Human Services & Sociology Web Resources

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Data and Research Sources

• America's Children  Official site of the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics.

• Bill Trochim's Center for Social Research Methods  Starting point for people new to the business of research. The Knowledge Base explains research methods, ethics, validity, and evaluation; there are also guides to selecting statistics, simulations, online courses, and research pointers.
• Centre for Applied Social Surveys Question Bank  Immense file of social science survey questions.
• Centre for Europe's Children: European Documentation & Information
• Child Care Bureau: Research, Data and Systems  From the Dept. of Health and Human Services.
• Children, Youth and Family Consortium Electronic Clearinghouse  Articles and studies on health, education, parenting, child welfare.
• Congressional Research Service Reports by Subject  Research here on welfare, child protection, health care, AIDS, etc.
• Domestic Violence Information  From the Nashville Police Dept, info on warning signs, progression of violence, long-term effects on children, and more.
• Families U.S.A.  Articles and reports on family issues and policies.
• Juvenile Crime  Extensive set of links, readings, and full text documents and laws, prepared by the Government Documents Library of the University of Kansas for the 1996-97 high school debate topic on juvenile crime.
• National Center for Health Statistics Fastats  Subject index to the many series of tables on subjects like causes of death, tobacco use, low birth-weight, unmarried childbearing, Hispanic-Americans' health, etc.
• National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse  Contains surveys, research results on impact and cost of substance abuse, impact legalization would have, info on prevention and treatment.
• National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect  Statistics, state legislation, other research data.
• OJJDP  Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
• Princeton Survey Research Center  Guide to sites that present survey data or deal with survey methodology.
• Resources for Social Researchers
• Resources in Social Gerontology  Sociology professor Michael Kearl has put together another fantastic resource, with documents, statistics, bibliographies, full texts of research on many aspects of aging: community impact of aging, the elderly and religion, ageism in the workplace, medicare and the medicalization of old age, stereotyping of elderly, etc.
• Student Gateway to the US Government  From the US Government.
• Social Statistics Briefing Room  Government demographic, health, education, and crime statistics in brief, arranged for ease of use by non-statisticians.
• SocioNet  Searchable index of over 350 datasets, useful for research in political science, sociology, psychology, social work and education.
• State of the World's Children, 1997  Report from UNICEF.
• Teen Sex, Contraception, and Pregnancy Data  From the Alan Guttmacher Institute.

  Indexes to Social Work and Related Fields

• Adolescence Directory Online
• Adoption Sources
• Center for Law and Social Policy  Organization devoted to improving the economic conditions of low income families. A great deal of information here on child support, block grant requirements, federal waivers.
• Grassroots Social Science Search  Links to social work, social and economic justice, social welfare, policy issues, and diversity issues.
• New Social Worker  Online magazine.
• Clinical Social Work Foundation  From the National Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work.
• Social Work and Social Services Web Sites  Guide from the School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.
• Social Work Online  Resources for social work, mental health, and other social services. Social workers can list their homepages here for networking.
• Web Resources for Social Workers  From the Colorado State University School of Social Work. Includes university programs, organizations, listservs and newsletters for social workers, and other related sites.

• World Wide Web Resources for Social Workers

  Law and Government Sources

• ABA Center on Children and the Law
• Administration for Children and Families  Section of Health and Human Services assigned to track the well-being of children, including child support enforcement, temporary assistance for needy families, state spending under welfare reform, Head Start, and more.
• Child Abuse and Neglect Clearinghouse  States' statutes on child abuse and neglect.
• Family Law Advisor
• Family Law Links
• Family Law Newsletter
• Family Law Statutes  From various states
• Gay Rights Page  Repository of state, county and city laws on sexual orientation discrimination and hate crimes, as well as sodomy statutes.
• Immigration and Naturalization Laws and Regulations  Official source of relevant documents, downloadable and searchable.
• Juvenile Justice Links from Cornell Law Library
• US Government Documents Ready Reference Collection  Major government data collections, law, and handbooks, arranged by broad subject area.

  Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, and Welfare

• 1998 HHS Poverty Guidelines
• Backgrounder on Welfare Reform  From AllPolitics.com, includes the law, state experiments, a time line, statistics, and more.
• Change in Welfare Caseloads since 1993
• Child Poverty News and Issues
• Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance  Basic guide to government welfare and assistance programs.
• Children's Health Insurance Program, 1998 Legislation  Official info from the Health Care Financing Administration.
• Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement  Includes links to state agencies, documents, reports, proposed rules, news updates, etc.
• FY 1998 State Spending Under the New Welfare Program
• Idea Central  Clearinghouse for policy ideas on welfare reform and other family issues.
• Medicaid Clearinghouse
• Medicaid Manual  From the Health Care Financing Administration.
• Office of Family Assistance  Oversees Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, includes the Welfare Reform Promising Practices Conferences.
• Poverty in the United States, 1997  Statistics from the Census Bureau.
• Poverty-Related Resources
• Research Forum on Children, Families and the New Federalism  Clearinghouse for research on welfare reform's effects in the various states.
• Senior Law  Information on Medicaid and Medicare, estate planning, and the rights of the elderly and disabled, from a law firm specializing in services to the elderly.
• Welfare Reform Page  From the National Conference of State Legislatures, has information about best practices, survey design to track recipients who leave the program, available federal programs, as well as files on how states are dealing with child support, child care, and immigration issues.
• Welfare to Work  Department of Labor website with rules for employers, research and promising practices, links to individual state programs, tax credit info, and children's health insurance program and federal hiring info.

Social Work Programs and Organizations

• Administration on Aging
• American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work
• American Public Welfare Association  Links to social work, it also includes an analysis of the welfare reform bill.
• Catholic Charities USA  Information about their programs, local organizations, Catholic social doctrine, news releases, program information, and texts of their testimony before congressional committees.
• Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence  Includes a literature database.
• Center for Urban Poverty and Social Change  Research organization, which includes the Violence Information Network. It explores how social and economic changes affect low-income communities, and how living in these communities affects the well-being of their residents.
• Churches at Work  Umbrella organization for church programs helping the poor become self-sufficient. Enables churches to share their good ideas.
• Council for Standards in Human Service Education  To educate human service professionals who upon graduation from a program are prepared to provide services at entry level commensurate to the level of study.
• Community Information Exchange  Provides community-based organizations and their partners with the information they need to successfully revitalize their communities. The Exchange provides comprehensive information about strategies and resources for affordable housing, economic and community development.
• Council on Social Work Education
• Hands Net  Information on human services, welfare.
• List of CSWE-Accredited Social Work Programs  From the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, file also includes links on social work issues such as homelessness, AIDS, public welfare, substance abuse, etc.
• Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse
• National Association of Social Workers
• National Network of Children's Advocacy Centers
• National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention  Includes news updates, lists of their publications, program suggestions, and recommended links
• National Youth Gang Center  "The Center assists state and local jurisdictions in the collection, analysis, and exchange of information on gang-related demographics, legislation, literature, research, and promising program strategies."
• Neighbor Works Net  Information on community revitalization. Resources for training, research, links to related organizations and sites.
• National Organization for Human Services (NOHS)  These web sites offer additional information about the human service profession and related topics.
• Social Workers Access Network (SWAN)
• State Social Work Examiners Boards

• Urban Institute

  Career and Financial Aid Information

• Job Search Resources for Social Workers

• Social Work and Social Service Jobs Online

  Other Useful Resources

• Accenthealth.com  Information for healthy living.
• Life Extension Foundation
• Affordable Housing  Information on government housing programs and subsidies, including a complete history of government intervention in housing.
• HIV-AIDS Information Center  From the American Medical Association, the latest research, news updates, clinical guidelines, patient education materials, prevention fact sheets and more.
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Studies  From UCLA's academic program.
• Online Instruction in Social Work

Sociology

• SOCIOLOGICAL TOUR THROUGH CYBERSPACE  Good starting point. Great list of sites, fully annotated, but also essays on sociology theory and practice. Very well designed site.
• Aging in a Social Context  Outline for a course in the sociology of aging, includes excellent annotated links to data and texts on the situations of the elderly in the US.
• Allyn & Bacon Sociology Links  From a major publisher of sociology texts provides a nice topical guide to sociological topics on the net, including Research Methods.
• Archival Data Online Repository  Important historical and social science data. Includes data on US civil disorders, 1961-68, Russian and French bureaucracies of 18th and 19th centuries, and several other studies.
• Centre for Applied Social Surveys Question Bank  File of social science survey questions.
• Index to Sociology Resources on the Web
• InterUniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research
• Online Instructional Materials in Sociology
• Poll Item Database  Information on designing survey questions.  Searchable.
• Princeton Survey Research Center  Guide to sites that present survey data or deal with survey methodology.
• Research Resources for the Social Sciences
• Resources for Social Researchers
• Social Science Data Collections
• Social Statistics Briefing Room  Government demographic, health, education, and crime statistics in brief, arranged for ease of use by non-statisticians.
• Sociology of Death and Dying  Text and statistical files, on topics like how we die, genocide, hospices, death and the military (including an extensive file on effects of radiation during the cold war).
• SocioNet  Searchable index of over 350 datasets, useful for research in political science, sociology, psychology, social work and education.
• Sociology Indexes, Abstracts, Bibliographies, & Table of Contents
• Yahoo Index to Sociology Sites