Social Issues Surrounding Child Welfare Services Essay Example for Free

Social Issues Surrounding Child Welfare Services Essay Children are part of a family, while a family is a basic unit of social structure representing a single household in a community. The need to address the issues and problems surrounding these two social groups is a social concern that has led to the creation of different social welfare and development organizations and units.   For the purpose of identifying the issues and problems surrounding family and child welfare, let us not take family and child as two different social actors. As Shireman wrote in the book â€Å"Critical Issues in Child Welfare,† â€Å"There is no dichotomy between the welfare of the child and the welfare of the family. Any policy that supports family life supports the welfare of children. Child welfare is, therefore, about the welfare of children and families† (1). In the United States, despite the continuous attempt of the government and other welfare organizations to eradicate the problems related to family and child welfare programs and services, different issues still persist to question the policies created to address such problems. In order to identify this problems and issues, let us first briefly discuss the background of this problem. Family and Child Care in U.S. According to a press release from US Census Bureau News, in 2004, 61 percent or approximately 45 million of the United States’ 73 million children population, with ages 18 years and below, were living with their biological parents. Of these 45 million children, over 42.2 million lived with married foster parents, while approximately 4.1 million lived with stepfather and biological mother. Meanwhile, 19.3 million children in the U.S. lived with one parent particularly with single mother. More to this, an estimated 12.2 million children witch is 17% of children’s population lived with half sibling, stepparent, and/or stepsibling. Concerning the family and child welfare services program, the U.S. government in the Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1993 created the Family Preservation and Support Services which aims to encourage the State â€Å"to develop, establish, and operate a program of community-based family support services and family preservation services† (Layzer, Goodson, Bernstein, and Price ii). The family support program offers related services and programs to families in the given communities. Meanwhile, the family preservation services give assistance to families who are experiencing family problems and crisis. Moreover, this program also encompasses the children’s issues and problems. Issues Surrounding Family and Child Welfare Family and child welfare policies, being a social concern, have been subjected to criticism by different groups in the society like media, non-government organizations, cause groups, and even state legislators. Consequently issues on family and child welfare surfaced, ranging from difficulties in identifying and measuring the extent of involvement and intervention of the state in solving marital and familial issues to the availability of funds to support the different programs relating to family and child welfare. With regard to state intervention in cases of child abuse and violence, unless the family violence has been judged seriously enough for court intervention, the child could be detached from his or her parent’s home and brought to a foster home. In this situation, problems arose concerning the basis of measurement used in identifying the seriousness or weight of the abuse or violence inflicted on the child. The child’s separation from his or her family, particularly from his mother, was perceived to be critical and dangerous to the child. Thus, it is the abuser who should leave the home and face the consequence of his action. As Schechter and Edleson put it, â€Å"intervention should ensure the child’s safety, help the mother protect herself and her children, and hold the perpetrator of the violence accountable† (qtd. in Shireman 44). The issues of whether a child should stay short-term or long-term in the foster home or with their foster parent or kinship’s care is also subjected to critical issues concerning the possible effects of their detachment from their family. Most child welfare services are confronted with hard decisions of whether to satisfy the other needs (including the education) of children or just provide them with what is necessary like safety, nurture, guidance, food, and clothing. Linked to this issue are the roles of the courts, law enforcement, and child welfare services (Shireman 53). The state’s budget allocation for family and child welfare is also a subject of controversial issues. Financial analysts noted that the funds for family and child welfare programs were often misused. An estimated $20 billion is being spent yearly for different child welfare programs and services. While a huge amount is being dedicated to child welfare support programs, only little amount is allocated for preventing child neglect and abuse (Urban Institute n.p.). In addition to this, despite the budget allocation for the health component of child welfare, many foster children are not provided with an access to needed mental and health care services (Geen, Sommers, and Cohen 1). Furthermore, the low budget allocated for hiring social workers often leads to employment of staffs that are less qualified and are not professionally trained to work in such program and service (Shireman 3). Another problem is related to the issues involved in kinship care being an alternative foster care for abused and neglected children instead of placing them in child care homes. Like in child care housing, the kin care givers are also entitled to child-only payments coming from Temporary Assistance for Needy Families as fees or incentives for their hardship and services. Among the support services that kin care givers must receive are state subsidies for child care and housing and food stamps. Yet, many kin care givers fail to receive such support services (Urban Institute n.p.). In addition, the state is unable to monitor the condition of a child placed in kinship care. As a result, the child care programs designed to â€Å"reunite them with their parents or find them an adoptive home† were not implemented (Macomber, Geen and Main 1). Lastly, the shortage of foster homes due to increased number of referrals and increasing number of women employment also poses problems in child care program. Such scarcity questions the protection and safety being provided for children. In addition, foster home shortages also make it difficult to conduct thorough assessment on children whether they should stay long-term or short-term in foster home (Shireman 253). Looking at these issues and problem, we could say that without properly addressing the problem of family and child care welfare, the occurrence of family abuse and neglect, homelessness, family conflicts, and others is likely to continue. Thus, proper solution should consider prevention than cure. Works Cited Geen, Rob, Anna S. Sommers, and Mindy Cohen, M. â€Å"Medicaid Spending on Foster Children.† The Child Welfare Research Program Brief No. 14 August 2005: 1-11. 7 Apr. 2009. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/311221_medicaid_spending.pdf. Layzer, Jean I., Barbara D. Goodson, Lawrence Bernstein, and Cristofer Price. National Evaluation of Family Support Programs Final Report: Volume A: The Meta-Analysis. Cambrigde: Abt. Associates Inc., 2001. 7 Apr. 2009. http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/opre/abuse_neglect/fam_sup/reports/famsup/fam_sup_vol_a.pdf. Macomber, Jennifer., Ehrle, Rob Geen, and Regan Main. â€Å"Kinship Foster Care: Custody, Hardships, and Services.† Snapshots of America’s Families III No. 14 Nov. 2003: 1-2. 7 Apr. 2009. http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/310893_snapshots3_no14.pdf. Shireman, Joan F. Critical Issues in Child Welfare. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. Urban Institute. â€Å"Child Welfare: A Program of the Urban Institute.† Urban Institute: Issues in Focus. 2009. 7 Apr. 2009. http://www.urban.org/toolkit/issues/childwelfare.cfm. U.S. Census Bureau News.   â€Å"Majority of Children Live With Two Biological Parents.† U.S. Census Bureau. 17 Nov. 2008. 7 Apr. 2009. http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/children/011507.html

