The Profession of Social Work and the work of Social Assistance: Partners or the parting of ways?

This research evaluates the historical relationship between university educated social workers, the profession of social work and the delivery of municipal social assistance in Ontario.;The findings of the research suggest that for university educated social workers the path to professionalization has resulted in the abandonment of social assistance work. As social work strives to legitimate itself as a profession in a market driven economy, it has tended to move away from working with the impoverished. The stigma endured by social workers in social assistance resembles the stigma faced by the clients of social assistance.;The thesis contributes to our understanding of the complex dynamics between social work and social assistance; it is a relationship that requires serious attention by the profession as poverty appears to be increasing and the lives of the impoverished become increasingly perilous.;Through the use of a political economy framework, the thesis argues that social assistance work is generally devalued work and that the functions of social work have been significantly eroded from the work of social assistance. Social assistance work has increasingly become de-professionalized with little attention paid to the importance of assisting social assistance recipients with other aspects of their usually extremely complicated lives.