Boom Town Victims: Social Work's Latest Clients

Authors

Joseph Davenport III, University of Wyoming
Judith Ann Davenport, University of Wyoming

Abstract

The current energy crisis appears to be presenting social work with a new breed of client as the profession moves into the decade of the 1980's. This new clientele - the boom town victim - may be an individual, a group, an entire community or even a geographical region. Accordingly, an effective response to these victims may well require the entire repetoire of social work's helping functions (e.g., clinical, research, community organization, social planning, social action, policy formulation). Since the energy crisis gives every indication of not only continuing, but intensifying, it behooves the social work profession to devote more attention to the social consequences and human costs of energy development. This paper will examine the magnitude of energy development; it will discuss the social consequences and human costs of such development; and it will suggest possible responses by the profession of social work.

Recommended Citation

Davenport, Joseph III and Davenport, Judith Ann (1981) "Boom Town Victims: Social Work's Latest Clients," The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare: Vol. 8: Iss. 1, Article 14.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.15453/0191-5096.1449
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/jssw/vol8/iss1/14