Assignment Task:
Vonda is an outreach worker at a family resource network in a very conservative county in a state with high rates of poverty and high rates of chronic disease. The county she serves has a lot of needs but few resources to meet them, as her state has taken increasingly restrictive approaches to providing assistance. As a result, she often finds herself defending the idea of providing social services to friends and family members who are not as aware of the issues and levels of need in their community.
How might Vonda respond to someone who decries the stereotype of the "welfare queen" and asserts that providing assistance makes the recipients lazy and helps them stay on "welfare" their entire lives? Is it even possible for an able individual to stay on welfare his or her entire life?
There are those who claim that TANF encourages women to have baby after baby. Does it? Explain your reasoning.
What about the assertion that Medicaid should be cut back or even eliminated? What might be the impacts of cutting back or eliminating Medicaid?