Poverty and social work

This article explores the conceptual, policy and practical links between poverty and community-oriented social work (COSW). It argues that social workers should be directly involved in the relief of poverty and that the approach most likely to prove successful in this context is one in which practitioners retain close contact with the local community, working in partnership with a joint focus on prevention and empowerment. Although academic, government and mainstream professional interest in COSW has waned over the past decades in the UK, there are grounds to believe that this may change and that lessons can be learned from COSW in other countries.