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Essay Instructions: Social Policy Analysis and Practice
Policy Practitioner?s Influence on Policy
SW Roles in the Policy Arena
Student Name:
Instructions: In Haynes and Mickelson you will find in Chapter 6 on Policy Practitioner?s Influence on Policy an illustration on influencing policy by Sara L. Barwinski, MSW an advocacy facilitator at Lutheran Family and Children?s Services in St Louis, Missouri. Read the influencing policy and answer the following questions.

1. How did Sara help clients to define and resolve their own problems?



2. Provide examples where clients were required to identify resources, assert their rights, or gain a sense of control of their lives.


3. How was Sara able to identify the effects of legislative policies for the homeless population trying to receive food stamps?


4. The federal food stamp program is available to the homeless population in Missouri. Why were the homeless people in St. Louis being denied?


5. How did Sara use the tasks associated with Information Dissemination?


6. What did you learn about this illustration?
Social Policy Analysis and Practice
Policy Practitioner?s Influence on Policy
Using Information Dissemination Tasks to Influence Social Policy



Case Study
You are a geriatric social worker employed by a for-profit nursing home. Most of your clients are over the age of 65. Many of these individuals are low income and do not have access to transportation but have expressed an interest in voting in the general election in the fall.
You have explained to the seniors that a state issued photo identification card will be needed to vote, and the ID?s will cost $20. The seniors are not happy with the cost because they live on a fixed income and are unable to pay the $20 for the ID?s.

1. Explain how you can utilize your practice knowledge to assist the seniors in this situation?


2. As the social worker for the seniors, how would you use documentation to assist the seniors?


3. If you were contacted by the legislative aide from an Indiana State Representative to serve as an expert witness regarding the issue of the ID?s, what information do you think would be helpful to share?


4. As an advocate and social worker for the senior citizens, explain how you will gain public awareness about this situation. Identify one micro, one mezzo, and one macro skill that will assist with this task.

Micro:
Mezzo:
Macro:


5. Identify a current or pass bill from the Indiana legislature about the cost of voter identification cards, and provide the name of the bill, the number, and a short summary of the bill.

Essay Instructions: Social Policy is what we as Society direct Government to reflect in laws and policies. These are the ideas an principles we value. Rules about how we treat each other. Rules about how business is conducted. Rules about What we want protected. What programs we initiative. As society?s values change we direct government to reflect the new thinking in the laws and programs.

It is very easy to see each entity ? Society, Business and Government - as separate or even competitive forces. Each responds to the actions and desires of the other. Each influences and is influenced by the other(s).

It was easy to see OSHA [Occupational Health and Safety Administration] as something the government foisted on business. In reality it was society that influenced the change. OSHA not only changed the workplace but created many opportunities for existing and new businesses.

How do you view the relationships among Society, Business and Government?


Provide a recent example [10-5 years] that illustrates how this dynamic system works. Provide an analysis of the dynamics and forces at work.

Essay Instructions: Social Policy and the American Welfare State
Week 1 Worksheet

Student Name:

Read chapter 1 Social Policy and the American Welfare State in Karger and Stoesz then answer the following questions.

1. Explain and discuss whether or not the American welfare state is best viewed through the lens of a liberal political point of view.




2. Based on the history of the United States, do you believe the American welfare state is rooted in strong traditions that never changes? Explain your answer.




3. List the three economic schools of thoughts. Discuss the one that suggests moving to a system where there is economic balance.




4. Define social welfare policy




5. Discuss and explain whether or not all social problems become a welfare policy.


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Social Welfare Policy Research
Week 1 Worksheet

Student Name:

A social policy analysis consists of 4 steps. Read chapter 2 Social Welfare Policy Research in Karger and Stoesz and the article International Policy on Human Rights located in modules. Complete a social policy analysis using the model discussed in chapter 2.

What social policy was selected for this analysis?

1. Step 1:




2. Step 2:




3. Step 3:





4. Step 4:

Essay Instructions: Social Policy Analysis and Practice
Models for Policy Analysis: Understanding the Dimensions of
Social and Economic Justice
Upward Mobility Works

Instructions: Answer the following questions based on chapters 9 & 18

1. If individuals and families kept more of their income instead of having it taxed to support social programs, would this be prudent public policy? Explain your answer







2. Should there be an expectation for individuals to act in their own best interests economically? Explain your answer.





3. Policy, withholding and the earned income tax are three tax policies that are central to US. Explain one of the tax policies and provide an example.





4. Explain the industrial performance model.



5. In the article, Peace and Social Justice, several important factors are listed that affect peace and social justice. Select one of the factors and discuss how social workers can create positive change towards addressing that factor.



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The Crime of "Unauthorized Reproduction"
New law will require marriage as a legal condition of motherhood
By Laura McPhee

Republican lawmakers are drafting new legislation that will make marriage a requirement for motherhood in the state of Indiana, including specific criminal penalties for unmarried women who do become pregnant "by means other than sexual intercourse."

According to a draft of the recommended change in state law, every woman in Indiana seeking to become a mother through assisted reproduction therapy such as in vitro fertilization, sperm donation, and egg donation, must first file for a "petition for parentage" in their local county probate court.

Only women who are married will be considered for the "gestational certificate" that must be presented to any doctor who facilitates the pregnancy. Further, the "gestational certificate" will only be given to married couples that successfully complete the same screening process currently required by law of adoptive parents.

As it the draft of the new law reads now, an intended parent "who knowingly or willingly participates in an artificial reproduction procedure" without court approval, "commits unauthorized reproduction, a Class B misdemeanor." The criminal charges will be the same for physicians who commit "unauthorized practice of artificial reproduction."

The change in Indiana law to require marriage as a condition for motherhood and criminalizing "unauthorized reproduction" was introduced at a summer meeting of the Indiana General Assembly's Health Finance Commission on September 29 and a final version of the bill will come up for a vote at the next meeting at the end of this month.

Republican Senator Patricia Miller is both the Health Finance Commission Chair and the sponsor of the bill. She believes the new law will protect children in the state of Indiana and make parenting laws more explicit.

According to Sen. Miller, the laws prohibiting surrogacy in the state of Indiana are currently too vague and unenforceable, and that is the purpose of the new legislation.

"But it's not just surrogacy," Miller told NUVO. "The law is vague on all types of extraordinary types of infertility treatment, and we wanted to address that as well."

"Ordinary treatment would be the mother's egg and the father's sperm. But now there are a lot of extraordinary things that raise issues of who has legal rights as parents," she explained when asked what she considers "extraordinary" infertility treatment.

Sen. Miller believes the requirement of marriage for parenting is for the benefit of the children that result from infertility treatments.

"We did want to address the issue of whether or not the law should allow single people to be parents. Studies have shown that a child raised by both parents--a mother and a father--do better. So, we do want to have laws that protect the children," she explained.

When asked specifically if she believes marriage should be a requirement for motherhood, and if that is part of the bill's intention, Sen. Miller responded, "Yes. Yes, I do."
SWK S505 ? Social Policy Analysis and Practice
Models for Policy Analysis: Understanding the Dimensions of
Social and Economic Justice
The Crime of Unauthorized Reproduction Worksheet
Instructions: After reading the article by Laura McPhee, complete this worksheet

1. Explain Senator Miller's proposal in terms of the three major schools of economics as discussed in Chapter 1.







2. Which political philosophy from Chapter 1 in Karger and Stoesz best explains Senator Miller's proposal? Why? See the section under "The Welfare Philosophers and the Neoconservative Think Tanks" in Chapter 1 to answer this question.

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