child Poverty Disparity

The documented inequity where the child poverty rate for Indigenous children in Canada is $40\%$ (and $50\%$ for Status First Nations children on reserve), compared to $17\%$ for all Canadian children, stemming from colonialism and chronic underfunding.