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In last decade of the 20th century, in both the United States and Europe, there was a move toward the introduction/strengthening of activation requirements as an eligibility condition to minimum income (MI) benefits. Since then, a number of developments have taken place. Based on evidence from the United States, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the Czech Republic, this book captures the direction and significance of these developments. The book makes two broad contributions to the literature. First, the book shows that the periof between 2000 and 2008, is marked by two parallel trends. The first concerns the strengthening of the role of the market in the governance of activation. The second trend concerns the strengthening of efforts to adjust the delivery of activation services to the needs and characteristics of MI recipients (i.e., the individualization of service delivery). There are, however, some important variations, with some countries veering toward the strengthening of the role of the market (“marketizers”) and others adopting for a broader approach (“comprehensive reformers”). Then, taking a longer view, that covers developments in the activation strategy from the first set of reforms in the 1980s until the present, the book also shows that whilst the first wave of reforms pursued a strategy emphasizing the strengthening of participants’ human resources, the second wave, resulted in a a close to uniform move toward Work First. The current crisis has, so far, resulted in further curtailments of rights.

International migration has reached new heights since the 1960s. Altogether, some 215 million people live in countries other than their countries of birth, and according to surveys, another 700 million say they would leave their homes and move to another country if they could. Nations—both sending and receiving—have responded to this growing international migrant flow with new laws and domestic programs. In receiving countries, these include laws and programs to control entry, encourage high-skilled immigration, develop refugee policy, and speed assimilation. In sending countries, governments are implementing and experimenting with new policies that link migrant diasporas back to their home countries culturally or economically—or both. This volume contains a series of thoughtful analyses of some of the most critical issues raised in both receiving and sending countries, including US immigration policy, European high-skilled labor programs, the experiences of migrants to the Gulf States, the impact of immigration on student educational achievement, and how post-conflict nations connect with their diasporas.

This book incorporates data from multiple public housing sites in large U.S. cities to shine much-needed light on the symptoms and behaviors of African American youth living in non-HOPE VI public-housing neighborhoods. With findings grounded in empirical research, the book gives practitioners and policy makers a solid grasp of the attitudes toward deviance, alcohol and drug abuse, and depressive symptoms that characterize these communities and links them explicitly to gaps in policy and practice. It initiates new, productive paths for research into this vulnerable population and contributes to the development of preventive interventions that may increase the life chances of affected youth.

The practice of adoption has changed dramatically over the past century, with profound implications for children and families. One significant example is that many categories of adults who previously were prohibited (or at least discouraged) from adopting—such as single, lower income and foster parents—have been increasingly accepted as suitable adoption applicants. Perhaps the most remarkable and controversial transformation during this time has been the growing willingness of adoption professionals to place children with sexual-minority individuals and couples. Yes, despite considerable research showing that lesbians and gay men can make good parents, they continue to experience difficulties and barriers in many parts of the United States in their efforts to adopt and raise children. Indeed, while progress in this area has been significant, it has been impeded by the homophobia and heterosexist attitudes of adoption professionals and the judiciary; by numerous stereotypes and misconceptions about parenting by lesbians and gay men; and by a lack of adequate guidelines and training for establishing best practice standards in working with this rapidly growing group of adoptive parents. This book explores the gamut of historical, legal, sociological, psychological, social casework, and personal issues related to adoption by sexual-minorities. The book aims to provide insights and specific recommendations for establishing knowledge-based empirically validated best practices for working with an important sector of our society, for treating all prospective and current parents fairly and equally.

Poverty, increased inequality, and social exclusion are back on the political agenda in Western Europe, not only as a consequence of the Great Recession that hit the global economy in 2008, but also as a consequence of a seemingly structural trend towards increased inequality that began some time ago. How can we explain this increase in inequalities? In this book, it is argued that social and labor market policies contribute to shaping the forms and extent of the new inequalities and divides that challenge European societies. Growing inequality is related to processes of dualization, i.e. a widening, deepening, or the creation of new insider-outsider divides. The processes of division in the realms of labor markets, social policy and political representation are strongly linked. Dualization is certainly not the only driver of increasing inequality, but because of the encompassing development evidenced in this book, dualization appears one of the most important current trends affecting developed societies. However, the extent and forms of dualization observed vary greatly across countries. The comparative perspective of this book provides insights into why some countries witness lower levels of insider-outsider divides, whereas for others, they have become a core characteristic. Most importantly, the comparisons presented in this book point to the crucial importance of politics and political choice in driving and shaping the social outcomes of deindustrialization. Governments “cope” in different ways with deindustrialization. Hence, while increased structural labor market divides can be found across all countries, governments have a strong responsibility in shaping the distributive consequences of these labor market changes. Insider-outsider divides are not a straightforward consequence of deindustrialization, but rather the result of policy, i.e. of political choice.

