Social Welfare Programs: Narratives from Hard Times

Albert and Skolnik enliven the theoretical material that students are required to know. Their integration of legal documents into the text enables students to gain first-hand experience in reading the types of documents they will encounter in practice. This text helps students understand the social programs affecting professional practice with those who have been economically dislocated, the near-poor and poor situated on the fringe of the economy that find themselves dependent upon governmental programs to meet their basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and/or medical care. It presents not only the key features of the major national programs supporting this group, but also the subjective experience of program recipients and the impact of program participation on their lives. Clients' voices are given prominence in order to gain insight into the meaning they assign to their participation and its consequences. Clients' stories provide the connection between the often segregated professional knowledge realms of practice and policy and underscore the legal context of professional practice through examination of illustrative legislation, regulation and judicial decisions.