Development of autonomy in homeless people included in a temporary occupational and income programming: a therapeutic-occupational study

• Grant number: 06/05895-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2007
• End date: April 30, 2008
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Marta Carvalho de Almeida
• Grantee: Débora Lacerda Saes
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Problems related to the homeless have been approached in the context of studies about the processes of social inclusion/exclusion and, particularly, in the studies which emphasize the changes into the working field. On these approaches, some authors study single points of Brazilian reality, whose homeless population is seen as an emblematic group of these processes. According to these authors, unemployment, together with working process characteristics and precarious aspects of social protection system leads important parts of unemployed population to live or get their income on the streets. But, if life on the streets is characterized as the limit of a trajectory of vulnerabilities, fragilities and disconnections on several dimensions of existence – from which we emphasize work – it is also known that it propitiates new connections and particular forms of living. This aspect has been revealing the complexity of the problem and it has created important challenges to the establishment of public policies, forcing strategies of intervention to be connected to a complex and structured culture. The present study intends to analyze trajectories of the homeless who are temporarily inserted in the work market, provided by the "Front of Work" program of the Secretaria de Emprego e Relações de Trabalho do Governo do Estado de São Paulo - SERT (Secretariat of Employment and Work Relations of the Government of the State of São Paulo). It also intends to identify changes related to this new condition (work market reinsertion) to the actions and daily social relations level. The data will be collected specially through open interviews with members of the program. The identification of the autonomy gain processes, based on Occupational Therapys conceptions, intends to contribute to the understanding of the program repercussion, and also to the field of reflections and works about social interventions within this population segment. (AU)