I

Ideology - A system of beliefs and values that explains society and prescribes the role of government.

Income security - Income support in the form of demogrants, social insurance, social assistance, and income supplementation that can be unconditional or based on an income or needs test, or negative income tax.

Income supplementation - Programs that, as the name suggests, supplement income that is obtained elsewhere whether through paid employment or through other income security programs. These programs are not intended to be the primary source of income. Family Allowance (which is also a universal demogrant) and National Child Benefits are income supplementation programs.

Independent Living Movement - The Independent Living Movement has been a key player in the struggle to achieve human rights legislation for people with disabilities. Originating in the United States during the early 1970s and introduced to Canada in 1979, Independent Living Movement had become a dominant force in disability rights activity in Canada. In addition promoting disability rights, the ILM promotes the social oppression theory of disability.

Indian Act - Legislation that provides the Government of Canada with the legal framework of authority over Indians and lands reserved for Indians, as stated in the Constitution Act, 1867. The main purpose of the Act is to control and regulate Indian lives. A class of people defined by the Indian Act, referring to the descendants of the first inhabitants of Canada, prior to the arrival of Europeans. An Indian is a person who is registered or entitled to be registered in the Indian Register (a centralized record).

Indian Agent - The Indian Act was, and still is, a piece of social legislation of very broad scope, which regulates and controls virtually every aspect of Native life. The so-called Indian Agent administered the Act in Aboriginal communities. These agents were to displace traditional Aboriginal leaders so as to institute a new way of living consistent with the intentions of the government. The Indian agents had extraordinary administrative and discretionary powers. In order to ensure this, Clause 25 of the Act established the government's guardianship over Indian lands.

Indian Problem - With the colonization of what would become known as Canada, the land's original inhabitants became the Indian problem, and impediments to civilization. Colonial representatives and, later, government officials devised various schemes to address the Indian problem, including land-cession treaties and assimilation policies.

Indirect social work - Social work of benefit to those in need, but the work is often with organizations that advocate, research, plan and implement social service and income security programs. Most often those who do indirect social work will be working with government, social service agencies or what are called advocacy or research groups, and organizations whose purpose is to advocate for and with people in need and conduct research.

In-home services - In-home services are provided to help a household or family members live together harmoniously in a secure and safe environment. The main categories of in-home services include family counselling services; parenting supports; child protection; in-home child care; homemaker services; and family educational services.

Institutional view of social welfare - A view that emphasizes the preventive role of social welfare in modern industrial societies. View that the welfare of the individual is the responsibility of the social collective. The market will not, and cannot, meet the needs and aspirations of a people and, therefore, the optimal distribution of welfare can only be achieved by an acknowledgment that there is a significant role for a publicly-funded and organized system of programs and institutions.

Institutionalization - Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, the segregation, institutionalization and isolation of persons with disabilities became the common method for dealing with such people.

Intake - Intake is usually the first step taken by a worker when a client seeks help. Intake is a process whereby a request for service is made by or for a person and it is then determined whether and what kind of service is to be provided. The social worker attempts to gather initial information from the client in order to determine what assistance is needed, and whether the agency and worker is the appropriate provider.

Inter-government organizations (IGOs) - International organizations that consider worldwide issues and relations between nations. Social workers are active in various International Inter-Governmental Organizations (IGOs) . The United Nations is the best known of these IGOs. Born as the World War II came to an end, the UN seeks to develop a framework of international law that will be followed by all nation states around the world.

Internalized homophobia - Today, social workers require, to be effective, a critical self- and social- awareness about issues of sex, sexuality and sexual identity. They need to recognize their comfort level and feel accepting of and within their own sexual bodies, emotions and feelings. Internalized homophobia ( attitudes that devalue same-sex relationships) needs to be acknowledged and challenged.

International community work - A common social work activity in developing countries is international community work. Social workers use community work to organize people to bring about major social change between nations, within nations, and between groups of people; and they work through communities to achieve the fullest participation of people in transforming different aspects of their lives.

International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) - The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) is a successor to the International Permanent Secretariat of Social Workers, which was founded in Paris in 1928. In 1950, the International Federation of Social Workers was created, with the goal of becoming an international organization of professional social workers. Today the IFSW represents over half a million social workers in fifty-five different counties. The IFSW seeks to promote social work as a profession, link social workers from around the world and promote the participation of social workers in social policy and planning.

Intervention - A step in which a client provides the social worker with information and shares whatever progress has been made in attempting to resolve the problem.

Involuntary clients - Those who accept services because of a legal mandate such as prisoners on parole, or children in care.

Back