The importance of social work and aids to promote citizenship consciousness: The study of the city of Şırnak, Türkiye

One of the key elements in the foundation and development of any country on the world has been citizens. Citizenship consciousness lets all inhabitants of a country live equally and is a legal basis that distinguishes them from the citizens of another country. That's why, countries are responsible for the protection of the rights and development of the welfare of their citizens under any circumstance as they constitute their existence. To do so, countries attempt policies including various social work and social aids depending on their own opportunities and potentials. The aim of this doctorate thesis study is to examine the correlation between citizenship consciousness and social work and aids that are provided for the inhabitants living in the city of Şırnak, Turkey. The main objective of the study is to assess the effects of social work and aids provided in Şırnak on citizenship consciousness of the inhabitants. These effects were asserted in terms of trust, justice and belonging and the study includes quantitative and qualitative methods. The data obtained in the study was collected in a questionnaire with 5-point Likert scale and supported with the data of interviews and observations collected in the city. Then, the data was analyzed by SPSS software and by different methods like exploratory factor analysis, frequency analyses, chi square tests, independent t-test, dependent t-test and one-way analysis of variance. From the findings of the analyses and the study, it was found that in terms of belonging and trust, the correlation between social work and aids and their effects on citizenship consciousness was significant whereas we found no significant correlation in terms of justice. Therefore, we might accept that social work and aids somehow affect on citizenship consciousness of the inhabitants and these social work and aids should be both quality and dynamic to fulfill the needs of these inhabitants. Key Words: Social Work, Social Aid, Citizenship, Social State, Şırnak