The Makings of a Good Lawman :: Television Media TV Essays

The Makings of a Good Lawman Gunsmoke is about the violence that moved throughout the west and the united states marshal Matt Dillon along with his sidekick Chester, who moved along solving the crimes and lending a hand to anyone who needed it along the way. The staring cast of Gunsmoke was William Conrad as Matt Dillon, Howard McNear as Doc, Parley Baer as Chester, Georgia Ellis as Kitty. Usually the west is describes as a time in history filled with outlaws, gun fights, ghost towns, wagon journeys along trails, it was a time when people picked up and moved hearing of the next booming city where more gold can be found, more money to be made or the way of life was better than before. In Gunsmoke Matt Dillon is an independent, compassionate, caring, attentive, and determined person. In The Sutler, Matt Dillon it upon himself as he listens to a friend Mr. Jonas speak about a problem he has had with a man named Dale. Matt Dillon goes to the army fort to speak with the Lieutenant in charge about Dale. He is brushed off but persists in making him understand. In Prairie Happy the people of Dodge are getting ready for the Pawnees to attack. Mr. Chooksberry starts a fire and kills two men. Marshal Dillon Speaks with him and still puts him to bed. Chooksberry went to trial due to his daughter speaking on his behalf Chooksberry was a Pawnee. In There was never a Horse Marshal Dillon was backed down in a saloon by Mr. Ken Creed he is purposefully letting everyone know that he made the Marshal back down. Matt Dillons sense of self-reliance is that In Sutler he took it upon himself to gather information and created roadblocks along the route to and from the fort in order to catch Dale. In Prairie Happy Marshal Dillon remained calm while the city of Dodge was moving around trying to protect themselves the Marshal was the only one that thought about it and said that only an Indian would know when they would attack and not leave it so that the City of Dodge knew that they were going to attack. Chooksberry never spoke again in English only in Pawnee and Marshal Dillon was still concerned enough to allow his daughter to go to trial with him ; In There was never a Horse Marshal Matt allows himself to look like a fool no matter what other say.

