A study of the distribution of social services to fatherless families in Winnipeg proper

Abstract

This project was designed to investigate the distribution of social services to fatherless families in Winnipeg proper. The study was based on data obtained through recording the registrations at social agencies of a sample group of one hundred fatherless families receiving financial assistance from either the Welfare Department of the City of Winnipeg or the Public Welfare Department of the Province of Manitoba. As well as investigating the general distribution of social services to these families, the use of services by families where the father was deceased was compared with the use by families where he had deserted, or the parents were divorced or separated. A predication was also made that problems of various specific types are indicated by this use. The findings revealed that fatherless families who are financially dependent do use other social services extensively (82% of the families) and that families where there is desertion, separation or divorce show a much higher requirement for social services as indicated by registration. The highest use was found to be by families in the deserted group, followed by the separated. Divorced families appeared to have a different configuration of needs from the other groups. This led to the conclusion that paternal deprivation combined with financial need results in high concentration of social services having to be centred on this type of family.