USC Center for Child & Family Studies
Culture of Poverty

Produced for USC's Center for Child & Family Studies, this series of six dramatic vignettes is used as part of a multi-session program that trains social service workers in ways to better understand their clients and better interpret their backgrounds. Through the use of characterizations and humor, these dramatic scenes portray characters that social workers encounter every day and help the viewer understand unspoken rules about class and coping skills developed in poverty.

The purpose of the training is to improve participants' ability to teach client problem solving skills that can equip them to cope more effectively with difficulties they encounter. These vignettes model good interviewing techniques and help teach caseworkers to identify behavior patterns and different choices clients can make.