Multivariate procedures allow social workers and other human services researchers to analyze complex, multidimensional social problems and interventions in ways that minimize oversimplification. This book provides an introduction to four procedures for the analysis of multiple dependent variables: multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA), multivariate multiple regression (MMR), and structural equation modeling (SEM). Each procedure is presented in a way that allows readers to compare and contrast them in terms of appropriate research context; required statistical assumptions, including levels of measurement of variables to be modeled; analytical steps; sample size; and strengths and weaknesses. This book facilitates course extensibility in scope and depth by allowing instructors to supplement course content with rigorous statistical procedures. The book provides detailed annotated examples using Stata, SPSS (PASW), SAS, and Amos.

This book focuses on the analysis of data from single case designs. The methods covered in this book range from traditional visual analysis methods to complex ARIMA statistical models. The use of graphical methods is also extensively covered. The book is most appropriate for students in doctoral programs in disciplines such as Social Work and Psychology. It should also be useful for researchers and professionals in the various helping professions that make use of single case design methodology for practice evaluation and research. The methods covered range from the very simple to the very complex.

Anti-social behaviour (ASB) was a major preoccupation of New Labour's project of social and political renewal, with Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) a controversial addition to crime and disorder management powers. Thought by some to be a dangerous extension of the power to criminalise, by others as a vital dimension of local governance, there remains a concerning lack of evidence as to whether or not they compound social exclusion. This collection brings together opinion, commentary, research evidence, professional guidance, debate and critique in order to understand the phenomenon of anti-social behaviour. It considers the earliest available evidence in order to evaluate the British government's ASB strategy, debates contrasting definitions of ASB and examines policy and practice issues affected by it. Chapters ask what the recent history of ASB governance tells us about how the issue will develop to shape public and social policies in the years to come.

Anti-social behaviour orders (ASBOs) have become the main sanction for dealing with anti-social behaviour in the United Kingdom. This book provides one of the first assessments of this sanction, which has become widely used but remains extremely controversial. The report is based on detailed interviews with ASBO recipients, practitioners and community representatives in areas affected by anti-social behaviour. Examining its use and impact from these various perspectives, the book assesses the effects of ASBOs on the behaviour and attitudes of recipients and analyses the various issues which arise in relation to their implementation.

Community social work practice has made tremendous progress in reaching out to marginalized groups in urban and rural areas of the country, with social work scholars bringing many of the key concepts underlying community practice into fields like health promotion, fostering approaches ranging from involving beauticians in providing domestic violence services, to developing community gardens to address food security and educational initiatives. The role and importance of assessment in development of health and social services are well accepted in the field and represent the fundamental building blocks for the creation of any form of social intervention. Needs assessments are, without question, the most common form of assessment in these fields. They typically, however, result in a rather narrow view of a community that stresses disease risk profiles and lists of various social problem categories. Nevertheless, unlike needs assessments, asset assessments bring a range of factors and considerations to the creation of an intervention that are guided by participatory democratic principles and processes. Although needs assessments can also be guided by participatory principles, they generally are professionally-driven and do not stress capacity enhancement in the process. The emphasis on participatory democracy during asset assessments distances them from their needs counterpart through the use of values, the language used to communicate, and how research methods get conceptualized and carried out. Community asset assessments can be viewed as a goal, a strategy, a set of guiding principles, a method, and a process. These different perspectives make a consensus definition of a capital difficult to arrive at in both scholarly and practice realms. Consequently, it is best to view asset assessments from an evolutionary point of view in order to appreciate the variety of perspectives, tensions, and potential for achieving positive social change. In essence, these assessments are both an instrument of discovery as well as an intervention to achieve community change.

At Home with Autism introduces readers to conditions and aspirations of adults on the autism spectrum that demand a new approach to how we provide, locate, design and develop homes in which they live. The book argues that there is no singular stellar residential model, just as there is no singular prototype of autism. Grounded in an extensive array of research sources, the book identifies resident-focused quality of life goals, and profiles design guidelines directed to those goals. The book implores those involved in housing design, production and policy to expand their exposure to what is possible, what is desirable, and to direct their efforts towards expanding residential choices for those on the spectrum.

