Michal Livia Krumer-Nevo

Although social work is committed to fighting poverty, mainstream social work practice has been dominated by conservative and neoliberal ideologies that individualize poverty and blame people for their circumstances. The poverty-aware social work paradigm (PAP) constitutes a counter-narrative to these ideologies and integrates theoretical, ethical, and practical principles. It defines poverty as a violation of human rights in both structural opportunities and interpersonal relations. People in poverty are perceived in PAP as active agents who continually resist their predicament. PAP's practice principles include an organizational model and a detailed set of clinical methods, including the active realization of rights, intervention in real-life environments, the integration of material and emotional assistance, policy practice and critical reflectivity. The wide implementation of PAP in Israeli welfare services during the last ten years is an indication of PAP's contribution for service users and for social work practice, and of its potential relevance for other national contexts.