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Discussion 1: Policies and the Influence of Values Ideology, politics, and the influence of values often override evidence-based policy. When there is evaluation conflict, a policy advocate must be prepared to defend his/her reasons for wanting to implement a policy. Because almost all proposed policies are circumscribed by politics (for reasons brought up by Jansson…
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Project: Social Change Project: Final Report and Presentation Is social change ever easy? What barriers did you experience during your advocacy? What successes did you experience? Over the past several weeks, you have analyzed a policy related to a social problem and have advocated for change. This week you submit your final report and…
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Week 11: Assessing Policy: Toward Evidence-Based Policy Evidence-based policies are ones that achieve positive outcomes where they are evaluated with research. —Bruce S. Jansson, Becoming an Effective Policy Advocate: From Policy Practice to Social Justice, 8th ed. Social workers hope that a proposed policy will be effective and make a significant impact toward social change.…
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Discussion: Policy Implementation Challenges Implementation never occurs in a vacuum. —Bruce S. Jansson, Becoming an Effective Policy Advocate: From Policy Practice to Social Justice (8th ed.) When a policy is launched, its success is dependent on a variety of stakeholders. As the politics of decision makers, executives, staff, clients, and social workers begin to influence…
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Week 10: Troubleshooting Policies There are many factors that are starting points to policy implementation. This week you explore those factors. There are also many factors that lead to failure of policy implementation. You will examine those factors as well. According to Jansson (2010), policy implementation is a “critically important part of policy advocacy because…
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Discussion: Developing Political Strategies In this week’s resources, you explore the stories of Susana and the Bradley family. They are all in situations that need social work intervention and advocacy. What political strategies would you use to enact policies developed to assist these individuals? In this Discussion, you develop political strategies to address one…
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Week 9: Political Strategy in Policy Advocacy Political strategies evolve as a result of a sequence of actions and verbal exchanges with policy makers and stakeholders. A social worker and policy advocate may find himself or herself in the role of political activist as well. This week you examine how to use power resources…
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Discussion: Using Power in Social Work Practice Politics represents efforts by people in governmental and nongovernmental settings to secure their policy wishes by developing and using power resources. —Bruce S. Jansson, Becoming an Effective Policy Advocate: From Policy Practice to Social Justice (8th ed.) Social workers are in the business of empowering people. They are…
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Week 7: Presenting and Defending Policy Proposals Changes are products of intensive efforts. —Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty As a professional social worker and policy advocate, you will be called upon to make a difference in the lives of those who need assistance and can benefit from…
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Week 8: Developing and Using Power Power and politics have a bad reputation among some [social work] professionals, who regard them as unseemly, even unethical. However, power and politics can often be used for ethical purposes, and each of us can develop and use power resources to help stigmatized groups and unpopular causes. (Jansson, 8th…