Description
Small Group Discussion: Social Change Projects What does policy have to do with clinical social work? Connecting policy to direct practice can be a challenge for some micro social workers. However, policies affect the lives of each and every client who walks through your door. Policies affect clients ability to access and pay for services. Policies also affect environmental conditions that influence individual experience. During this term, you will have an opportunity to create a Social Change Project. In Week 3, you will identify a social problem and a policy related to this problem. In Week 6, you will present a proposal for your social advocacy project that you will complete this term. In Week 8, you will analyze the strengths and weakness of the current policy. In Week 9, you will present a policy alternative. Finally, in Week 10, you will submit the final project by compiling the Weeks 3, 6, 8, 9 assignments and revising based on instructor feedback. You will also present on the actions and outcomes of your advocacy. For this week’s small group discussion, you discuss ideas for your individual Social Change project. The Project will be completed individually; however, you discuss your Project in this week’s small group discussion to help you develop your idea based on peer feedback. By Day 4 Post your responses to the following question presented for the Group Discussion: Explain what area you are interested in engaging in advocacy. Briefly, identify the related social problem and types of policies that may impact the social problem. Identify 2-3 ideas you are considering for your Social Change Project. Explain how the project may impact clients in a clinical social work setting. Discussion: Analyses of Social Problems in Case Studies As a social worker, often you need to use your policy advocacy skills to ensure that your clients are receiving the services that they need. Although you may tend to think of policy advocacy skills as separate from your clinical social work skills, they are very similar. Think of the skills that you would use in working with a client such as Jake Levy. How could you apply these skills to policy advocacy? How will you use these skills to identify the policy and social problems that are impacting these families? In this week’s Discussion, you will continue to follow the Levy, Bradley, Petrakis, and Cortez families to start the process of policy advocacy. In this Discussion, select one of the four integrated videos and identify the problems experienced by the client(s). By Day 3 Post your responses to the following: Who is defining the problem? What values are reflected in this definition of the problem? What is being omitted in this definition? What other problems do you see that are not being acknowledged?
