Policies are vital in the social work discipline. Policies are constantly changing and they play an important role in clients’ lives. It is the ethical responsibility of social workers to be politically engaged in their communities in order to best serve their clients. This competency helps ensure that social workers understand that human rights and social justice are mediated by policy and its implementation at the federal, state, and local levels. To meet this competency I used knowledge as the cognitive domain and receiving as the affective domain. The theories utilized are commitment and strategic contingencies theory. By meeting this competency I demonstrate the understanding of my role in policy development and implementation within my practice settings. I demonstrate this by reviewing policies at my agency and making suggestions based on the current population served. As a social worker I vow to actively engage in policy practice to effect change within my client setting.
Competency:
Engage in Policy Practice
Practice Behaviors:
5.1 Advocate with and inform stakeholders to impact policy change
Evidence: I demonstrated this practice behavior by collaborating with my Advanced Social Policy group in a project where we suggest revisions to a current policy surrounding issues of incarcerated pregnant women. As a group, we wrote a final paper through which we voice our evidence-based suggestions.
5.2 Develop and implement a policy and/or advocacy plan
Evidence: I demonstrated this practice behavior by creating a flyer that includes statistics of specific challenges faced by the Latino / Hispanic population. I shared this flyer with Morris Innovative High School staff.