Publications from ODSW Social Insights: Letters by DSW (Vol 1) | Page 47

Advocacy 2

students should avail themselves of opportunities in community planning/
organization, management/administration, social policy, and program
development evaluation. Increasingly too, we should encourage discussion
about the role community organizing, policy analysis, and advocacy play
in social work. With the setting up of Social Service Offices, there will be
growing opportunities for social work students to apply both case and cause
social work education.
Student placements are signature pedagogies and offer opportunities where
micro and macro work can be intertwined in real practice settings. Placements
and classroom teaching should collectively equip students with competencies
that reach across professional practice and evaluation and research. But
since social work students are often so influenced by the practitioners they
encounter while in school, it is important that schools expose students to
social workers who have embraced both case and cause advocacy as part of
their professional lives.
Social work is exciting because it is a discipline that enables clear connections
among policies, the social environment, and client circumstances.
15th September 2014

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