Home - SWG 541 - Policy Analysis Brief - LibGuides at West Chester University of PA

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Subjects: Distance Education, Social Work

Identify the Rights Violated

These resources can help you identify specific rights granted to individuals by giving you the text of the actual law.

UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Helpful in identifying international human rights violations

Contextualize the Social Issue/Problem

Start your search with the first resource in this list and work your way down as needed. CQ Researcher is comprehensive and easy to use - but it may not cover your topic. Congressional Publications is likely to have something on your topic, but it may not be as nicely arranged. GovInfo.gov has the widest reach but may bring back less focused results.

CQ Researcher This link opens in a new window
Great for an overall view of a problem/issue - may identify rights violated, as well as identifying stakeholders and key forces. Search on your topic in the upper right, or browse the hot topics on the right.
Congressional Publications This link opens in a new window
A lot of information on laws passed by the US Congress here. Use the Document Types field on the left to restrict your search to:
- CRS Reports - reports compiled on hot issues for Congress - good for an overview of a topic and any applicable laws.
- Hearings - transcipts/prepared statements delivered to Congress. Scan the table of contents to see who stakeholders interested in an issue are. Also good for quotes by people for/against an issue.
- Legislative Histories - if you want to view the history of a specific piece of legislation.

GovInfo.gov
Search through a wide array of governmental information; if you want to limit your results to former/current presidents' statements on policies, limit to Compilation of Presidential Documents and Public Papers of the President.

Additional Information from Scholarly and Other Articles

If you need additional information on your topic, try looking at scholarly and other articles which may offer discussion of your social welfare policy as a whole or touch on specific aspects of it. These articles may provide evidence on how existing policy is (or isn't) working; you could also add in search terms addressing specific aspects of the problem you need more information on (economics, history, etc).

Resources for several different topic areas are below - if your social welfare policy doesn't fit into these categories, or you need more information, try OneSearch.

Immigration

Ethnic American Newspapers from the Balch Collection, 1799-1971 This link opens in a new window
A good source of historical views on immigration, primarily from the immigrant point of view - you can use the Dates and Eras tab below the search boxes to set a timeframe before you run your search.

Child Welfare

Homelessness

There are multiple entries in CQ Researcher on this topic (search for homeless). Be sure to check the Bibliography section for additional reading - there are links to government and NGO studies, books, and articles.

Social Work Abstracts This link opens in a new window
We don't have a specific database on homelessness, but Social Work Abstracts does have articles on homelessness and social policy. An EBSCO database, so you can add in other databases (Family and Society Studies Worldwide, Sociological Collection) to your search if needed using the Choose Databases link at the top of the field.