Oklahoma Human Services

Hunger and homelessness may still exist in Oklahoma, but they are no longer the unexceptional fact of life they once were. Children and people with disabilities are no longer warehoused in state institutions. The poorest families have access to medical care and people can get help in their home communities. Parents who cannot earn enough to support their children have a chance at education and training that was unheard of two generations ago.

Oklahoma’s original public assistance programs have evolved since they were created in the Depression year of 1936, a time of desperate human need. Voters by a 2-to-1 majority had approved a state constitutional amendment creating the Department of Public Welfare, a nine-member commission, and a director to carry out the mission stated in Article XXV: “the relief and care of needy aged persons who are unable to provide for themselves, and other needy persons who, on account of immature age, physical infirmity, disability, or other cause, are unable to provide or care for themselves…”