SW 404 Social Welfare Policy and Analysis

In this course, students will learn and practice basic tenets of social welfare policy analysis from a social work lens. Policy analysis is an important skillset for all social workers and familiarity of policy practice is encouraged and heeded by our professional code of ethics. This course introduces students to a process of policy analysis guided by evidence and social justice. Students will be empowered to read, discuss, and critique social welfare policies and provide recommendations for policy solutions that promote individual, family, and community well-being.

In the first half of the course, students will discuss social welfare policy as a subset of public policy, distinguish social welfare policy from social welfare programs, examine how social, cultural, economic, and environmental forces shape policy development, implementation, and funding, and discern evidence from opinion when assessing social welfare policies. Students will explore the role of political ideology from needs-, economic-, and caretaking-perspectives and how ideology guides policy as a viable solution for social welfare concerns and problems. Finally, students will learn about the trajectory of U.S. social welfare policy from the New Deal to the current political and social climate, theories behind social movements to impact social change and the federal and state budgeting process in how social policies are prioritized, implemented, and evaluated. 

In the second half of the course, students will apply a value-critical approach to policy analysis that includes assessing policies goals, objectives, benefits, services, eligibility rules, implementation, administration, evaluation, and financing. Students will discuss and examine the function of social welfare policy as an arbitrator for civil and human rights. Students will also assess the significance of the unique relationship between sovereign indigenous communities and the U.S. government and this impact on social welfare policies.

Credits

3

Prerequisite

Completed SW 403 and SW 421A or MSW Advanced Standing.

Notes

Not open to students on the Hybrid MSW program plan.