[MUSIC] I'm professor John Robertson, welcomed to my Cousera course. What is social policy and how does it impact you. I think the most surprising thing to many people is to understand the US government spends two-thirds, 66% of its money on caring for and social welfare programs. That's what we'll be talking about in this course. The faculty here will be joining me in this course, people who an international reputations, and studying and shaping social policy. Taking this course will prepare you to be more involved. You may not think at the moment that your life is shaped by social policy. But by the time you're done, you'll see how many ways you'll find this in your life. [MUSIC] Here I'm a lecturer at the Columbia University School of Social Works. I teach social policy, I also teach community change and advocacy. [MUSIC] I'm a practitioner that teaches and so I'm here, I regularly develop and teach courses, but they're deeply informed by the work that I do in in the neighborhood and with the folks. And being involved in policy and advocacy activities in the community. [MUSIC] I work in a neighborhood in Brooklyn called Buschwick. I'd be working with kids, I'd be working with housing reform. This is where they're planning to build 150 or 250 apartments, and we're going to fight to make sure at least 50 of them are family apartments, for kids in the neighborhood. I was a Franciscan monk lived in community and live the life of service for 25 years. A lot of my work likely to be with elderly people. Those of us who are captured by Francis or sort of captured by this idea of building a community of love or standing for the planet. And also the fact that true wealth is not in your wallet, but true wealth is in your relationship. >> This is why I'm being [INAUDIBLE] >> [LAUGH] Okay. >> Yeah, we've been at this a long time. [MUSIC] In this social policy sequence, there'll be five courses and the first course will introduce you to the shape and dimension of social policy. The second course will explore where our policy came from. The third course is the question of who are we as Americans, who are we in terms of what our needs are? And then the fourth course is going to look at the major programs that we move in Cumberland. And the fifth course is going to look at services. You and I care for people, we care for our neighbors, we care for people around the world, learning more about social policy will make you a better carer. So please try in this course so that we can all build a better country, a better nation, a better world.