SW4905

SW

4905

Comparative Access and Usage of Social Service Programs in Scotland

Description: This study abroad is a course to engage students in exploring social service and social welfare programs comparing the United States versus the United Kingdom model of helping. In this course students will learn about the history of the social service system in the United Kingdom compared to the America style system of “safety net” and “Elizabethan Poor Laws” and offer methods to compare the two methods of service delivery. By comparing social welfare states both across the UK and the US and within the UK, the course will explore different values and ideologies. We will also travel to Scotland to visit various agencies that provide social services to clients to explore how the agencies actually work at the site. In this highly interactive class, this mixed and diverse group of students will explore both on the US side and on the UK side what it feels like to be a consumer of services and a provider of social services via experiential learning exercises, readings, journaling, and site visits of agencies.