What's New on the 'Net:
Welfare and Social Services on the Web
Robert D. Duval and Rebecca Barrett-Duval

This issue of "What's New on the 'Net" focuses on welfare and social services, a subject that has increased in prominence dramatically over the last few years following the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 that devolved welfare policy to the states. Now that the states are functioning as 50 'laboratories' for welfare reform, the ability to obtain and share information on welfare policy and social services is essential. The World Wide Web is an excellent vehicle for information delivery and retrieval in this area. As will be shown, a multitude of Web sites at all levels of government, the private sector, and non-profit organizations and advocacy groups are getting their programs and messages out on the Web. Also, as will be readily apparent to anyone browsing these Web pages, welfare and social services are closely related to health and health care issues. We will, however, devote the next issue of "What's New on the 'Net" to health care and, as a result, we do not list all of the health related sites in this article.

Any discussion of welfare reform should start with the federal government and its wide range of welfare related sites. Needless to say, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' site is the place to begin.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has a large number of web pages for its special programs, covering a wide range of services and needs. A quick rundown of each of them, along with a brief description from the Administration for Children and Families' page, is presented here.
  Social Security Administration

The Social Security Administration also has a major role in the nation's income maintenance and security programs. It also figures prominently in the Web.

The Social Security Administration's Web site provides an excellent model for demonstrating how Web sites can provide information and services in an efficient manner. There are links to many commonly requested services, banners that provide teasers for information on the role of Social Security programs, and articles of topical interest. It is a site well worth a quick browse.

State Government

Now that the state's role in welfare policy has been increased, state welfare and social services' sites on the web are of great interest to policymakers and others across the nation. A comparison of the prior law and the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-193) is available from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (http://aspe.os.dhhs.gov/hsp/isp/reform.htm).

There are several places on the Web to look for information about welfare and social services from the state government perspective.

West Virginia

West Virginia's Department of Health and Human Resources has put together a set of useful Web pages that detail contact information, identify the agency's role, and provide details on many of the programs operating in the state.
 

Complete descriptions of the Bureau for Children and Families' functions may be found at:
  The West Virginia Department of Health and Humans Services' 1999 Budget Representation is also on the Web. In addition, other information on West Virginia's social service programs can be found at Other States

Many other state agencies related to welfare and human services may be found through StateSearch's comprehensive list.

Local Governments

Finding information on the Web about West Virginia's local government agencies is a little more difficult than for its state agencies. In addition to examining the state agency sites fro information about local government activities, you may want to look at the following two sites:

Family Matters is an information and referral service funded by the Governor's Cabinet on Children and Families, the West Virginia Commission for National and Community Service, and several programs of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources: the Office of Social Services, the Office of Maternal and Child Health Services, the Office of Nutrition Services, the Immunization Program, the Early Intervention Program, Office of Behavioral Health Services: (Children's Mental Health, Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and Family Support Council) and the Development Disabilities Planning Council. As a result, they provide an extensive list of services at the county level from their searchable database.

Family Resource Networks is a group of local, community-based organizations charged with redesigning services for children and families. They engage in strategic planning, interagency coordination, and ongoing evaluation activities.

Finally, although employment is not directly a topic of discussion for this article, given the emphasis of welfare reform on job training and placement, the State Job search resources that are available are relevant. A few sites worth looking at are:

 Non-Governmental Web sites

Although government agencies may be charged with the responsibility to monitor and assist with welfare and social services, there are many private, educational, and not-for-profit organizations that have a strong interest and role to play in this policy issue area. There are several close to home
 

The West Virginia University Welfare Reform Panel Report is also available on the Web.

This last Web site is a different type of Web page, called an Adobe Acrobat or .PDF document. The Helpful Hints section presented later in this article explains how to access this page if you are not familiar with .PDF documents.
  Statistical Data
 
Several sources on the Web provide data on health and human services. Most notable are the federal government's statistical data links and agency search engines.
  General Sources

There are a number of sites on the Web that contain extensive links to policy issue sites of all types, as well as significant resources for welfare and human services.

