The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1942-12-11

III and assuming responsibilities as
II group. In other words, collective a,
ton can and should supplement IL
). dividual initiative and action. In thi
way, students get leadership exper
J. ence and the agency saves time an
z effort as we'll as receives create
: services from the students. This i
> no matter of opinion. 1t has bee
E effectively demonstrated at the ager
l cy. Fourth the students becom
: aware of the relationship between
public and private agencies and thei
chief characteristics. They soon learl
that public agencies cannot ant
!, should not do all the community work
Private agencies as we'll as public
agencies have vital place in modern
community work. Fifth, they become
familiar with the welfare laws, parti
cularly on the state and federal levels
and their exercise on the local leve
where the services must be rendered
They learn that political centraliza
ton is necessary to a certain point
but that the state and the county
nave " DC lCSOShiLCQ do llipOi tdht
too. Sixth, when ready to make home
visits, they have the chance to see
people in the community faced with
definite public assistance and social
service needs. This makes them more
aware of the responsibility of the
county, state, a nation to meet these
needs as effectively as possible, not
just to 'pauperize" them as many be-
lieve, but to help direct their abilities
to more constructive performance for
themselves and Indirectly the COM
munity. BY becoming more aware of
local social needs, they redefine their
attitudes about people and social serv-
ices and tend to become better
equipped to assume leadership roles
as citizens The experience human
ICES their interests and concerns
Seventh, their effort to meet the
needs Of people served by the agency
gives them picture of the resources
of the community available to meet
them. Too often, they are made
quate. Consequently, they begin to
see that they should be Increased.
But how? By informing the public
about the necessity of bigger re-
sources, be securing larger public ap-
preparations, by demanding simpler
administrative public arrangements,
and by the extension of the merit
system to help get better qualified
personnel. More civic interest is a
natural result whether the students
obtain social service jobs or not
Students View the Future of
Public Assistance
Students with considerable educa-
tional background in social science
who do field work in a public assist
ance agency and who try to function
as group, develop some rather inter-
esting ideas about the economic sys-
TEN and social service, ideas which
most people have little chance to ex-
perience. l think the following ex-
cerpts from a groups report shows
the nature of student thinking.
students working in the agency
during fall and winter quarters, 1910
Al, have one serious criticism to
make, not of this agency in particu-
lar, but of all public assistance in it's
purely financial aspects. The public
welfare agencies in general concen-
trate so thoroughly on giving financial
aids that they neglect the social as
poets of the case, with the result |
that serious problems are created al |
most as often as others are solved.
1.-THE need for intensive social case
work in many assistance cases is
easily recognized. There is ordinarily |
little opportunity in county welfare
work for intensive case work service.
This condition arises from the over
loaded condition of case workers, and
The purely assistance nature of their
program. The situation is unfortun-
ate, however, for several reasons.
First, the monetary resources pos
sessed by the county welfare worker
afford remarkably effective wedge
for introducing the worker into the
confidence of family, and such OPP
portunities ought not to be wasted.
Secondly, many clients of the
county welfare department are badly I.
n need of intensive case work, and
his service is being denied them by
he overloaded workers.
Thirdly, this enforcement from in /
ensive case work procedures seems 1
o be dulling the workers perception
If problem situations, and lessening ]
he desire to satisfy the needs which t
re so plain and plentiful. AS they
ose this grasp of case work proce- '
lures, the workers lose their SYM /
'athy and seem to grow more self g
oncerned. This is probably due, at t
east in part, to the political pres
ures exerted upon them. Workers S
aiming a safe social distance from the f
lients, and of defending themselves t
gainst the possibility that a client L
lay come to have a hold upon them
ut must, of course be granted that
ver-dependency upon an agency tends il
D sap the initiative of client, and a
invites toofrequent visits and re- G
uests to the agency. Yet, the ques- A
ion in point may well be whether this T
anger exceeds the other danger that b
ne client who needs so much to have Fl
omeone to depend upon in a crisis, 8
lay find himself without a stay, APP "
arently hopelessly lost. z
1.-THE student worker, then, who "
fishes to attempt to render case work f,
aruiooo cauaraIv bon1ioon-od