Social Sciences

Service members and veterans face a myriad of health, mental health, and social challenges stemming from the combat and operational stressors experienced during deployment and the challenges of reintegration to civilian life. To intervene effectively with this population, social workers must be knowledgeable about these issues and the cultural context within which they occur. Although schools of social work across the country are developing course work in military social work, little is known about the learning outcomes of these courses. This article describes a military social work course that was developed to increase student preparedness to work with a military or veteran population and the learning outcomes achieved. Using a quasi-experimental pre-post design, this study compared the learning outcomes of students enrolled in the course with a group of students who had not taken the course. To measure this knowledge, the authors developed a 50-item Military Social Work Knowledge Scale for the study. Significant differences between pre-and posttest scores were found for the social work students enrolled in the course. Specific areas of knowledge that increased for the class participants included knowledge about cultural sensitivity to military populations and knowledge about service and advocacy frameworks.

Globally, more than 60% of all workers work in the informal economy (ILO
2020). One sector, waste pickers, comprise 1–2% of workers in low- and
middle-income countries, yet their vulnerabilities and contributions to
the circular economy are poorly understood. The COVID-19 pandemic
presents a valuable opportunity to evaluate the socio-economic
precarity of waste pickers, the essentiality of their contributions to
sustainability efforts, and the fragility of circular economy
infrastructures. This study, designed by WIEGO (Women in the Informal
Economy: Globalizing and Organizing), aimed to assess the socioeconomic
impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated lockdowns
on waste pickers globally. Additionally, the study surveyed occupational
health challenges faced by waste pickers and responses by local
governments and non-governmental organizations. Between June and
July 2020, local research teams surveyed 499 waste pickers in 9 cities in
8 countries. The study findings highlight 1) that the pandemic
exacerbated the already precarious economic condition of waste
pickers; 2) high worker risk to occupational exposures and lack of
personal protective equipment (PPE), which resulted in varied PPE
usage, and 3) the uneven and limited distribution of economic
assistance and aid by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and local
governments in support of waste pickers as essential workers. We
propose several recommendations to address persistent inequities in
the informal recycling sector to create a more inclusive and just circular
economy.