As an astute social worker and professional policy advocate, you must be adept at identifying social problems that exist in your community or in an agency or organization with which you are acquainted

Week 3: Analyzing Social Problems

In Week 3 you are reintroduced to the family case studies you have seen throughout your concentration year. You will analyze the social problems within each family and apply the skill you would use in working with these family members as clients. You are provided with additional media for each family that allow you to use your skills to identify the policy and social problems that are impacting these families. Additionally, you explore policy advocacy skills in relation to your clinical social work skills.

This week you also will complete Part I of your Social Change Project.

Learning Objectives

Students will:

Analyze social problems related to social work practice
Apply policy advocacy skills to address a social problem
Analyze the impact of social problems on social work populations
Analyze social policies

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.

Community Toolbox. (n.d). Chapter 5 Section 3: Social planning and policy Change. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/social-planning-policy-change/main

Community Toolbox. (n.d). Chapter 5 Section 4: Social action. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/promotion-strategies/systems-advocacy-and-community-organizing/main

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 7, "Analyzing Problems in the First Step of Policy Analysis" (pp. 204-243)

Midgley, J., & Livermore, M. M. (Eds.). (2008). The handbook of social policy (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Chapter 14, "Critical Social Policy" (pp. 215–235) (PDF)

Required Media

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

Note: The approximate length of this media piece is 4 minutes.

Accessible player

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

Optional Resources

Plummer, S.-B., Makris, S., & Brocksen S. M. (Eds.). (2014). Sessions: Case histories. Baltimore, MD: Laureate International Universities Publishing. [Vital Source e-reader].

MSW home page

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

Project: Part 1: Identification of a Social Problem and Identification of a Policy

As an astute social worker and professional policy advocate, you must be adept at identifying social problems that exist in your community or in an agency or organization with which you are acquainted. Once you have selected a social problem, you begin the process of creating and implementing a policy that addresses that social problem.

In this assignment, you identify and describe a current social problem. You also identify a policy created and implemented to address the problem. This is the first part of your Social Change Project final assignment.

Complete Part 1 of your Social Change Project.

Address the following items in a 3-4 page paper:

Describe a current social problem. How might this problem be incongruent with social work values/ethics?
How/when has this problem been identified historically, and what were the actions taken to address this concern?
How have the groups affected by this concern changed over time?
Describe the policy area related to this social problem.
Is the policy identified by your group dictated by local, state, or federal statute—or a combination thereof?
What are the different aspects of the policy?
How long has the current policy been in place?
Who supports and who opposes the policy?
What changes/amendments have been made to the policy?
Explain how this policy affects clients you might see in a clinical setting and why, as a clinical social worker, it would be important to advocate for change.