tf Empowering Public welfare Workers through Mutual Supportn

disempowering organizational binds that grow out of the political and eco-nomic forces Impinging on these agenCies. This article examines the organizational genesis and character of these binds and suggests one mechanism, the mutual support group, to help empower public welfare workers. The authors ' experience with a mutual support group of pro-tective service workers In Baltimore, Maryland, indicates that support groups can help workers reduce their powerlessness in agencies. Moreover, such groups promote effective prac-tice and foster the empowerment of clients through role modeling, skills training, and advocacy. Workers must be able to act as agents of change for themselves within their own institu-tional settings if they are to help their clients gain a measure of power and control over their lives. To rephrase a statement by Solomon, empowerment is defined here as "the ability to man-age emotions, skills, knowledge, and/or material resources in a way that effective performance of valued social roles will lead to personal gratification. "'I The institution of public welfare re-flects "the conflict inherent in the co-existence of the Individualistic ethic of capitalism and the social ethic of welfare. "2 This contradiction is built into the mission of each public assis-tance organization and is the origin of worker disempowerment. Although each agency operates with a clear legal mandate to provide social protections and services, it suffers from a peren-nial shortage of funds to perform its stated mission. Moreover, the public welfare system often serves the politi-cal ends of regulating social conflict and controlling the marginal work force. 3 And since it represents a mas-sive transfer of payments, the welfar