Visiting Kofoeds School, June12

The link between economic growth and social welfare is one of the most hotely debated topics in welfare state economies today. Must states cut social spending to expand economic growth? Although many would argue that a combination fo taxes and social transfers erodes incentives to work, the Kofoed school begs to differ: economic growth and social welfare aren't always contradictory.

The Kofoed schools are a collection of independent, non-profit humanitarian organizations throughout the E.U. that promote self-reliance through social welfare. The schools operate with a pedagogic model of helping in order to self-help, showign that this approach is often more effective in addressing problems associated with long-term unemployment, social isolation and loneliness.

It was personally moving to learn about the Kofoed method because I came into the tour with my own assumptions of how ineffective welfare shelters in the U.S. can be in promoting self-reliance over time. I was particularly impressed with how Kofoed's approach normalized the stigmatized identity of a welfare dependent by referring to all of its members as students and framing their entire experience at the school as one of learning and not rehabilitation (because rehabilitation implies that something was endemically wrong with Kofoed's students before, an assumption that silences the complexity of how states and other factors outside of the control of individuals can also be responsible for individuals' dependence on the welfare state.

The kind of social welfare provided by the Kofoed schools as institutions partially funded by the government struck me as the most effective kind of social welfare I've seen to date because it not only supports its students temporarily (such as through finances) but through permanent investments (such as skill sets) as well.
-Reny