Imagine that you are a social worker treating an LGBTQ couple who live in a state with few protections against discrimination. Or maybe you are working with a single dad whose children are frequently sent home from school for behavioral issues, an action that then jeopardizes his employment. Policies—on the federal, state, local, or even school and organization level—affect clients’ lives in large ways. What types of clients do you see in your field agency, and what laws and policies create barriers for them?
In this Assignment, you analyze such policies and consider your advocacy efforts currently and in the future.
To prepare:
Research the agency you are working with for your field education experience.
Examine the characteristics of your agency in reference to the field of social work and the types of services offered to clients.
Download the PowerPoint Presentation Template from the Learning Resources and use it for this Assignment.
Submit an 8- to 10-slide (including title and reference slides) narrated PowerPoint presentation in which you:
Describe your field agency. Note: my agency STILL WATERS PROFESSTIONAL COUNSELING.
Define the characteristics of the populations served by the agency.
Identify the key issues, barriers, and challenges experienced by clients.
Explain how you and the agency apply concepts of ADEI with clients to address these issues.
Analyze how local, state, and federal policies, legislation, and regulations impact these issues.
Explain the extent to which the agency is involved in policy advocacy efforts. Describe how you, as an intern at the agency, are involved. Offer specific examples.
For the slides: Be sure to provide significant detail from your field education experience, including relevant examples, evidence from the readings and other sources, and discerning ideas that draw connections between the points and each slide.
This social-work assignment asks you to analyze how policies create barriers for the clients your field agency serves and reflect on your advocacy — current and future. Ground it in your real agency and specific policies.
Key takeaways
- Describe your field agency and the clients/services it provides.
- Identify specific laws/policies that create barriers for those clients.
- Analyze how the policies affect clients’ lives.
- Reflect on your current and future advocacy role.
- Connect to social-work values (social justice).
Describe your agency and clients
Characterize your field agency — its place in the field of social work, the services it offers, and the clients it serves. Be specific about who comes through the door.
Identify policy barriers
Examine laws and policies (federal, state, local, or organizational) that create barriers for these clients — e.g., limited anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ clients, school discipline policies affecting a single parent’s employment, benefit eligibility rules. Explain the mechanism of the barrier.
Analyze the impact
Discuss how these policies concretely affect clients’ lives, access, and well-being.
Advocacy
Reflect on your advocacy — what you do now and what you could do in the future (policy advocacy, connecting clients to resources, systemic change) — tied to the social-work value of social justice.
Format
Support with sources and cite in APA.
The post Imagine that you are a social worker treating an LGBTQ couple who live in a state with few protections against discrimination appeared first on Writeden.