In class this week we looked at public and social policy. From my understanding, public policy guides the rights and needs of citizens, whereas social policy is more specific in its focus on welfare and social programming. Social policy can only reach as far as public policies allow. Since the late 1980s/early 1990s, there has been a growing shift of Canadian policy from its position as a welfare state to one which has adopted a neoliberal position. The result has been a serious cut of funding to social assistance programs. I came across this term, ‘neoliberalism’ a few years back, and did not grasp the idea too clearly because I did not have any experience with how this shift affected society.
Having been a volunteer at the Sexual Assault / Rape Crisis Centre of Peel (SARCCP) for two years now, I have seen first hand how neoliberalism has changed the programming at the Centre. Two years ago there was a staff position dedicated to community events/relations, and another to public education. Today, both of these positions have been cut, and the responsibilities these positions had have been absorbed by all remaining staff members. For obvious reasons, this has placed a tremendous amount of pressure and responsibility on the remaining staff members, as they now have to fulfill all of the duties of the previous staff’s positions on top of their own. This has left the remaining staff in positions where they are overworked and therefore potentially more irritable and frustrated. Think about the effect this will have on clients! This frustration may come across to clients as insincerity, rudeness or even disinterest. This has the potential to damage the counsellor-client relationship, possibly sending the client away without receiving any assistance. Through this example, I have grown more conscious of the ways in which neoliberalism is affecting the social service sector, and consequently leaving those individuals in need of support and social services in a worse position.
In order to further my understanding of the ways in which public and social policy affect social justice organizations, I will be working on the Social Policy Assignment in the context of reproductive rights. I look forward to researching the ways in which policy changes have been detrimental and/or beneficial to women in terms of the ability to make choices and decisions about their own bodies and reproductive systems.
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