This book examines local responses to political and economic crises in Germany and the UK. In Germany, the influx of refugees has thrown into question state capacity to cope with crisis and the acceptability of religious diversity. In the UK, policymakers have framed austerity measures as the most appropriate response to economic crisis, instigated initially by the financial crisis in 2007-8. However, in contrast to the far more visible, often rightwing, protests against the political establishment, local social activists have worked across different ethnic and religious groups to address social problems. The initiatives range from food banks to debt advice to helping some of the most vulnerable families and individuals overcome challenging life situations. Some are secular and others faith-based, though often, faith is related to individual motivation and possesses very little influence on the service itself. The emphasis instead is on collaborative activism, where organisations and individuals come to depend upon each other for mobilising resources and overcoming problems, an effort that in turn promotes trust and understanding across the diverse participants. This activism suggests new engagement with citizenship, which refers as much to participation in community-based, inclusive action to improve local quality of life as it does to individual rights. The volume brings together German and British academics to show how in both countries, concepts of individual, community, and citizenship are changing in an era of political and social division and persistent economic inequality.

This book provides a comprehensive portrait of the status and unique assets of baby boomers of color. It argues that quality data on the individual status of specific racial populations is lacking and that this leads to inadequate programs, policies, and services. It goes on to say that the absence of data is a testament to the invisibility of baby boomers of color in society and that this deeply affects the practice of social work and the work of other helping professions that require culturally sensitive approaches. Using specific data, the book grounds an understanding of boomers' financial, medical, and emotional needs within a historical, socioeconomic, cultural, and political context. It focuses on older African Americans, Hispanics, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans, and addresses issues of financial security, employment stability, housing, and health care, which are often complicated by linguistic and cultural differences. Rather than treat baby boomers of color as a financial burden on society and its resources, it recognizes their strengths and positive contributions to families and communities. It offers tailored recommendations for meeting the challenges of a growing population.

The complexity of social problems necessitates that social work researchers utilize multivariate statistical methods in their investigations. Having a thorough understanding of basic statistics can facilitate this process as multivariate methods have as their foundation many of these basic statistical procedures. In this pocket guide, the authors introduce readers to three of the more frequently used multivariate statistical methods in social work research—multiplelinear regression analysis,analysis of variance and covariance, and path analysis—with an emphasis on the basic statistics as important features of these methods. The primary intention is to help prepare entry level doctoral students and early career social work researchers in the use of multivariate statistical methods by offering a straightforward and easy to understand explanation of these methods and the basic statistics that inform them. The pocket guide begins with a review of basic statistics, hypothesis testing with inferential statistics, and bivariate analytic methods. Subsequent sections describe bivarate and multiple linear regression analyses, one-way and two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and covariance (ANCOVA), and path analysis. In each chapter, the authors introduce the various basic statistical procedures by providing definitions, formulas, descriptions of the underlying logic and assumptions of each procedure, and examples of how they have been applied in the social work research literature. The authors also explain estimation procedures and how to interpret results. Each chapter provides brief step-by-step instructions for conducting these statistical tests in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and AMOS (SPSS, Inc. 2011), based on data from the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS: 88). Finally, the book offers a companion website that provides more detailed instructions, as well as data sets and worked examples.

It is well known that many victims of domestic violence do not follow the conventional advice of the advocacy community. They do not call the police. They do not go to shelters or if they do go to shelters, they leave "early" and return to their batterers. The conventional wisdom says that this is an indication that there is something wrong with these women. It is the thesis of this book that there is something wrong with this deficit-focused paradigm. Battered women protect themselves in many ways. The stereotypes of battered women as passive and in denial are based on a mistakenly narrow view of battered women's lives. Women who have been battered show impressive resilience and strength. The goal of this book is to present a strengths-focused paradigm for understanding battered women and their responses to violence.

