The Driver …cont…

The world of social services is no more homogeneous than the people served. Social services account for a wide variety of different services from alcohol and drug counselling, child welfare and protection services, mental health and community reintegration programs, disability programs, employment assistance services, skills training, personal counselling, shelter and food banks, transition homes, veterans services, public health clinics, recreation programs, welfare and disabled housing programs. The list is extensive (and each element will be explored in more detail below) and even though a particular government department may only contract to a specific set of agencies involved in its area of interest, most of these organizations are multi-purpose and have more than one program running and may share clients between their own programs. The following are a list of issues which make it difficult for funders in social services to gain accurate and useful data from the field in some instances whether it is government contractor based or completely internal to government: