Engage in Policy Practice

Policy practice is an important subject in the field of social work. Policy practice is an avenue for community betterment and provides endless opportunities to advocate for clients though policy change and implementation. When a problem or barrier to providing services to clients is identified, policy pracice is crucial to navigating and eliminating those challenges. I see policy practice as a way to create change for the individuals that I work with and is an integral tool in any active social worker’s belt.

Advocate with and Inform Stakeholders to Impact Policy Change

Field: I used the knowledge I gained from the Autism conference and personal research to recognize areas in which Dalton State College can grow in their advocacy for students with disabilities and submitted this information to the disability services provider at DSC.

Class: Together with my peers, I helped create a Policy Advocacy Plan that promotes universal mandatory reporting of child abuse and created a group presentation on our work.

Other: During my summer emphasis course I had the opportunity volunteer with a group called UnifiEd, where we went into the community and advocated for individuals to sign a petition supporting local eucation through policy change via a budget change proposal. Here is a photo of myself participating in this event and a self reaction paper from the event that highlights some of the information and statistics that we shared within the community.

Develop and Implement a Policy and/or Advocacy Plan

Field: I created recommendations and a SMART Goals plan based on the findings of my Initial Appointment Feedback survey (found in 7.1) in order to facilitate helpful change in the Disability Access office practices.

Class: During my summer emphasis course I had the opportunity to do a community advocacy activity of my choice, and I chose to do a voter engagement project. My project looks at voter engagement as a means for community betterment in Hamilton County, Tennessee and included a research paper and opinion editorial.

Other: I helped create a fact sheet advocating for a policy supporting the mandatory reporting of abuse and used it as a part of a lager policy project in one of my MSW classes.