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Influence 8.1/Spring '04
NEW ISP VIDEO DISTRIBUTED NATIONWIDE After two years in production, ISP distributed Social Workers Effecting Change: Legislative Advocacy (ISPVideo #4), in January to over 1,000 ISP liaisons, friends, NASW chapters, and other members. Guidelines for using this video are found on this web site. Complementing the first three motivational videos in our Policy Affects Practice Series, Video #4 is an instructional resource that outlines the basic tasks and skills required for advocating in the legislative arena. The video features actual legislators, ISPmembers, students, and advocates who speak passionately about the need for advocacy while simultaneously providing wisdom and techniques needed for success in a volatile environment. Video #4 provides a down-to-earth, practical framework for increasing social workers’efficacy in the political realm of state legislatures. It illustrates how to broaden your base of support for a bill and it outlines how to identify issues and obtain the facts needed to argue for your legislative agenda. The video also reveals why one should set strategies and what tactics are useful. Advocates point out the importance of getting to know the legislators and also conducting an evaluation of your efforts after the session in preparation for the next session. Viewers also learn about the role of social work values and the necessity of leadership. Social Workers Effecting Change: Legislative Advocacy is a unique tool for social work educational programs that are striving to meet the standards for accreditation by CSWE. State and local chapters of NASW will use this video for training and preparing their members for legislative advocacy. Individual copies or larger orders are available from Robert Schneider, VCU School of Social Work, 1001 W. Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23284-2027 or call Bob at 804.828.0452 or email him at rschneid@vcu.edu. All members of ISP receive the Policy Affects Practice Series of videos (4) with annual membership dues of $25. ANITA REED WINS ISP'S 2003 DISSERTATION AWARD Each year, ISP offers a $2,000 cash award and engraved plaque to a PhD student whose dissertation research involves state policy analysis. The third winner is Ms. Anita Reed, a PhD student at the Catholic University of America National Catholic School of Social Services in Washington, DC. During the Annual ISP Membership meeting on February 29, 2004 in Anaheim, CA, Ms. Reed will present her proposal and the progress she is making on her research. In the Ph.D. Award Entries section is a summary of her entry, followed by the names and descriptions of the other six entries. We are so proud of all of these PhD students! (Each entrant received a free ISP membership and copies of all videos in our Policy Affects Practice Series.) CHAIRMAN'S LETTER Greetings and a prosperous and productive 2004 to each of you! ISP anticipates a fast-moving spring semester and invites all students and faculty to collaborate on some or all of its initiatives and activities. Please go to the Upcoming Events calendar in this newsletter and make your choice(s) of involvement with ISP. All are invited to annual meetings and the auction in Anaheim, CA in February if you are attending the APM of the Council on Social Work Education. We have great speakers and intriguing items to auction. Note carefully a few select initiatives and goals of ISP below and contribute your efforts to them. Most of them do not take excessive amounts of time; they only require commitment to our mission of making “social workers effective participants in the state policy making process.”
If every ISP member and Liaison did these seven (7) tasks, we would become the irresistible force that your ISP Chairperson dreams about everyday. All the best. ISP INITIATIVES
PH.D. AWARD ENTRIES Summary of the winning entry by Anita Reed and the names and descriptions of the other six dissertation entries— Ms. Anita H. Reed, The National Catholic School of Social Work of the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. Models of organizational collaboration and child welfare outcomes: assessing the impact of Virginia’s Comprehensive Services Act. Reed’s Dissertation Overview: The needs of at-risk children and families are surfacing in most states and interagency collaboration is viewed as one means to improve service delivery. The goals of Virginia’s Comprehensive Services Act (CSA) are to preserve and strengthen families through early identification and intervention of such youth and their families. The researcher’s database comes from 136 counties in Virginia. Research hypotheses will be tested using ordinary least square (OLS) multiple regression analysis. Variables that will be examined include multidisciplinary team process, foster care prevention services, and family foster care and institutional care. The dissertation is expected to contribute to social work policy practice at state and local levels. Ms. Christine L. Erickson, Jane Addams College of Social Work, University of Illinois at Chicago. Prescription drug coverage for the elderly: access, medication adherence, and quality of life. Ms. Michal Grinstein-Weiss, The George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis. IDAs for housing policy: saving outcomes and racial differences. Ms. Dru Kemp, Kent School of Social Work, University of Louisville. Welfare reform in Kentucky: how are the children faring? Ms. Jill Murray, School of Social Work, Louisiana State University. Differentiating beliefs of insured and uninsured, insurance-eligible state employees: a new application of the health benefit model. Mr. Robert Weaver, School of Social Work, University of Georgia. Boom or bust: analyzing the impact of economic climate on welfare reform in Georgia. Ms. Greta Yoder, Indiana University School of Social Work. Firearm suicide among older adults: a sociological autopsy. UPCOMING EVENTS
