This is an excellent example of some of the important discussions taking place in other countries. I think this is very relevant for BC and Canada. As my career as a social worker has progressed, I've gone from being a newcomer in the field, and as I gained more experience and worked in more organizations, I have become more and more radical as an human rights activist and social worker and those two roles blended together for me. The construct of macro social work isn't even something I've ever heard of in BC or Canada, but it is what I have been doing for several years now as I have been advocating for systemic, structural and political change.
As the social safety net continues to be slashed at both provincial and federal levels in Canada, I believe that it is incumbent upon the social work profession and individual social workers to start working more at the macro level. From what I have seen in the field, we have largely become a complacent, docile workforce that remains happy with our middle-class jobs, benefits, and pensions. In my view, this is taking the heart and soul for social justice and human rights out of the profession.
In the end, social work, as a profession, is already feeling the burn of this, as we see social work jobs getting wiped from the map easily, whether this is through cuts, or re-classification to other disciplines, most notably nursing. All of this is happening with little in the way of resistance, or complaint from the profession, from ourselves, or from the unions that are supposed to represent our interests. There is absolute silence on what is happening to transform the profession and the loss of employment in BC.
This silence also extends to the deepening invisibility of our profession in BC. As social work participants in the Rothman study pointed out, community-based social work, and macro work, are largely unrecognized, or invisible to the majority of people. What people know of the profession continues to be the stereotypical negative images of "babysnatchers" working in child protection. The complexity, diversity and importance of our work is rendered invisible within our organizations and within our communities and society at large.
I truly believe if more of us don't become more radical and more macro, we will one day wake up to find we no longer have a viable profession. As many new grads find out, it is getting more and more difficult to find jobs in the field that are willing to pay a salary commensurate with a BSW, or MSW, or to find jobs in the field altogether.
Our profession is on the frontlines of the global structural adjustment taking place because we work with the ever-increasing populations of marginalized people in BC and Canada. We should consider what is happening within, and to the profession of social work, the canary in the coalmine of these largely political and socio-economic forces. If we do not wake from our slumber soon, it will be at the peril of ourselves, our profession and those who have no voice at all.
Commissioned by ACOSA: The Rothman Report and What it means for Social Work Education
by Demecia Wooten-Irizarry, Retired Social Worker, June 4, 2013.
Social work has traditionally been a profession that has embraced the
principles of social justice, social action, and equality with
individuals functioning as change agents fighting oppression and
inequality in order to improve outcomes for their communities. Social
Workers such as Jane Addams, Frances Perkins, Whitney Young, Congressmen
Ron Dellums and Ed Towns as well as Senator Barbara A. Mikulski to name
a few used their social work background to influence social policy and
legislation.
Organizations such as ACOSA (Association for Community Organizing
and Social Administration) was created to promote the development of
community organizing and macro thinking in social administrations which
would later commission Dr. Jack Rothman to evaluate the current state of
macro practice courses being taught in social work education. The
Rothman report was completed in October 2012 and will be discussed in
greater detail later in the article.
However, under today’s standard none of the individuals listed above
would be entitled to call themselves a social worker under today’s
standard because they do not meet the standard of a Licensed Clinical
Social Worker. Clinical Social Workers focus on micro practice in which
therapeutic treatments deal only with how an individual can develop
mentally, cognitively, or behaviorally. However, macro community
practices is focused on influencing the social policies that creates
oppression and inequality. Macro practice social workers are change
agents committed to making social change while the other is managing
individual change.
For instance, Social Worker Frances Perkins
was the U.S. Secretary of Labor from 1933 to 1945, and she was also the
first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet by President Franklin D.
Roosevelt whom she helped craft New Deal legislation. During her tenure
as Secretary of Labor, Perkins championed the Civilian Conservation
Corps, the Public Works Administration and its successor the Federal
Works Agency, as well as the labor portion of the National Industrial
Recovery Act. She was a major force in establishing the Social
Security Act, Unemployment benefits, and public assistance for the
neediest Americans.
Perkins fought to reduce workplace accidents and helped create laws
against child labor. Through the Fair Labor Standards Act, she was
responsible for establishing the first minimum wage and overtime laws
for American workers, and defined the standard forty-hour workweek. She
formed governmental policy for working with labor unions and helped to
alleviate strikes by way of the United States Conciliation Service.
Perkins resisted having American women be drafted to serve the military
in World War II so that they could enter the civilian workforce in
greatly expanded numbers. Sadly, Frances Perkins with all her
achievements as a change agent with graduate degrees in political
science, sociology and economics would not have been considered a social
worker today.
Since 1988, ACOSA has served as the official representative of social
workers in a broad array of community/macro practice professions.
These include “Community organizers, activists, nonprofit
administrators, community builders, policy practitioners, students and
educators. These conversations led ACOSA to commission a study to
explore the concerns of its members regarding the status of
community/macro practice in social work. The report would focus on both
identifying the problems with macro practice in schools of social work
while also looking for possible solutions.
The timing of this study and its outcome could not be more relevant
with today’s societal issues. During the survey process, Dr. Jack
Rothman determined that many in the profession believed the over focus
on clinical social work has devalued community/macro social work.
Participants were concerned about the future of community/macro
practice as exhibited by the lack of macro courses for individuals
interested politics, administration, public service, and grassroots
organizations. One respondent of the survey Dr. Rothman constructed
pointed out that many social work faculty believed that anyone could
teach macro classes—no experience or training in the field was needed.
Participants stated that ACOSA should seek to gain visibility with
other professional groups and disciplines “to interface better so
our community-based work is known and social work is not seen as simply
casework. "We need to relate to these groups”, they said, because “we
have a common cause in macro areas and there is strength in numbers.”
There were concerns that if the community/macro practitioners in social
work do not establish themselves as visible players in broader areas of
intervention and public policy that other fields will step in and
replace us.
One of the recommendations of the Rothman Report was to develop a
high-level special commission to look at community/macro social work.
One of the key issues ACOSA members expressed was the level of support
received from their schools when addressing the lack of courses in the
community/macro area. As a result, participants wanted to engage the
Council for Social Work Education
(CSWE) with respect to macro practice course in social work curricula.
Additionally, participants wanted to raise the visibility of
community/macro practice and advocate for a strong place for
community/macro practice within social work institutions and with the
public.
Since the survey was conducted, a Special Commission with 16
individuals has been formed. One of their first tasks will be to
prioritize the issues raised by participants in the survey. They will
begin to work on growing faculty with experience in community/macro
practice, as well as to work with CSWE to develop curricula in response
to the need for students interested in a community/macro concentration.
Also, ACOSA has developed core competencies for community/macro
practitioners, and they are looking at developing research studies that
reach beyond the individual application of social work principles. The
association will begin to work with organizations that are incorporating
social, cultural, economic, political and environmental influences that
advance social justice solutions as well as develop change agents that
empower individuals at systemic levels. Moreover, they have also begun
to develop collaborative relationships with legislatures, community
members, non-profit groups, and organizations that address the needs of
communities on a macro scale.
For organizations and individuals interested in community practice
and the work ACOSA is doing, you can contact its current Chair, Mark
Homan at mbhoman@msn.com
You can also view the full report here.
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