ABSTRACT
Social work in Cuba evolved at the end of the 1990s in response to emergent social problems on the island. Policy makers designated social workers to serve as agents of community transformation and provide services for ‘at-risk populations’ in poor communities. Unlike Western definitions of community as geographically located or interest based, a community in Cuba is defined numerically as comprising 250 houses and 750 inhabitants. Hence the terms community and neighbourhood are synonymous in Cuba.
