Advocacy / Organizing Flashcards
Social Work Advocacy:
Championing the rights of society’s most vulnerable members, from children to homeless people to the physically disabled has been a core aspect of the social work profession. Social workers can advocate for change through a variety of means including writing op-ed pieces, lobbying, organizing local protests, and helping to change laws that adversely affect vulnerable and disadvantaged members of society.
What is Community Organizing?
Community organizing involves the work social workers engage in with groups, organizations, and communities in order to bring about positive changes within the community and to solve social problems identified by members of the community.
Steps of Community Organizing: Step 1
Integrate into the community:
- The social worker should immerse himself/herself in the community in order to gain understanding of community dynamics, strengths, and concerns and to begin building trusting relationships.
- The social worker can engage in this process through participation in community activities, casual meetings and one-on-one interactions with individuals in the community.
- Learn about structures within the community, identify potential leaders, and meet with people in the community to gain information and insight.
Steps of Community Organizing: Step 2
Identify the issue impacting the community:
• Identify the felt needs/problems impacting the community and work with community members to rank their importance and urgency.
Steps of Community Organizing: Step 3
Set goals and objectives:
- Create goals and objectives for the issues identified in step 2.
- When setting the goal, you are identifying the overall outcome/change that you are expecting through your community engagement efforts.
- The objectives specify the details of the community intervention in measurable terms. The achievement in objectives will lead to achievement of broader goals.
Steps of Community Organizing: Step 4
Identify individuals and create core group:
- Engage local leaders and individuals that have been identified during step 1.
- Consider well-respected, influential community members who are passionate about and committed to working towards change.
Steps of Community Organizing: Step 5
Create an action plan to meet goals:
- Identify ways to work towards objectives.
- Determine possible positive and negative outcomes as well as barriers that could arise as you work towards the stated objectives.
- Identify resources that will be needed for the community organizing efforts.
Steps of Community Organizing: Step 6
Execute and monitor the action plan:
• Train staff as needed and engage in community meetings and action set up during step 5.
Steps of Community Organizing: Step 7
Evaluate the effect of the action plan on the stated goals:
- Evaluation is an ongoing process done after each community organizing activity. Reflection should take place to identify what has worked, what has been accomplished, and what is still being worked towards.
- A final evaluation should be done to assess the overall impact and the accomplishment of the stated goals and objectives.
- Reassess the problem and determine if further intervention is needed.
Coalitions:
A coalition is a group of people or organizations who share a common interest and work collaboratively to achieve a shared goal. Coalitions can be created to achieve a specific goal and then part ways, or they can become permanent organizations of their own.
Lobbying:
Lobbyists are professional advocates that are hired to represent specific causes and interest groups in order to be that groups’ voice to legislators and members of congress.
- Lobbyists engage in discussions with legislators to gain their support for a bill.
- The lobbyist brings a typed summary of the issue and reviews key points with the legislator. Additional materials can be provided as needed.
