Public Service Essays Example

Public services can be best described as services that are provided by the government to help people challenged with a certain problem, need or want. There are various types of services that can be received through the governmental authorities. These services include Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA), mental health services, special education services, medical aid, homeless services, utility assistance, Women Infants & Children (WIC), foster care/out-of-home placement services, and juvenile services. This paper will discuss the impacts of public services on the lives of people who use such services. Hence, there could be no better way to find the real-life information by interviewing someone who is a recipient of Public Service.
Eldreel Funchess is a wonderful 70-year old African-American woman who lives in a privately-owned house situated in a middle-class neighborhood. She is currently retired and living in her home with her eldest son. She has attained several benefits from several public services offerings over the years including Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability (SSDI), and Women, Infants, and Child (WIC). Eldreel used public service for the first time when she was only 20 years old. When she was 17 years old, she became pregnant, dropped out of school, and got married. After eloping, she moved to New York along with her husband. Due to her pregnancy, Eldreel was unable to work. Thus, she had to discharge her responsibilities as a homemaker. However, her husband found a rewarding employment soon. However, the income derived from her husband’s job was inadequate to sustain both of them. One person’s paycheck made things extremely difficult for them considering the fact that the funds were insufficient for living a good life.
During pregnancy, Eldreel needed healthy foods and other resources to give birth to healthy baby. A close friend and family member suggested taking help from WIC so that Eldreel could get on her feet. Although Eldreel was hesitant at first to apply for WIC assistance, she soon realized the progressively worsening financial conditions. Thus, she decided to get WIC assistance for her survival. During her interview with me, she informed me that the whole process for applying for the public services was too long as one had to answer a lot of questions. Somehow, she was able to get the required assistance from WIC. Over the years, this process became more arduous as more children were added to the family. She cited that if she were to start the application process at 8:00 am (the office opening times), the process of just applying would not be completed until after 1:00 pm. She recalled that long durations were one of the major factors that made things difficult and hard. She had to pick her kids from a caretaking friend. Managing her family life and revisiting Public Services offices became a tiring task. Also, Eldreel did not have a big support system while living in New York. She mostly kept to herself and just had a few close friends. She was very concerned about the people she trusted (especially those who helped her in babysitting). She was also aware of the fact that she did not live in the best environment in New York. The neighborhood where she lived was mostly occupied by families categorized as low socioeconomic. She also mentioned that she witnessed many people in her community who were engaged in drug addiction with needles in their arms.
After getting divorce, Eldreel had five other children. Thus, she utilized the services of WIC to assist her in providing for her big family. Being unmarried with six children, Eldreel had to work and use WIC to supplement her needs. Eldreel worked at several beauty shops while attending cosmetology school. Acquiring education was necessary to become skillful and to become certified. Even though she was working and receiving assistance from WIC, she still could not make enough money to support herself and the children. She believed that the children will be better off living with their grandparents. Overall, Eldreel believed that the services did help her out. However, she acknowledged that these services also hindered her at the same time. She became dependent upon the money she was receiving ultimately making it difficult for her to want to do better. She wished that the system had been set up better so that she could have gone to school and achieved higher goals. She wished that the system should have made it mandatory that she go to school in order to receive the money. Eldreel was very open during the entire interview. In fact, she openly said that she wanted others to learn from her mistakes. However, she also realized that every human being takes a different path in life.
In a rather straightforward manner, she said that she would only recommend this service depending on the person's circumstance. If someone were to use this service, she wished they were not so dependent upon it. Eldreel also spoke about how WIC was setup like a bank doling out loans. She informed me that if she were to take off from work for a few months to take care of the baby, WIC would help pay her rent and provide her with certain resources. However, she had to pay back the money afterwards. This system made it extremely difficult for her as she had no money as she had no work. The whole scenario just put her in a more troubling situation as she became a debtor. She considered it unfair. Based on the information I gathered, I do not believe that Eldreel was not embarrassed while using this service. This is because she lived in a community where others were going through the same struggle.
In conclusion, my assessment of Eldreel was simple. She was indeed a good person who took a couple of wrong turns. She was young, fell in love and believed that having a man by her side would be enough to lead a great life. It seems to me that she depended on everyone else to take care of her. Nevertheless, when that support dissipated, she woke up and learned to take care of herself. Though she never finished school, Eldreel has learned a lot from her real-life experiences. There were a couple of times during the interview where she seemed to beat herself up while reminiscing about all her past decisions. Eldreel intimated to me that now as the children are grown, their greatest complaint was being separated from her and being subjected to the verbal abuse by their uncles when they started living with their grandparents. She wished that she was able to provide for them on her own without any assistance. The truth is that Eldreel was not financially stable at the time.
Personally, if I were ever in the same situation as Eldreel, I would use the services available to me in the hopes that it would help me get back on my feet. The key to getting Social Services and using the available benefits is to understand that it is not a means to an end of one’s own struggles and become totally dependent on others, be it one’s relatives or government.