Assessing households in need of social services through analytical hierarchy process (AHP): A sample of practice in Mamak district of Ankara

Social service is one of the top priority fields of government policy in developed, developing and less developed countries. Social services can be deemed as investments made particularly for those in need of social supports and for all sectors of society in general. Due to the fact that practices in this field varies in line with cultural differences, so many criteria is supposed to be taken into consideration in determining which persons or dwellings are eligible for the services or in establishing the methods and procedures of social services/supports. In providing social services, institutions will have to choose a suitable process among many criteria and decide on the main criteria to focus on. In this study, Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to analyze multi criteria decision making problems and thus, priority of criteria utilized in assessing households in need of social services was determined. By means of the established model, social service needs of households located in Mamak District were scored and ?Social Service Field Scanning? was compared with the results of Mamak District. The first section of the study focuses on the concept of social service. The second section discusses Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and its working procedure. Following the brief theoretical description of AHP, a method of scoring was established with the purpose of assessing social service needs of households in Mamak District of Ankara. The households were lined up in line with their scores and the results were compared with the social service field scanning results carried out in this District.