The Impact of Community Action Programs on Private Social Service Agencies

1973 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan R. Orden
Keyword(s):  
Social Service ◽  
Community Action ◽  
Social Service Agencies ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Service Agencies

scholarly journals Digital Support for Renal Patients Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Examining the Efforts of Singapore Social Service Agencies in Facebook

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junjie Tan ◽  
Aravind Sesagiri Raamkumar ◽  
Hwee Lin Wee
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Support Groups ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Classification Scheme ◽  
Psychosocial Support ◽  
Lifestyle Changes ◽  
Social Service Agencies ◽  
Kidney Dialysis ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Service Agencies

During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, social service agencies (SSAs) play a crucial role in supporting renal patients, who are particularly vulnerable to infections. Social media platforms such as Facebook, serves as an effective medium for these SSAs to disseminate information. Content analysis of the SSAs’ Facebook posts can provide insights on whether Facebook has been adequately utilized during the COVID-19 pandemic and enable SSAs to improve their social media use in future pandemics. This study aimed to compare renal-related SSAs’ Facebook post content before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facebook posts of three SSAs National Kidney Foundation (NKF), Kidney Dialysis Foundation (KDF), and Muslim Kidney Action Association (MKAC), posted during the pre-COVID-19 period (January 23, 2019 to June 2, 2019) and the peri-COVID-19 period (January 23, 2020 to June 1, 2020) were extracted. A classification scheme was developed by two coders with themes derived inductively and deductively. Each Facebook post was assigned with a theme. Quantitative analyses indicate that the number of Facebook posts increased from 115 in the pre-COVID-19 period to 293 in the peri-COVID-19 period. During peri-COVID-19, posts regarding lifestyle changes, donations and infectious disease surfaced. While the proportion of posts about encouraging kindness increased from one to 77 posts, the proportion of posts about community-based events and psychosocial support decreased from 44 to 15 posts and 17 to 10 posts respectively during the two periods. Facebook was found to be well-utilized by two of the three renal SSAs in engaging their beneficiaries during the pandemic. During future pandemics, renal SSAs should place emphasis on posts related to psychosocial support and encouraging kindness. Further studies are required to ascertain the impact of COVID-19 from the perspective of renal patients and also to validate the classification scheme which was developed in this study. The study’s methodology and classification scheme can be used to guide future studies for evaluating the social media outreach performance of renal health support groups.

Social Reality of the Drug Problem: New York's Lower East Side

1971 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 381-391
Author(s):  
Clayton Hartjen ◽  
Richard Quinney
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Drug Addiction ◽  
Social Service ◽  
Community Control ◽  
Lower East Side ◽  
East Side ◽  
Drug Problem ◽  
Social Service Agencies ◽  
Reality Construction ◽  
Service Agencies

The scope and nature of social problems are frequently a creation of the various organizations and agencies established to deal with some aspect of community concern. The "educational" and other activities of these groups can be seen as attempts at reality construction. Regarding these efforts, this study examined the kind and effectiveness of drug addiction programs sponsored by social service agencies in New York City's Lower East Side and found them to be wanting. The absence of drug programs and the inability of these agencies to effectively carry out projects of this (and any other) kind appears to be a consequence of the funding structure and the existence of conflict between agencies. It is argued, however, that these agencies can serve as a principal base from which community control over and ultimately any just solution to the drug problem may be initiated.

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