A Case Study of Emergency Assistance Program in Private Sector: Focusing on the Outcome Evaluation of A Foundation’s ‘SOS Welfare Assistance Program’

Abstract

Emergency assistance program (EAP) is not only operated separately from public welfare system for the low-income vulnerable, but also distinguished from disaster management support program, which is designed to respond to natural disasters such as hurricane, tornado, and COVID-19, etc. EAP is usually targeting to support all vulnerable populations at crisis, who are on the borderline of blind spots in public welfare system. In addition to public sector, private sector has also carried out EAPs. However, little research has been conducted in this field. The purpose of this study is to analyze the outcome of A Foundation’s ‘SOS Emergency Welfare Support Program’, and deduce explanatory implications. Thus, this study is a kind of program outcome evaluation research. The research method consists of content analysis and related literature review. As data sources, this study used two types of reports: the ‘On-site Verification Report’ and ‘Support-Result Report’ for the program. After analyzing the contents of those reports, the cases were quantitatively converted for analysis. A total of 657 cases were analyzed for three years, from 2018 to May 2021. One of findings is that economic and housing problems were the main reasons for crisis. Many cases had complex problems such as mental health issues and domestic violence. As for performance indicators, problem-centered target efficiency, client-centered target efficiency, contribution to problem-solving, speed of the process, and positive side effects were measured. They present the program has positive outcomes. Based on the results, the future direction of EAP has been discussed even in relation to the public sector.