Kyrkan som välfärdsaktör

Sammanfattning: Abstract The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the church’s social work, with socially vulnerable individuals, in a municipality in the southern part of Sweden. The church of Sweden has a history of social work because it was a state church until 2000. Since the separation it has been defined as any other faith-communities. Therefore this study includes other faith-communities within Christianity such as free churches. Social problem is very complex because some individuals suffer not only from one problem but a combination of several problems. This makes it difficult for the state to fulfill the individual’s entire need and some people do not qualify for, the selective, help from the state. Therefore churches and other voluntary organizations steps in to help those in need. Our questions in the study were: What sort of social work does the church perform/carry out? Are there any guiding values in the church’s social work? And are there any cooperation between the church and other agencies within social work? The study was based on interviews with seven people working in churches in the municipality; this included both employees and voluntary workers. The analysis, of the empirical material, was based on social constructivist theory and secularization theory. We found that the churches provided several kinds of activities and support for social excluded groups/individuals and even financial aid in some cases. The church itself as an organization and the respondents were guided by the values which can be found in the bible or of personal interest of helping others.