Sociology 6 Essay: Social Policy, Community Workers, and Policy Change

This essay, written for a Sociology course, delves into the critical role of social policy in societal well-being. It emphasizes the importance of community-based workers in initiating and implementing policies that benefit society. The essay explores how social workers can address policy weaknesses, challenges, and issues to bring about positive changes, with examples such as the Urban Renewal Policy in the United States. It highlights the need for community workers to advocate for human needs, reduce inequality, and support individuals from childhood to old age. Furthermore, the essay discusses the role of community workers in reducing unemployment, supporting education, and working with government agencies to address various social issues. The essay stresses the significance of taxation, income inequality, and the involvement of federal and state policies in ensuring social equality. The conclusion underscores the complex responsibilities of community workers and their role in identifying policy flaws and advocating for improvements to promote the welfare of the common people.

Running head: SOCIOLOGY
Sociology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Social policy is a very crucial aspect for the proper welfare of the society. It is the
responsibility of the community based workers to organize and implement some policies that
will benefit the society and its people in the best ways possible. The purpose of this essay is to
highlight the importance of the social policies and the ways in which the community workers can
work hard for the positive changes in the field of social policies. The positive changes within the
society can only be brought with the proper initiatives by the social workers and community
workers (Yeates, 2014). Some practical examples will be provided in the essay on how the
change of the social policies has helped for the better outcome of the scenario. The social
workers will need to work on the weaknesses of the social policies and find out the challenges
and issues. Therefore, they can find out the proper ways in which they can resolve the issues.
The role of the community workers is to do the best for the people through which all the
people living in the society would be benefitted (Fried, 2016). However, it is definitely a very
complicated issue. This is why the community workers will have to arrange for the betterment of
the society amidst the political setting of the particular country. It is quite apparent that the
legislations of a country should always contribute to the overall welfare of the country. The
welfare of the human beings is indeed a very complicated matter and community workers should
be very much strict about making proper contributions to this. The welfare issues in the society
can depend upon several issues (Yeates, 2014). The first priority of the community workers
should always be on providing all the human beings with all sorts of facilities. These facilities
should provide equal treatment to all the individuals and giving respect to all the people
belonging to different cultures.
There are certain human needs that should always be fulfilled within the society. These
elements of the human needs are social security, health, education, working opportunities,

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providing equal opportunities to everyone and social well being. This factor of the human well
being will depend upon the economic and demographic changes within the society. One huge
problem that the society faces today is of poverty (Fried, 2016). The economic policies are also
part of the social policies. These economic policies are quite important to minimize the gaps
between the rich and the poor. Therefore, community workers should voice their protests against
those social evil of poverty since it is harmful for the social well being and equality among
different types of people. Everyone should be supported by the community workers from their
childhood to the old age (Le Grand, 2018). This is why it is very evident that these people should
not be treated as unequal and must not be deprived of any of the opportunities within the society.
The primary aim of the community workers should always be on identifying the ways in which
the social injustice and inequality can be reduced. The society should be supported by the local
community workers and the international organizations as well.
If the community workers want to bring on the positive change, they should always
attempt to reduce the unemployment rates in the society among the young people. The children
should be supported and community workers should build up some plans through which they can
provide proper education and health facilities (Le Grand, 2018). The NGOs should try to begin
some schemes so pensions can be given to the people who are being deprived of their facilities.
The socio-economic status of the people should be judged and community workers can
recommend the lacks to the government. The community workers have another and i.e. to work
with the human and child welfare department of the Governments. This government wing helps
the community workers to find out the issues positively (Alcock, 2016). The community workers
have found out several grounds in which they can work for the betterment of the people. These

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grounds are migration status of some people in the society, race, ethnicity and cultural
background, age and disability perspectives, sexual orientation and other aspects in general.
Sometimes it is very much effective to introduce some ways in which the better practices
can be done in terms of community interventions (Alcock, 2016). Sometimes, it has been
reported that young people are deprived of the opportunities and guidance that they will need for
the overall positive development. The health of the children, their education, their employment
opportunities and their training facilities should be adjusted properly so they are not deprived of
all these facilities (Offe, 2018). The community workers should always work effortlessly to
achieve effective results. All the specialized problems should be identified and proper steps
should be taken. In this scenario, all the roles of the community workers should be clarified so
they are not confused about their responsibilities (Harvey, 2014). More importantly, the
community workers have a lot of wide variety of roles that they have to accomplish. Rather, they
should always look for opportunities in which they can drive and initiate for the future changes
in the community.
The roles of the community workers are shaped in a manner that this can meet all the
needs of the common people within the society. Policy changes are required by the community
workers when one finds it is almost impossible for them to find the perfect way to deal with the
already identified problems (Offe, 2018). The problems are very typical and changes must be
brought into the already implemented policies. Some policies do not always fit into the social,
political and economic structure of the society (Beresford, 2016). The Government should be
involved in the planning of the policies and implement the changed policies for the overall social
benefits. The policy makers should always engage in finding out the faults in the policies so

