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 to create and put into action a political strategy that has been designed to increase the chances that a policy proposal will be successfully enacted to change and improve the lives of people. You develop a series of political strategies to address one aspect of the situations and/or problems facing family members in the families you are introduced to through case studies presented in the readings and the media of this week. You also write a proposal for a policy practice or social advocacy that will seek to change a social/organization/legislative policy or advocate for the amelioration of a social problem.

 

Learning Objectives

 

Students will:

 

· Analyze political strategies related to social work

 

· Analyze policy alternatives

 

· Analyze issues related to policy alternatives

 

Learning Resources

 

Required Readings

 

SOCW 6361 Webliography

 

These websites will be required throughout the semester. Become familiar with these websites, especially when doing research for your assignments.

 

Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.

 

· Chapter 11, “Developing Political Strategy and Putting It into Action in the Policy-Enacting Task” (pp. 372-419)

 

Plummer, S.-B, Makris, S., Brocksen S. (Eds.). (2014). Social work case studies: Concentration year.Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

 

· “Social Work Policy: Children and Adolescents. The Case of Susanna” (pp. 57–60)

 

· “Social Policy and Advocacy: Violence Prevention” (pp. 53–55)

 

McNutt, J. (2011). Is social work advocacy worth the cost? Issues and barriers to an economic analysis of social work political practice. Research on Social Work Practice, 21(4), 397–403.

 

Sherraden, M. S., Slosar, B., & Sherraden, M. (2002). Innovation in social policy: Collaborative policy advocacy. Social Work, 47(3), 209–221.

 

Required Media

 

Laureate Education. (Producer). (2013). Bradley (Episode 7 of 42) [Video file]. In Sessions. Retrieved from https://class.waldenu.edu

 

 

 

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 2 minutes.

 

Accessible player 

 

Credit: Provided courtesy of the Laureate International Network of Universities.

 

Optional Resources

 

MSW home page

 

Use this link to access the MSW home page, which provides resources for your social work program.

We can handle this paper for you

We Guarantee ZERO Plagiarism ZERO AI

Done by Professional writers from scratch