Position: Head of Department, Social Welfare and Community Development
Education & Career:BA Sociology with Political Science Minor.
• Over fourteen (14) years of experience in social work.
Duty: Advise and ensure the formulation and implementation of social welfare and community development policies within the framework of the national policy.
Committees: Social Services Sub-Committee.
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WELFARE & COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
Department of Social Welfare and Community Development are separate departments and exist under two different ministries. Social Welfare was a department under the Ministry of Employment and Social Welfare which became department under Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection. Community Development is a department under the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development.
With the promulgation of LI. 1961, the two departments at the local level were merged to become Department of Social Welfare and Community Development. The department, however, at the local level operates as two units; social welfare unit and community development unit, and unit head for each but one head of department.
CORE PROGRAMS
The Department, in the district, operates in three core programs: Child Rights Promotion and Protection, Community Care and Social Protection, and partly Juvenile Justice System.
Child Rights Promotion and Protection (Social Case Work):
Social Case Work involves child maintenance, child custody and acess, paternity of the child, family welfare/family reconciliation, etc.
Community Care:
Assists and facilitates provision of community care services including advocacy for persons with disability, streetism, hospital welfare services, care for the excluded and disadvantaged, aged, destitute, personal social welfare, supervision of early childhood development centres and NGOs and processing of their registration, etc.
Social Protection:
Social intervention programs including sensitization, registration and monitoring implementation in communities which fall under any form of government social intervention; Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP) and free registration of the less privileged into NHIS, etc.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVE
The core program objective of the department is to ensure the formulation and implementation of social welfare and community development policies within the framework of the national policy.
The department is to ensure:
- Facilitation of community-based rehabilitation of persons living with disabilities (PWDs).
- Child protection and its development.
- The facilitation of the registration and supervision of non-governmental organizations and their activities in the municipality.
- To assist to organize community development programs to improve and enrich the life of the poor and vulnerable through:
- Literacy and adult education classes.
- The teaching of deprived women in home management, vocational training and childcare.
Thus, the beneficiaries of the program are children, women, the vulnerable and aged.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT UNIT
Mission:
The Department exist to facilitate the mobilization and use of available human and material resources to improve the living standard of deprived rural and urban communities within an effectively decentralized system of administration through adult education, home science and extension services programs.
Programs:
Adult Education: The department organizes programs through study group meetings, mass meetings and home visits to educate and create awareness on social issues relating to health education and governance.
Home Science: The department organizes programs to enhance the economic status of women groups in the communities. Thus, through skills training.
Extension Services: The department collaborates with Government and Non-Governmental Organizations to carry out various activities.
SOCIAL WELFARE UNIT
Department of Social Welfare renders services to individuals, family, group, community and the nation as a whole.
OKAIKWEI NORTH MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY
SERVICES RENDERED BY SOCIAL WELFARE AND
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
• SUPERVISE THE DISBURSEMENT OF LIVELIHOOD
EMPOWERMENT AGAINST POVERTY (LEAP).
• ORGANIZE SKILL TRAININGS FOR WOMEN GROUPS AND
PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES (PWDs).
• CONDUCT COMMUNITY SENSITIZATIONS ON PERTINENT
SOCIAL ISSUES.
• REGISTER PWDs AND ASSIST THEM WITH THEIR NEEDS.
• RESOLVE MISSING CHILDREN RELATED ISSUES AND
REINTEGRATE THEM WITH THEIR FAMILIES
• CITIZENS ADVISORY BUREAU
• HANDLE CASES CONCERNING MAINTENANCE, ACCESS,
PATERNITY AND CUSTODY OF CHILDREN.
• SUPERVISE THE ACTIVITIES OF DAY CARE CENTERS, WOMEN
GROUPS AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS (NPO).
• FACILITATE THE PROVISION OF TEMPORAL SHELTER FOR
ABANDONED BABIES, MISSING CHILDREN, AND UNITE THEM
WITH THE PARENTS AND FAMILIES.
• ORGANIZE DURBARS ON CHILD PROTECTION ISSUES FOR
SCHOOLS, RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS AND COMMUNITY
BASE ORGANISATIONS.
HOTLINE
0302916849
The Department works in partnership with people in their communities to improve their well-being through promoting development with equity for the disadvantaged, vulnerable and the excluded.
The vision of the Department is to take lead in integrating the disadvantaged, vulnerable and excluded in the mainstream of development.
The Department operates under different Acts of Parliament of the Republic of Ghana. Each program of activity has its Act of Parliament. For instance:
The Children’s Act, 1998 (Act 560)
Human Trafficking Act, 2005 (Act 694)
Persons With Disability Act, 2006 (Act 715)