<p>Social support is generally viewed in the addiction field as an important consideration in assessment and a potentially valuable component of a comprehensive treatment plan. The literature would suggest that strong social support can benefit individuals during many stages of the recovery process, including both active recovery and longer term maintenance. Less is known about social considerations in the initial stages of seeking support to begin recovery.</p> <p>This report seeks to explore social support considerations for a specific population, Ontario Works recipients who have identified substance use as a barrier to employment, and to do so in a hopefully reciprocal manner which values understanding context from those with lived experience. This qualitative study is informed by the principles of grounded theory in a general manner, began with no specific hypothesis, and allowed participants flexibility in their responses. Previously documented barriers facing this population were generally reflected by the circumstances revealed by this study’s participants.</p> <p>The principle findings outlined the lack of social supports currently in place for participants and their struggle to seek help. Seeking help appeared to require an emotional low point and a recognition that overcoming the substance use concern would not be realistic without additional help. Support seeking appears to be encouraged by specific nurturing characteristics of supporters. From a practice perspective the findings illustrated the need for increased focus on clinician/client engagement and a greater focus on practitioner’s appreciating the unique challenges facing this population and utilizing creative approaches to address them.</p> / Master of Social Work (MSW)

After the North American wave of “welfare reform” in the 1990s, much research has measured the success of the work-to-welfare model. Lone mothers as a group have proved a particularly intractable challenge to policies aimed at moving welfare recipients into the labour market and financial independence. The present dissertation focuses on lone mother welfare recipients and explores the processes they live as they receive and attempt to leave social assistance. This research adds to current scholarship by identifying factors that promote or frustrate the process of exiting social assistance, and by examining the effectiveness of policies and programs aimed at integrating these welfare recipients into the labour market. Concentrating on the welfare regime in Ontario, this dissertation explores the experiences of a diverse sample of thirty lone mothers participating in Ontario Works, the provincially-mandated work-to-welfare program. Each lone mother was interviewed annually for a series of four interviews. Focus groups with caseworkers provided insight into the lone mothers’ processes of attempting to leave social assistance, highlighting the differences between program design and program delivery. The dissertation asks three overarching research questions: What is the role of the provincial welfare regime in transitioning lone mothers from receipt of social assistance to paid employment? How did the lone mothers’ lives change over the study period? What elements facilitated exiting social assistance and what elements acted as obstacles or barriers? The research and analysis are shaped by three theoretical lenses; gender, social exclusion and social capital. The results highlight that there is no predictive factor: no profile emerged of the lone mother most likely to achieve independence. The research identifies “stayers”, “leavers” and three additional groups: “blenders”, “traders”, and “betweeners,” and establishes that while many exit the welfare stream, few did so because of financial independence. These results point to substantial inadequacies in the provincial work-to-welfare programming in addressing the particular needs of lone mothers. Gender neutral policies proved to overlook the key aspects to lone mothers’ experiences, such as their caregiving responsibilities and the realities of a labour market that stratifies based on gender. Lone mothers were effectively excluded from programs designed to increase bridging and linking social capital; such programs are only available to recipients who have succeeded in eliminating their barriers to joining the labour market. Bonding social capital, which is not targeted by Ontario Works and which depends on the personal resources of each woman, emerges as the key determinant of success in exiting, as it allows the lone mothers to overcome the caregiving challenge. The research also indicates that those without bonding social capital are those most likely to be socially excluded from multiple social realms.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-117). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.)--Carleton University, 2000. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

<p>Since Ontario Works (OW) was implemented in 1998, the policy has been tinkered with including making changes in benefits and relaxing of some of the more punitive practices such as a life time ban for recipients convicted of fraud. However in OW, one ofOntario's social assistance programs, the requirement to participate in work or work preparation activities, remains relatively unchanged. Intended to end the supposed free riding of recipients, work for welfare continues to be an unwavering policy instrument despite findings that the policy is at best ineffective and at worst counterproductive in helping OW clients find and keep work (Lightman et al 2005, Little 2005, Peck 2001, Quaid 2002).</p> <p>Some scholars argue that administrative practices are maintained by the normative assumptions on which a policy stands (Fraser 1989, George and Wilding 2003, Plant et al. 1989). In order to investigate the normative underpinnings behind OW work, this study explored the literature on welfare state approaches. This review focused on the normative assumptions surrounding work that are engaged to diffuse and inculcate neoliberal imperatives and class and gender related codes of conduct connected to OW work. By conducting interviews with OW clients and staff, this study also examined the ways in which norms facilitate the administration of OW especially how internalized taken-for-granted ideas about work are leveraged by the policy. Gramsci’s notions of hegemony and common sense (Gramsci 2010) and Bourdieu’s notion of habitus, field and capital (Bourdieu 1989) were engaged as theoretical tools that might explain how taken-for-granted assumptions facilitate the administration of OW and the enforcement of workfare policies.</p> <p>The project found that the 'works' part of OW is comprised of 3 types of work: becoming eligible, employable and employed. A major contradiction that emerged during the investigation is that OW is focused on ensuring ongoing eligibility - not on employment. The administration of OW work engages with normative expectations surrounding work, welfare and gender that are connected to the contradictions in OW work. It is common sense ideas surrounding these normative expectations (such as the moral benefits of work) that maintain practices and reconcile contradictions. As well, a specific habitus (coach/gatekeeper) operates in OW which engages certain types of common sense ideas that align with normative expectations.</p> / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This research tracks the emergence of ‘soft’ workfare in Toronto. This refers to a set of attitudes and practices apparent in the delivery of welfare-to-work programs through the Ontario Works framework, which use compulsion to push people towards employment while simultaneously encouraging limited and specific practices of individual choice. Research findings are derived from eight interviews and relevant policy reports, focusing on the experiences of three non-profit agencies and the City of Toronto, who provide employment assistance and financial assistance through Ontario Works, respectively. These findings indicate that grassroots organizations pioneered employment services for social assistance recipients, and, alongside the municipal government, had been calling for active employment programs. They made use of the distance between policy rules and their own programs to alleviate the most punitive features of OW, but judge compulsion as a means to meet a necessary end. This demonstrates how disciplinary tendencies reside within liberal governmentalities.

This research tracks the emergence of ‘soft’ workfare in Toronto. This refers to a set of attitudes and practices apparent in the delivery of welfare-to-work programs through the Ontario Works framework, which use compulsion to push people towards employment while simultaneously encouraging limited and specific practices of individual choice. Research findings are derived from eight interviews and relevant policy reports, focusing on the experiences of three non-profit agencies and the City of Toronto, who provide employment assistance and financial assistance through Ontario Works, respectively. These findings indicate that grassroots organizations pioneered employment services for social assistance recipients, and, alongside the municipal government, had been calling for active employment programs. They made use of the distance between policy rules and their own programs to alleviate the most punitive features of OW, but judge compulsion as a means to meet a necessary end. This demonstrates how disciplinary tendencies reside within liberal governmentalities.