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better policies can be implemented instead of the older one. To be specific, one example can be
given (Marris, 2018).
It is the fact that the Urban Renewal Policy in the United States in 1950s and 60s led to
negative outcomes. The purpose of this policy was to clean up the slum neighborhoods so that
the cities will be better places to live in. The cities would have been much healthier and safer to
live in. In turn this had a negative effect on the unlighted communities and destroyed the living
styles of that region (Beresford, 2016). This is why the change of policies sometimes becomes
very integral for the development of the communities. Also, the taxation and income inequality
should be taken as a very integral process for the development of the communities. This should
be dealt with utmost care since mass income is surely one of the biggest drivers for the
community development (Jimenez et al., 2014). The economic gap between the rich and the poor
should be minimized and this should always be the first priority of the community workers. This
inequality in terms of income has impacts on the things like child education, health concerns of
the elder members of the family and others. This is why the income distribution policies must be
shaped in a proper manner so people from all backgrounds of the society. (Ehrenreich, 2014).
In this scenario, it will be very much appropriate for the community workers to shed the
light on the federal and state policies if these policies work as a barrier for the equality among
people (Leon-Guerrero, 2018). Some of the things that the Federal and State policies should look
after and community workers should also consider as important are the assurance of employment
for the youth in the society, security of the society, food stamps, providing benefits of the veteran
people in the society, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and other factors (Jimenez et al.,
2014). Therefore, all these things should be included in the new policies implemented by the
Federal and State. The community workers can urge to the Government to begin the

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Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) so the children can be ensured of good
quality food in their schools. Therefore, these new things in the policies will cater to bring the
positive changes within the society. The taxation policies should also be shaped in that manner to
ensure better outcomes for the society.
In the concluding section, it should be mentioned that the social policy is a very vast
thing in the society. It is very complicated and the responsibilities of the community workers are
quite complicated in this manner as well. This is why it must be said that the community workers
should always opt to find out the flaws in the current policies that cater to the social welfare. If
the needs of the people are not met, they should always communicate with the government about
which things should be done for the betterment of the situation. They should treat the welfare of
the common people with the utmost priority. This should always bring the positive changes in
this field.

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References and Bibliography
Alcock, Pete, Tina Haux, Margaret May, and Sharon Wright, eds. The student's companion to
social policy. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
Beresford, Peter. All our welfare: Towards participatory social policy. Policy press, 2016.
Ehrenreich, John H. The altruistic imagination: A history of social work and social policy in the
United States. Cornell University Press, 2014.
Fried, Charles. Medical Experimentation: Personal Integrity and Social Policy: New Edition.
Oxford University Press, 2016.
Harvey, Philip. Securing the right to employment: Social welfare policy and the unemployed in
the United States. Vol. 1030. Princeton University Press, 2014.
Jimenez, Jillian, Eileen Mayers Pasztor, Ruth M. Chambers, and Cheryl Pearlman Fujii. Social
policy and social change: Toward the creation of social and economic justice. Sage Publications,
2014.
Kamerman, Sheila B., and Alfred J. Kahn, eds. Privatization and the welfare state. Princeton
University Press, 2014.
Le Grand, Julian. The strategy of equality: redistribution and the social services. Routledge,
2018.
Leon-Guerrero, Anna. Social problems: Community, policy, and social action. Sage
Publications, 2018.

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Marris, Peter. Dilemmas of social reform: poverty and community action in the United States.
Routledge, 2018.
Offe, Claus. "Social policy and the theory of the state." In Contradictions of the welfare state,
pp. 88-118. Routledge, 2018.
Yeates, Nicola, ed. Understanding global social policy. Policy Press, 2014.