A balance scorecard analysis of compaq computer corparation

Compaq which comes from two words COMPatibility And Quality was founded in 1982 by Rod Canion, Jim Harris and Bill Murto with each of them investing $ 1,000 as starting capital for the organization.They tapped two key marketing executive from IBM company (Jim D’Arezzo and Sparky Sparks) in the early eighties who really helped in the positioning of Compaq as a household brand name in its early years with the assistance of other executives such as Ross A. Cooley, Michael Swavely, Mr. Colley.  Over the years, it grew to become one of the most successful PC manufactures company with a commanding market share and knocking out some of its competitors along the way. However it later merged with its biggest competitor in 2001.GROWTH OF COMPAQHaving being founded in 1982, Compaq announced its first product (Compaq Portable) in November 1982 which was released to the market in 1983. this was a start with a success being able to sell out 53,000 units in its first year at a price of $29 95. This was the start of the rolling of f of a number of its product which included the Compaq Deskpro in 1984, the Compaq Deskpro386 in 1986 and the Systempro (a server) in 1989. Compaq Deskpro 386 was an even bigger success and a mile stone as Compaq was able to set itself as a supplier of choice making IBM lose its image of technical leadership.The early 90s was Compaq dominating the market for servers driving off quite a number of competitors off the market in a price war. The late 90s was Compaq buying other technology companies becoming the second largest computer maker in the world.Things changed in 2001 as Compaq went into a merger with Hewlett-Packard changing their symbols from CPQ and HWP respectively to HPQ. Just like every other corporate merger, the merger between Compaq and Hewlett-Packard was faced with difficulties but this was worse as the two were global giants in the technical industry with the biggest challenge being bringing them together ‘without sacrif icing the customer-centric approach that divided them’.BALANCE SCORECARD‘A balance scorecard is a strategic planning and management system that is used extensively in business industry, government and non profit organizations worldwide to align business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization, improving internal and external communication and monitor organization.This tends to transform the organization strategic plan from an attractive but passive document into one that the organization uses on a day basis in its decision making’. (Balance Scorecard Institute 2008)Kaplan and Norton developed and linked it to firms’ strategic objectives to performance measurement. They also recommended broadening the scope of the measures to include

The Life and Work of Howard S. Becker

Howard S. Howie Becker is an American sociologist renowned for his qualitative research into the lives of those otherwise classified as deviant, and for revolutionizing how deviant behavior is studied and theorized within the discipline. The development of the subfield focused on deviance is credited to him, as is  labeling theory. He also made significant contributions to the sociology of art. His most notable books include  Outsiders  (1963),  Art Worlds  (1982),  What About Mozart? What About Murder?  (2015).  Most of his career was spent as a professor of sociology at Northwestern University.   Early Life Born in 1928 in Chicago, IL, Becker is now technically retired but continues to teach and write in San Francisco, CA, and Paris, France. One of the most prolific living sociologists, he has about 200 publications to his name, including 13 books. Becker has been awarded six honorary degrees, and in 1998 was given the award for Career of Distinguished Scholarship by the American Sociological Association. His scholarship has been supported by the Ford Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the MacArthur Foundation. Becker served as President of the Society for the Study of Social Problems from 1965-66, and is a lifelong jazz pianist. Becker earned Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees in sociology from the University of Chicago, studying with those considered a part of the Chicago School of Sociology, including Everett C. Hughes, Georg Simmel, and Robert E. Park. Becker himself is considered a part of the Chicago School. His career in studying those considered deviant began thanks to his exposure to marijuana smoking at Chicagos jazz bars, where he regularly played piano. One of his earliest research projects focused on marijuana use. This research fed into his widely read and cited book  Outsiders, which is considered one of the first texts to develop labeling theory, which postulates that people adopt deviant behavior that breaks social norms after they have been labeled deviant by others, by social institutions, and by the criminal justice system. Importance of His Work The importance of this work is that it shifts analytic focus away from individuals and to social structures and relations, which allows for the social forces at play in producing deviance to be seen, understood, and changed, if need be. Beckers groundbreaking research resonates today in the work of sociologists who study how institutions, including schools, use racial stereotypes to label students of color as deviant problems that must be managed by the criminal justice system, rather than in-school punishment. Beckers book  Art Worlds  made important contributions to the subfield of the sociology of art. His work shifted the conversation from individual artists to the whole field of social relations that make the production, distribution, and valuation of art possible. This text also proved influential to the sociology of media, media studies, and cultural studies. Another important contribution that Becker made to sociology was to write his books and articles in an engaging and readable way that made them accessible to a wide audience. He wrote prolifically also on the important role that good writing plays in disseminating the results of sociological research. His books on this topic, which also serve as writing guides, include  Writing for Social Scientists,  The Tricks of the Trade, and  Telling About Society. Learn More About Howie Becker You can find much of Beckers writing on his website, where he also shares his music, photos, and favorite quotes. To learn more about Beckers fascinating life as a jazz musician/sociologist, check out this in-depth 2015 profile of him in  The New Yorker.