Advocacy in Action: How Social Workers Can Influence Policy Change

A great deal of social work involves helping specific individuals and families in need. This highly personal, client-centered approach can be highly rewarding, but it can also prove challenging to drive widespread change or reach people in large numbers when you are assisting them individually.

With this in mind, if you wish to make a lasting positive impact on marginalized communities or general populations, public policy advocacy could be the right professional focus for you. Read on to learn more about the place of policy advocacy and community engagement in social work.

Across the United States and around the world, social workers are engaging in advocacy to influence public policy and create systemic change. While directly assisting individual clients will always be a cornerstone of social work, professionals in this field are increasingly concentrating on advocacy.

Social workers concentrated on advocacy work closely with people in need as well as government, nonprofit, and institutional entities that can help improve their lives. By fighting for fair treatment and basic human rights, successful advocates can encourage social justice in social work.

The Connection Between Advocacy and Policy Change

Pervasive and permanent social progress rarely occurs without the help of official policy changes that establish clear, binding legal regulations — or the dedicated efforts of social workers and other conscientious advocates united for the cause.

Social workers can prompt positive changes in nearly all areas of public policy, but they can be particularly effective in addressing the following areas:

Social workers who work with marginalized populations are in a unique position to educate lawmakers and other public policy leaders about the social inequalities that exist within those populations. They can lend their voices to lobbying efforts, policy briefs, and other initiatives that lead to more equal treatment.

Supporting Vulnerable Populations

Because social workers work to provide aid where it is most needed, they tend to work with underrepresented communities or individuals who face barriers to basic necessities.

Promoting Mental Health and Wellness

While the importance of psychological wellness is now widely recognized, many people still lack access to quality mental health services. Social workers are on the front lines of this issue, ensuring that even some of the most disadvantaged community members can get the mental health resources they need.

Strategies for Effective Policy Advocacy

From daily advocacy in social work practice to community engagement in social work outreach, you can take numerous different approaches to policy advocacy as a social worker. No matter what approaches you choose, streamline and accentuate your advocacy work by adhering to the following strategies:

Educating Yourself on Policy and Legislation

In the world of social work advocacy, you must have a firm grasp of where you started compared to where you aim to end up. This means familiarizing yourself with existing policy before you are able to effectively fight for meaningful change in that policy. Likewise, you must fully understand the underlying laws and regulations that govern policy change in your areas of focus.

Building Relationships With Key Stakeholders

Be it elected government representatives, social service organizations, or community group leaders, many key stakeholders can shape the social work advocacy process. You will want to foster positive relationships with all these relevant stakeholders while remembering to prioritize the wants and needs of the underserved community members you represent.

Using Data and Personal Stories

For maximum persuasive appeal, you should stress both quantitative and qualitative information in your advocacy efforts. Some people will be swayed by raw numerical data, while others favor a compelling story. In fact, most people respond best to a “one-two punch” of statistical facts and human-centered narrative. For example, you could cite a specific percentage of families in a marginalized community that live below the poverty line, then chronicle the various trials and tribulations of just one of those families.

Engaging in Grassroots Advocacy

The direct support of individual clients is a cornerstone of social work. Beyond delivering valuable social services to these clients, social workers can mobilize them through grassroots advocacy, too. Focusing on building sustainable social movements from the ground up, grassroots advocacy stresses the power of ordinary people to enact large-scale change. The American Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s as well as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) founded in 1980 are just a couple among many examples of grassroots advocacy success stories.

The road to social justice can be rocky, with no clear end point. Fortunately, today’s social workers can draw upon a diverse set of resources to aid them in their advocacy efforts. Below are just a few helpful tools to consider:

Professional Organizations and Advocacy Groups

The connection between social work advocacy and government officials/agencies is quite clear. However, social workers can also find helpful partners in the private business and nonprofit sectors. For instance, a social worker representing unhoused populations might partner with construction companies, landlord associations, and relevant charities such as Habitat for Humanity.

Advocacy Training and Workshops

Even the hardest-working and most passionate social worker might struggle to make a difference without the right knowledge and skill set. Therefore, it is crucial to train in advocacy processes and methodology with the right combination of appropriate academic programs and educational workshops.

Digital Advocacy Tools

These days, social work advocacy often entails reaching out to people online; after all, this is where people spend a great deal of their time. The savvy social worker will leverage the potential of the digital environment to deliver information and change minds. Social media and email are both powerful advocacy tools for attracting and engaging supporters. Consider using these digital channels to raise awareness or circulate online petitions that are sent to legislators or other stakeholders.

Overcoming Challenges in Policy Advocacy

Influencing public policy can prove a tall order — yet the rewards of social work advocacy can be profound. If large-scale policy change is your ultimate goal, you can learn to overcome a range of policy advocacy challenges and obstacles by:

Addressing Resistance and Opposition

Before launching any policy advocacy initiative, you should conduct extensive research to determine what, if any, opposition you are likely to face. While some forms of social work advocacy are relatively uncontroversial, others involve contentious issues that are bound to spark arguments and resistance. With a thorough understanding of the opposition to your advocacy efforts, you may strategically plan to overcome it.

Balancing Advocacy With Professional Responsibilities

Even if they encounter little outside resistance to their advocacy efforts, social workers must inevitably address certain personal and vocational challenges in order for those efforts to be successful. Because the core responsibilities of most social workers involve providing direct support and guidance to individual clients, finding time to manage sweeping policy advocacy activities can be difficult.

Maintaining Resilience in Advocacy Efforts

Personal resilience strategies to help manage stress and maintain motivation are essential for any social worker who spearheads policy advocacy. To aid in this effort, the nonprofit Resilience for Advocates Through Foundational Training (RAFT) recommends prioritizing self-care, assuming a positive mindset, focusing on strengths, and seeking out communities and cultures of support.

Although policy change accompanies its own obstacles, ordinary people are capable of remarkable advocacy victories if they are willing to work diligently to achieve them. This is particularly true of social workers, who often embrace idealism even in the face of tragedy. In fact, history — both distant and recent — is full of successful advocacy case studies and heroic social work advocates.

Case Studies of Policy Change

A couple of examples of successful advocacy initiatives that involve community-based partnerships with social workers include:

· West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT) partnered with the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health to convert New York City’s public bus fleet to clean diesel fuel.

· Literacy for Environmental Justice (LEJ) partnered with the San Francisco Department of Public Health to increase access to healthy foods and decrease shelf space for alcohol/tobacco products in neighborhood corner stores.

Widely regarded as the “mother of social work,” Jane Addams was a compelling activist, reformer, and policy advocate. She led large-scale campaigns to address the needs of children and promote local public health. Additionally, Addams’ pacifist work scored her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1931.

In the modern era, Jack Rothman has revolutionized public health by highlighting the power of community organization in social work. According to the National Association of Social Workers Foundation, Rothman has “forcefully forged innovative connections between knowledge development and knowledge utilization for over three decades” and is described as “an American social worker who has gained widespread international recognition and respect for advances in both the research realm and in the field of community intervention, recognition that extends well beyond the field of social work.”

Want to take a deep dive into the world of policy advocacy? Preparing for a career in social work or policy advocacy through the School of Integrated Health’s Division of Behavioral and Health Sciences at Indiana Wesleyan University. Explore our academic programs or get in touch by requesting more information today!

Advocacy in Action: How Social Workers Can Influence Policy Change