In this week's resources, you explore the stories of Susana and the Bradley family. They are all in situations that need social work intervention and advocacy. What political strategies would you use
Discussion: Developing Political Strategies
In this week's resources, you explore the stories of Susana and the Bradley family. They are all in situations that need social work intervention and advocacy. What political strategies would you use to enact policies developed to assist these individuals?
In this Discussion, you develop political strategies to address one aspect of the situation(s) and problem(s) facing Susana and members of the Bradley family.
To Prepare: Read and review Chapter 11 in your text. Read "Social Work Policy: Children and Adolescents" and "Social Policy and Advocacy: Violence Prevention". View the Bradley Episode 7 in the media for this week.
Be sure to support your post with specific references to this week's resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full APA-formatted citations for your references.
By Day 5
Provide Responses to the Original Colleague Discussion Posts Below:
Respond:
Offer a supportive insight based on your own experience as a social worker and/or policy advocate.
Shirl BJ
RE: Discussion - Week 9
COLLAPSE
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Political Strategies in helping Susana
One of the problems that Susana faces includes her truancy at school which has resulted in her parents receiving fines and court involvement. Susana further appears to be very self-isolating and more dependent on her mother than most girls her age, which seems to be one of the reasons why she is skipping school so much. Susana does not have a history of missing school to socialize or to engage in problematic behaviors but rather, her parents believe she is just unmotivated.
To address this issue, it may be helpful to establish a program specifically aimed at establishing a connection to students who are struggling with their attendance. Research shows that “if young people perceive that adults at school care about them both personally and as students, probabilities will increase that they will engage, connect, and bond to the school” (Marvul, 2012). A program like this could be particularly useful for someone like Susana because she is so dependent of her mother, she may have a hard time connecting with other adults or peers. The political strategy I would use is creating a task group to persuade the school board to allow the implementation of a program aimed at reducing truancy. According to Jansson (2018), “task groups are more effective than individuals who try to shape policy on their own” (pp.410). Specifically, I would form a task group of teachers, coaches parents, and student-peer support, to show policy makers the importance of such a program.
Political strategies in helping the Bradley family
Some of the issues that Tiffani faces include a history of running away, prostitution, and being sexually exploited. Growing up, she witnessed her parents have a physically and verbally abuse relationship as they struggled with addiction. Most recently, Tiffani discovered she would be cleared of her prostitution charges, but she worries about retaliation from her former pimp.
To address some of the issues Tiffani faces, especially regarding her current safety, I would want to advocate for programs or funding that could help protect Tiffani from retaliation, such as offering a safe house or transitional housing where she can overcome some of the trauma that she’s been through. The political strategy that I might use could be using mass media or social media to gain attention to the issue of child sexual exploitation and trafficking. It would be important to first establish a working relationship with local reporters and begin telling them about the project and how it impacts local children/teenagers (2018). As public interest grows, it will be easier to gain the attention of legislators.
References
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.
Marvul, J. M. (2012). If you build it, they will come: A successful truancy intervention program in a small high school. Urban Education, 47(1), 144-169.
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Maryzuliana Seman
RE: Discussion - Week 9
COLLAPSE
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Post an explanation of the political strategies you would use to address one aspect of the situations/problems facing Susana and members of the Bradley family. Explain why you selected that strategy.
In the case of Susana, I would incorporate changing others’ proposals (an amending position), just like the social worker in the case did with challenging the judge’s ruling. Although the social worker ended up being penalized for their stance, they advocated for the client’s best interest. As social workers, clients depend on us and we must always advocate for their best interest. In amending position, the policy advocate attempts to influence the decision maker by changing the details (Jansson, 2018). The social worker understood Susana’s case better than the judge and therefore it was their responsibility to provide all the information available to the judge, even information pertaining to why the social worker opposed the decision of removing Susana from her family.
In the case of Tiffany she is protected under the Safe Harbor Act in which minors cannot be prosecuted for prostitution and directs minors who were victims of sex trafficking to non-punitive specialized services. I would initiate my own proposal (an affirmative action) in which we can relocate the minor and their family to a different location and help change of names in order to protect them from any retaliation from the minor’s (pimp) or other people involved in the sex trafficking industry. Tiffany is clearly distressed in the video as she is worried that her pimp would be upset and come after her, initiating a proposal that allows funding and services to relocate minors who were victims of sex trafficking would help mitigate different distress and minimize revictimization.
References:
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
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Katherine Petersuk
RE: Discussion - Week 9
COLLAPSE
Top of Form
Post an explanation of the political strategies you would use to address one aspect of the situations/problems facing Susana and members of the Bradley family. Explain why you selected that strategy.
With political strategies evolving as a result of a sequence of actions and verbal exchanges with policy makers and stakeholders, we as social work advocates must be aware of the sequence of actions required and at what phases in the process to implement strategies. Last week we learned about various power resources and how to both develop as well as utilize power and now we must learn how to use the power resources to create and put into action a political strategy and implement it in legislative, community, and agency settings to improve the lives of people. According to Jansson (2018) a political strategy is “a sequence of actions and verbal exchanges that advocates believe will increase the likelihood that a proposal will be enacted” (p. 372).
There exists various factors that policy advocates must consider when attempting to develop strategy, such as “the need to establish objectives, to select the extent of policy changes, to select a time frame, to examine the distribution of power, to identify contextual factors, to examine situational factors, to construct alternative scenarios, and finally to develop strategy” (Jansson, 2018).
Both case studies present with situations that need social work intervention and advocacy, including in existing policy that impacts them. In the case of Tiffani, a new state law was just put in place similar to New York’s Safe Harbor for Exploited Children Act, which resulted in her prostitution charges being dropped due to the courts now seeing her as a victim as opposed to a criminal and while that is good news, an area that the new policy doesn’t consider or cover is the protection of the minors from their former pimps and in the case of Tiffani John T was just incarcerated as she is about to be released, causing her to fear for her safety and not wanting John T to be suspicious that she is the reason he was busted (Plummer, Makris, & Brocksen, 2014). In the case of Susana, she faced a ruling of being immediately removed from the care of her parents and institutionalized in a Catholic girls’ school for delinquents without any community-based intervention attempted and all due to truancy issues (Plummer et al., 2014).
One chosen initial political strategy that could be beneficial to use for both Tiffani Bradley as well as the case of Susana would be utilizing force field analysis. Jansson (2018) points out that force field analysis is often very helpful for policy advocates as without efforts to gauge our support or opposition, it could lead to blindly committing ourselves to a proposal that may not necessarily be politically feasible or lead to failure to take action that can change the positions of participants during policy deliberations. I would also choose to initially utilize this political strategy to help provide an estimate of the time and political resources required to successfully get my policy proposal enacted and utilizing a force field analysis will inform if it is an unlikely or more challenging battle ahead and better to be forewarned so that proper preparedness can occur than blindsided.
References
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.
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].
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