After all is said and done concerning welfare and human service Web sites, sit back and have a laugh either with or about social work. Although welfare and welfare reform are serious subjects and involve important aspects of many clients and service providers lives, the collection of humor at this site should appeal to almost anyone who has worked in this policy field. After all, how many social workers does it take to change a light bulb?

Helpful Hints for a Harmonious Web Life

If you have used the Web for a while, it is quite likely that you have run into one of several special types of Web pages or features that require capabilities beyond those which the standard Netscape or Internet Explorer browser possesses. Several of these are quite important and useful, and we recommend that you obtain them. They are free.

First, make sure that you have installed the Adobe Acrobat Reader. This piece of software is available for free from Adobe.

The Adobe Acrobat format is a means of reproducing word processing files as pages that can be displayed on almost any personal computer and printed on almost any printer. They are usually identified by the .pdf extension on the file name. When a properly configured Web browser encounters a .pdf file, it automatically asks the user if it should save the file to disk or open the file with Adobe Acrobat's Reader. Once open, the document may be paged through and any, or all, pages printed. This is an exceptionally effective way of making large documents available over the Web. It is now widely used by organizations and government agencies to provide both large documents and forms. For instance, the West Virginia Tax Division has a number of forms online in Adobe Acrobat Format. Also, as noted previously, the West Virginia University Welfare Reform Panel Final Report is an Adobe PDF file. Adobe files are now prevalent enough that this tool is indispensable. Download it today.

There are other pieces of Web related software that are also useful. Perhaps one of the more popular is the RealPlayer for RealAudio and RealVideo. This program is what is referred to as a "plug-in" because it is installed in your browser's directory and is invoked automatically when needed. The RealPlayer adds real multimedia capability to your Web Browser. Because the network of fibers and telephone wires that we call the Internet is growing tremendously, and the type of files used for audio and video are very large, the congestion on the 'Net slows down the transmission of large files. The RealPlayer streamlines this process by packaging and sending out these types of data in a stream, hence the term "streaming Audio/Video." The quality is lower than what could be obtained from a CDROM on a user's personal computer, but it is, nevertheless, adequate for many purposes. Also, because it is a "plug-in," the user never really notices that the sound being played is a RealAudio 'stream.' The RealPlayer can be obtained at:

 For a useful RealAudio site, try listening to National Public Radio at whatever time you choose. A rather extensive list of plug-ins can be found at BrowserWatch. This is one of the better places to find that plug-in that your browser stumbled over.

Sites for General Reference

Useful reference sites continue to pop up on the Web. Several useful calendar and time sites are now available.

But there is something for every occasion on the Web. Looking for a pithy saying for your next speech? Try

Aphorisms Galore!

Need to find some legal information? Try

Buying something? Anything? Check before you buy. Need stock quotes along with news, profiles, research reports and trends? Quotes, along with an economic calendar, exchange rates and plenty of business news, can be found at the home of Web juggernaut Yahoo! Finally, if you are hunting for something really obscure, then that standby premier reference site, My Virtual Reference Desk has a large compendium of well organized sites that may be of use. Your Angle on the Web

In earlier issues of the West Virginia Public Affairs Reporter, we asked our readers to share valuable, useful, and favorite web sites encountered in browsing the web. One site of note sent to us by Dr. David Ellis, an analyst for the West Virginia state legislature is the

This online computer simulation is an invaluable tool for understanding the federal budget. The object of the simulation is to balance the 1995 federal budget by altering tax expenditures and spending priorities. It is instructive in that the user learns how changes in certain categories influence, or fail to influence, the overall budget. This online learning tool can provide a reality check for anyone with a plan for balancing the budget. It is also a good example of how the Web can illustrate and enrich our understanding of the world.

What's New on the 'Net would like to continue to hear from our readers about particular Web sites of interest or value to you. Please send us your favorite Web page or anecdote about using the Web, and we will continue to provide some other opinions about the Web and its role in state and local government. Please contact us at:

Robert Duval or Rebecca Barrett-Duval
Department of Political Science
West Virginia University
P.O. Box 6317
Morgantown, WV 26506
 
304/293-3811 x5299
e-mail: bduval@wvu.edu
 


(1)  Robert D. Duval is an Associate Professor of Political Science at West Virginia University. Rebecca Barrett-Duval is a social research consultant based in Morgantown.