Therese Jennissen, professor of Social Work, willl develop a new graduate-level course on comparative social policy, to be offered in January, 2012.

Her new graduate course, Comparative Social Policy: Canada and the European Union, introduces a comparative approach to social policy by focusing first on particular initiatives in Canada and then comparing them to similar policies in selected countries of the European Union.

While people aren’t always aware that the study of social policy is important for social workers, it is one of the main streams of the MSW program at Carleton. “Social workers are at the interface of the policy and the grass roots community, that is, the people who rely on the policies,” says Jennissen. “For example, we see, firsthand, the devastating effects that cutbacks to social programs and services have on those who rely on these services.”

“Social workers have important insights into social issues,” Jennissen explains. “These insights can be central for innovating, designing, and implementing social programs and services that are responsive to the changing needs of the beneficiaries of the policies.”

These insights become particularly important in the context of today’s global economic instability. According to Jennissen, there is much to be learned by comparing Canada’s approach to social policy with that of other countries.

“Several countries in the European Union historically have had innovative, well-developed social policy infrastructures and it is important to examine how and what they are doing in current conditions,” says Jennissen. “Comparing and contrasting what is occurring in countries that are similar to ours is an important educational exercise.”

While the course will select specific policies from a broad menu of social policy issues as they relate to social work (long-term care for seniors, pensions, child care, health and mental health, youth programs, unemployment, immigration, poverty, post secondary education, among others) the course is not limited to, nor will it appeal only to, social work students. The course will also be of interest to students of European studies, political science, sociology, public administration, law, and Canadian studies. The course will be offered in January, 2012.

Those interested in learning more about the course are invited to contact Professor Jennissen at therese_jennissen@carleton.ca.

Muno walked a half-hour to school. She ate just two meals a day, on food that was delivered twice a month by the UN’s World Food Program.

After her family fled the civil war in Somalia when she was two years old, Muno Osman grew up in refugee camps in Kenya. Even so, she says, she was “very, very lucky.” The reason: her parents supported her education.

By secondary school, a lot of classmates had dropped out. “Some couldn’t buy the books,” she explains. “Some had to get married for economic reasons. Some didn’t have enough support from home.” But Muno’s mother ran a small produce market to help pay school expenses.

Muno walked a half-hour to school. She ate just two meals a day, on food that was delivered twice a month by the UN’s World Food Program. And the school had limited resources for things like science.

Even so, she succeeded. She remembers waiting for the results of her final exams, which were written by every senior student in the country. “You wait for two months and I was very, very anxious, because if I didn’t get a scholarship, I would still be hanging around in the camp.” When the results arrived by text message, Muno says, she didn’t know whether to read them or not.

But she did well, winning a scholarship from the World University Service of Canada (WUSC).

She loved reading and wanted to be a writer. But she also wanted to work for a humanitarian agency after seeing agencies around the camp. So she applied for English and International Relations, and wound up at the University of Toronto.

“I considered myself very good in English, coming from an English school with a B+ in my final exam, but it was hard for everyone to understand me and for me to understand people,” she says. She could grasp textbooks, but writing exam questions based on lectures was difficult at first.

That made her rethink a writing career. “I didn’t do well in written English and what language was I going to write in?” she laughs. “And I learned that International Relations wasn’t humanitarian work. I didn’t know at first that it was Social Work I really wanted.”

But after a couple of years in Toronto, she transferred to Carleton’s Bachelor of Social Work program, registering here last fall. “I was very lucky to transfer all my credits,” she adds. And now she’s getting to practice outreach to others.

This term she’s in a required field placement, attached to the Somali Centre for Family Services four days a week. She helps out with language classes for seniors, teaches life skills to youth, and generally assists newcomers, such as helping them find jobs or accompanying them to appointments.

She also volunteers with the WUSC program at Carleton, as part of a group that welcomes new waves of students to campus from the world’s refugee camps. “We take them to the bank, show them where their classes are, show them how to use the website,” she says, adding that it has been a learning experience for her, too.