Historical Foundations of Addressing Need: Indigenous, French, and English Traditions

 Recommended Readings

Abramovitz, M. (1996). Regulating the lives of women: Social welfare policy from colonial times to the present. Cambridge, MA: South End Press.

Al-Krenawi, A., Graham, J.R. & Habibov, N. (Eds.). (2016). Diversity and social work in Canada. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.

Dobson, K. (2011). With a closed fist: Growing up in Canada’s toughest neighbourhood. Montreal: Véhicule Press.

Dobson, K. (2018). Punching and kicking: Leaving Canada's toughest neighbourhood. Montreal: Véhicule Press.

Gray, M., Coates, J., Yellow Bird, M., & Hetherington, T. (Eds.). (2013). Decolonising social work. London: Ashgate.

Mackey, F. (2004). Black then: Blacks and Montreal, 1780s–1880s. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

McCallum, M. J.L. (2014). Indigenous women, work, and history: 1940-1980. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

Morton, S. (2014). Wisdom, justice and charity: Canadian social welfare through the life of Jane B. Wisdom. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Noel, J. (2013). Along a river: The first French-Canadian women. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Sinclair, R., Hart, M.A., & Bruyere, G. (Eds.). (2009). Wícihitowin: Aboriginal social work in Canada. Halifax: Fernwood.

Recommended Videos

  1. Discussion on Welfare (1967) by Colin Low. 6 min 53 sec. National Film Board. https://www.nfb.ca/film/discussion_on_welfare

    This short film is an interview about social welfare perspectives with four community members of Fogo Island, Newfoundland in 1967.
  1. The Things I Cannot Change (1967) by Tanya Ballantyne. 55 min. National Film Board. https://www.nfb.ca/film/things_i_cannot_change/

    This documentary follows the Bailey family of 11 for 3 weeks in the mid-1960s. Filmed in Montreal, the story of living in poverty and the challenges the parents faced to meet their family’s needs is one that echoed across Canada’s major cities in the late 1960s.
  1. I Work for Change (2017). 54 min. Dalhousie University School of Social Work. https://vimeo.com/226305683

    This documentary addresses some misconceptions of social work and highlights the diversity of roles and areas of social work practice. Integrated throughout are historical perspectives about the development of social work as a profession in Nova Scotia.
  1. No way! Not me (1987) by Ariadna Ochrymovych. 29 min. National Film Board. https://www.nfb.ca/film/no_way_not_me/

    In this short documentary, former BC cabinet member, social activist and educator Rosemary Brown discusses the incidence of poverty among women with high school students. Ms. Brown provides a timeline of women’s roles in the work force and in society and discusses the realities of the “feminization of poverty.”
  1. Jessica Jackley: Poverty, Moneyand Love (2010). 18 min 30 sec. TED Talks.http://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_jackley_poverty_money_and_love

    What are your perspectives on people who live in poverty? Jessica Jackley, co-founder of Kiva.org, talks about what changed her attitudes over time.

Recommended Websites

  1. Canadian Association of Social Workers, Continuing Education. https://www.casw-acts.ca/en/webinars

    This page on the CASW website provides links to upcoming webinars on a variety of issues. In addition to the webinars, there are also links to various podcasts by the webinar instructors, available for free on YouTube.
  1. Canadian Association for Social Work Education. https://caswe-acfts.ca

    The CASWE’s primary mandate is to support social work education, scholarship, and practice. The website provides information on accreditation of schools of social work and supports various constituency groups. Groups include four caucuses (i.e., the Women’s Caucus, Queer Caucus, (dis)Ability Caucus, Racial Ethnic and Cultural Issues Caucus), the Thunderbird Circle-Indigenous Social Work Educators Network, various committees such as the Student Committee and the Committee on Francophone Social Work in Linguistic Minority Contexts, and working groups.
  1. The Social Work Podcast. http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/

    The Social Work Podcast provides information on all aspects of social work, including clinical and community practice, research, policy, and education.
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