Família e proteção social no Brasil: o papel do Estado e a Política de Assistência Social

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect on the importance and role of the family for the individual and society, as well as to understand how social protection and the Social Assistance policy are essential for the Brazilian family development. From this, it explores the understanding that the Brazilian family, which comprises a quantitatively significant part of the country's social stratum, finds itself in a scenario of inequalities and deprivations, which both include and exclude it socially. Inclusion is registered When the family participates in the process of production of goods and services, while exclusion is expressed by the lack of access to these same socially produced goods and services. The situation of exclusion is a preponderant factor in the reality of vulnerability, social risk and family breakdown, also constituting an impediment to the exercise of attributions that, culturally and socially, were attributed to families. In view of this reality, it is necessary to understand the importance of public policies, as a role of the State, to guarantee social protection to families and individuals, aiming to fight poverty and various forms of vulnerability and social risk. Among public policies, this work highlights the social assistance policy, understood as a set of initiatives aimed at preventing and overcoming the condition of poverty and social vulnerability. This policy aims to preserve and/or recover broken family and community ties, through services and programs at different levels of social protection, offered by the State, through government agencies, in addition to those provided by the initiative of civil society.