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Accessibility and Use of Social Services by the Romany Minority in Prachatice
ZŮNOVÁ, Petra
Accessibility and use of social services by the Romany minority in Prachatice is a very topical issue. All social services provided are specified in the Social Services Act. The main mission of the aforesaid Act is to protect the rights and legitimate interests of individuals who are disadvantaged in the enforcement of their interests for various reasons. These reasons may include age, race, health handicap, critical life situation, insufficiently stimulating social environment, etc. The objective was to map social services used by the Romany minority in Prachatice. In order to fulfil the objective of the thesis, the following three research questions were put. RQ 1: What are the problems concerning which the Romany minority contacts social services organizations? RQ 2: Do the social services offered in Prachatice reflect the issues of the Romany population? RQ 3: What social needs of the Romany people in Prachatice remain unsatisfied? For the research part a qualitative methodology was used, which allowed to depict the dynamics of opinions and attitudes of all informants. The data were collected by means of a semi-structured interview technique. The research examined both the views of Romany citizens of Prachatice and the views of social workers from the local social services organizations. The data were collected from 17 informants in total. The obtained data were processed while using the grounded theory. As an important finding that resulted from my research, I deem the fact that the Romany population in Prachatice knows only nine social services organizations and uses only five of them (Most naděje, Céčko, Coolna, Lungo Drom, Phénix). Moreover, they use the social services of these organizations only sporadically or not at all. The social services used by the Romany people include leisure time activities, social consultancy, visits at schools, provision and arrangement of meals, provision of accommodation, individual planning, crisis intervention, safekeeping of valuables, financial assistance, outreach work, exchange program, indicative testing, pre-school preparation and catch-up lessons. The Romany people would welcome greater interest of social services organizations and their responsiveness. They would also appreciate more leisure time activities in their quarters, better facilities of the quarters and their surroundings, more culture for Romany people and a Romany club led by a Romany social worker. They would also welcome a Romany social worker in some other social services and at the Municipal Police of Prachatice. Informants lack contact with the majority society and better time availability of the urban mass transport and, last but not least, would welcome changes in the municipal government. Social workers would welcome a social service in Prachatice with a psychologist and psychiatrist available for children and adults, higher frequency of visits of the citizens' association Fokus České Budějovice, establishment of social accommodation facilities and a day-care centre for homeless people, social service for children up to three years, strengthening of the ground social work, and a social service aimed at hiring Romany people for temporary jobs. Based on the results derived from the interviews performed and from the data obtained, it is possible to formulate the following three hypotheses. H1: The service most used by the Romany population is social consultancy. H2: Organizations providing social services respond to the Romany issues. H3: Prachatice needs to strengthen ground social work. The findings revealed by this thesis may be used by the social services organizations in Prachatice as feedback from the Romany minority concerning the given issues. Thus the organizations can respond to the need of particular services, which may result in more frequent use of social services in Prachatice.
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Gender Aspects of Social Work
KUBEŠOVÁ, Kristýna
The thesis, "Gender aspects of social work" deals with the issue of incidence of gender stereotypes and prejudices among social workers both gender in České Budějovice. The goal of this work is to find out if gender stereotypes and prejudices could be found in their mind and in practical approach to clients. Moreover, we would like to identify what create conditions for them and how the individuals try to deal with them. The theoretical part is divided into four chapters which focus on terms gender, gender issues generally as well as in connection with social work and above all on gender stereotypes and the incidence in the area of social work. The basic terms are discussed as gender, gender identity, gender role, gender contract and gender socialization. I am concerned with differences between gender, division of male and female role and created gender stereotypes. In addition, I deal with the theme of gender studies and discrimination in connection with gender marginally. Primarily, the theoretical part is focused on gender stereotypes and prejudices in social work and personality of social workers. The practical part is a description of the qualitative research, where attitudes of representative social workers are investigated in case of gender stereotypes and prejudices. With regard to the objective and qualitative strategy of this theses, two research questions were defined: 1) Is there any awareness in social workers about possible gender stereotypes and prejudices in social work?, 2) Are gender stereotypes and prejudices present in behavior, opinions and attitudes of social workers or as the case may be how they are manifested in approach to clients? Semi-structured interviews with 5 women and 1 man were conducted for the purpose of this study. They were selected by objective sampling intentionally. All of them work in organizations of social work in České Budějovice. The realization of the study took place in May 2014 in České Budějovice. The results were divided into three parts on the basis of semi-structured interviews and then were analyzed by the method of clustering. In the first part of interview, I am concerned with the basic information about social workers in connection with performance of social work. Then I focus on their own gender socialization and their idea what is the optimal distribution of gender role in family. Second part of interview is focused on consciousness of social workers about gender in social work. I took an interest in incidence of stereotyped behavior and creation of attitudes to clients. Moreover, the possibility of preference clients on the grounds of affiliation with gender was explored. The final part of interview, I focus briefly on reflexion of social workers and instruments which are used for reflexion of gender stereotypes and prejudices. The results were analyzed in a qualitative way and transformed to uncluttered charts. Results showed gender stereotypes and biases occur among social workers of male and female gender and their primary attitude to male or female clients is influenced by them. The incidence is mainly affected by transferring patterns of men and women role from their families. Nevertheless, men and female social workers are aware of their incidence and they try to eliminate and reflect them during their work. Because of these mechanisms, the attitude of social workers to male and female clients is getting better. In future, the thesis may serve as a source of information for social workers as well as general public who take an interest in this area.
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