Abstract
Municipal councils of social welfare are clearly denoted in the Social Welfare Act as “organizations to promote community welfare,” and policies to create inclusive local communities are being promoted in the form of
promoting community welfare. The aim of the current study was to examine future strategies to promote
community welfare through the self-assessments by community social workers of those councils. Sixty
municipalities (74 organizations) in Fukuoka Prefecture were surveyed by mail regarding 4 factors, i. e., the
strengths and weaknesses of social welfare councils and opportunities and threats in community welfare
policymaking, and those responses were compiled and categorized. As a result, 8 groups were identified. Based on
a SWOT cross-analysis of each group, this study examined the strategies of social welfare councils to promote
community welfare in order to devise community welfare policies.