The Black Power movement has often been portrayed in history and popular culture as the quintessential “bad boy” of modern black movement-making in America. Yet this impression misses the full extent of Black Power's contributions to U.S. society, especially in regard to black professionals in social work. Relying on extensive archival research and oral history interviews, this book follows two groups of black social workers in the 1960s and 1970s as they mobilized Black Power ideas, strategies, and tactics to change their national professional associations. Comparing black dissenters within the National Federation of Settlements (NFS), who fought for concessions from within their organization, and those within the National Conference on Social Welfare (NCSW), who ultimately adopted a separatist strategy, it shows how the Black Power influence was central to the creation and rise of black professional associations. It also provides a nuanced approach to studying race-based movements and offers a framework for understanding the role of social movements in shaping the non-state organizations of civil society.

Much has been made of the complex social arrangements that girls and women navigate, but little scholarly or popular attention has focused on what friendship means to men. Drawing on in-depth interviews with nearly 400 men and 125 women, the author takes readers on a guided tour of male friendships, explaining what makes them work, why they are vital to the health of individuals and communities, and how to build the kinds of friendships that can lead to longer and happier lives. The interviews with women help map the differences in what men and women seek from friendships and what, if anything, men and women can learn from each other. The guiding feature of the book is Greif's typology of male friendships: he dispels the myth that men don't have friends, showing that men have must, trust, just, and rust friends. A must friend is the best friend a man must call with earthshaking news. A trust friend is liked and trusted but not necessarily held as close as a must friend. Just friends are casual acquaintances, while rust friends have a long history together and can drift in and out of each other's lives, essentially picking up where they left off. Understanding the role each of these types of friends plays across men's lives, from youth to advanced age, reveals developmental patterns, such as how men cope with stress and conflict, and how they make and maintain friendships. We also learn how notions of masculinity and the women in their lives shape their friendships, and how their friends keep them active and happy. Through the words of the men themselves and detailed profiles of men from their twenties to their nineties, readers learn what friendships offer men and how to work on their own friendships.

This book explains how organizational culture and climate affect the quality and outcomes of human services and describes the Availability, Responsiveness, and Continuity (ARC) model of organizational effectiveness that the authors developed for improving social service, behavioral health, health care, and other human service organizations. The authors summarize decades of practice and research experience, including organizational improvement efforts, randomized controlled trials, and nationwide studies with hundreds of human services organizations. The book provides a balance between the use of empirical data and applied examples in explaining how human services can be improved. By combining numerous case examples and experiential knowledge with decades of organizational research, readers learn about empirically proven approaches tested in real organizations that are supported with case examples of organizational change. The book explains that creating the organizational social contexts necessary for providing effective services requires three types of organizational strategies. These strategies include organizational tools for identifying and addressing service barriers, principles for aligning organizational priorities to guide improvement, and the development of shared mental models among organizational members to support the principles and tools.

McRoy, Flanzer and Zlotnik (and contributing author Lewis) in Building Research Culture and Infrastructure Tools for Social Workers provide information for social work schools and departments at various levels of research capacity, to not only examine or re-examine their research climate and culture, but to also assess their readiness to further enhance their research environment. A summary of the historical background of the development of social work research in colleges and universities is provided as well as very specific resources and tips for enhancing involvement of BSW, MSW and PhD social work faculty in research. The authors report on the current climate and status of research infrastructures and enterprise in social work education programs, weaving in information provided by faculty, deans and research administrators, obtained through a questionnaire and interview process. Faculty scenarios illustrating barriers to achieving their research funding goals are addressed along with current examples of specific steps to address these barriers at selected universities. Clear differences between PhD and non-PhD granting institutions in the types of opportunities and strategies for engaging in research, and related issues of financing and administrative support are addressed. Practical tips for grant writing, and seeking federal, state and foundation support make this book not only a guide for building research infrastructure for faculty, deans and university administrators, but it is also a good “ how to” resource for seeking research support itself.

This book presents an approach to therapeutic contact with clients that capitalizes on people's resilience, strengths, and capacities. The helper works in collaboration with the individual to identify and amplify these capacities to resolve problems and improve quality of life. Clients are empowered to find their own answers and solutions that will fit their particular worldview and their unique strengths (De Jong & Miller, 1995). These principles are operationalized through solution-focused therapy and motivational interviewing. The helper also identifies areas in which clients can use education on how to meet more effectively life's challenges. A focus on coping skills is represented by cognitive-behavioral therapy. These theoretical approaches are woven together for the purpose of maximizing a person's ability to enhance the strengths they bring and also learn new skills that can help them. The resultant strengths- and skills-building model is applied, throughout the book, to various problems and populations that helping practitioners may encounter.