Social Welfare
Every year, millions of persons residing in the U.S. depend upon welfare programs to provide them with money, food, clothing, shelter, health care services, mental health services, rehabilitative services, and
childcare services. Despite the many welfare programs that exist in the U.S., we still live in a nation in
which certain populations experience adult poverty, childhood poverty, infant mortality, hunger,
malnutrition, and limited access to health care. Thus, although we have an extensive welfare system,
many of the problems that our welfare system is designed to alleviate continue to exist. A major focus of
this course is to explore the gap that exists between welfare services and programs and the social
problems that these services and programs are designed to alleviate. In doing so, we will investigate the
values and norms that have been incorporated into our version of the welfare state, how various
institutions in our society are related to welfare policies, programs and services, the historical
underpinnings of our welfare state, and the programs and services that constitute our welfare state.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Students should leave this course with the following:
1) An understanding of how values, norms and institutions influence the development and structure of
welfare policies, programs, and services
2) An understanding of the historical underpinnings of our welfare state.
3) An understanding of the core modern welfare policies, programs, and services as well as an
understanding of how current welfare reform policies have changed the nature of welfare in the U.S.
4) An appreciation and understanding of social welfare values, policies, and programs in other countries.