The Clergy and Traditional Service Providers as Associate or Auxiliary Social Workers: their Roles and Functions: An Empirical Survey in Obio-Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the roles played by clergies and traditional service providers as auxiliary social workers in Obio-Akpor Local Government area in Rivers State, Nigeria. The rationale for this study was built on the logic that the clergies and traditional service providers play the roles of associate or auxiliary social workers wherever they are found. Hence, this study is designed to answer two research questions that highlight the indicators of measuring who an associate social worker is especially based on the impacts at the community levels. The system theory of Von Bertalanffy was adopted to aid the analysis. The mixed methods research design was adopted, with a mixed technique for data collection which are a self- designed questionnaire and the key person’s interview (KPI). The population of the study was drawn from the city population’s report of 2016, and the sample size is 400 using the Taro Yamane statistical formula and 15 key persons targeted purposively for interviews. In addition, a mixed method analytical approach comprising percentages and thematic analysis was deployed for the data analysis. The findings from the study showed among others that the clergies and the traditional service providers assist, play their role and function as associate or auxiliary social workers in the communities of study. Based on this, this study recommends that the traditional service providers and clergies should be supported and encouraged to keep helping, and also more social workers should be employed to fill in the gap that the absence of social workers create in the communities.

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