This advanced elective course exposes social work students to the social, cultural, political, and spiritual implications of poverty, with special emphasis on families, neighborhoods, and communities characterized by persistent and resistant poverty. Students examine the major philosophical, conceptual, and theoretical frameworks used to define, measure, and interpret poverty in the context of increasing income inequality.
Students explore historic trends in and the current scope of poverty across various demographic groups, and how social institutions such as the child welfare system, criminal justice and legal systems, the family, faith communities, health and mental health systems, schools, and workplaces can be resources for primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention of poverty and its adverse effects on individual, family, and community well-being.