ISP GOALS
IN THE NEWS Dr. Karen Haynes, ISP Charter Board of Advisors member, has been appointed President of California State University-San Marcos. She was President of the University of Houston-Victoria and past Dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Houston. Congrats, Karen! Mr. Larry Beckett, ISP Liaison and Program Coordinator of the West Virginia University Charleston Center has been elected President of the West Virginia chapter of NASW. Congrats, Larry! Dr. Robert Vernon, ISP Liaison and Professor at Indiana University School of Social Work, won the MSW Faculty Award of the ISP Annual Contest. He generously donated the cash prize of $250 towards the 2004 contest to assist student winners with travel costs. Thank you, Bob! Dr. Mimi Abramovitz, ISP Liaison and Professor at Hunter College School of Social Work was selected for CSWE's national award for Distinguished Recent Contributions to Social Work Education. Congrats, Mimi! Dr. Anthony Bibus, ISP Liaison and Board of Advisors member and Dept. Chair at Augsburg College Social Work Program, sent us the theme of the Minnesota Conference on Social Work Education: “Clinical Without Political is Hypocritical!” Thanks, Tony! Dr. Kathy Byers, ISP Liaison and Board of Advisors member and BSW Program Director at Indiana University-Bloomington Campus, was recognized at The Policy Conference in August, 2003, with the ISP Jefferson Cup for her longstanding commitment to the annual ISP National Contest. Congrats, Kathy! Dr. William Pederson, ISP Liaison and Site Coordinator at Northern Arizona University Dept. of Social Work in Yuma, reports that Ms. Emma Torres, a BSW student, has been appointed by President George Bush to serve on the U.S.-Mexico Border Health Commission. Congrats, William and Emma! Dr. James E. Taylor, ISP Liaison at Middle Tennessee State University Social Work Dept. has developed an online course on Family Caregiving that can be examined at http://www.tn.regentsdegrees.org and click on “courses” and scroll down to SW 3170-R50-Family Caregiving. Contact Dr. Taylor at 615.898.50489 or jetaylor@mtsu.edu Congrats, James! ISP WEBSITE Influencing State Policy’s website, http://www.statepolicy.org, is available 24 hours a day and seven days a week. As of February 15, 2004, there have been over 40,400 visits. Recall that one of our new goals is to have 1,200 visits per academic month. So far this year, we are averaging about 1,500. Keep it up!! One ISP initiative this year is to have our ISP website posted on every social work education program’s online homepage. Please ask your webmaster to put our link, http://www.statepolicy.org, on your site. Another initiative is to integrate the website into the classroom or assignments. Please send your exemplar assignments to Bob Schneider to share with others. ISP Liaisons are urged to encourage colleagues and students to use the site for policy related resources. New linkages are regularly being added, so check out the site and review the “resources” section again. Recall that your students now have the capacity to view ISP video #3, Policy Affects Practice and Students Affect Policy, online. You can assign a viewing of it to your students or play it online in class by clicking on “media” and following directions. Please let Bob Schneider know how it works for you. ISP heartily encourages all ISP members to subscribe to the FamiliesUSA website and policy updates at http://www.familiesusa.org/. This advocacy group has excellent resources and is also “in the action” on state and federal issues. If you go to their site, you will find links to these excellent resources:
OUR SPONSORS During the past semester, ISP increased the number of sponsors of its annual contest and awards to students and faculty who actually influence state policy. Our corps of sponsors now includes:
We thank each of you very, very much! PRACTITIONERS AFFECT POLICY, MSW ESSAY by Suzanne Gore, Virginia Commonwealth University At the 3rd Biennial Policy Practice Forum on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, ISP sponsored an essay contest for the 400+ students in attendance. They were asked to write about the forum’s theme: Practitioners Affect Policy. Judges selected the essay of Ms. Suzanne Gore, a second year MSW macro student at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work, as the most outstanding MSW entry. Below is Ms. Gore’s essay: Being a social worker is tough. Helping clients to just get through the day can seem like an insurmountable challenge. Navigating through the maze of requirements, policies and procedures to actually obtain needed services for our clients is daunting. It is easy for survival to become a social worker’s focus. Operating in a survival mode, however, never gives us time to ask the bigger question of “Why?” Why are we desperate for funding? Why are programs cut? Why do public officials who profess to care about all citizens often ignore the most vulnerable? Attending the Biennial Policy Practice Forum in Washington, D.C. on October 9th, 2003 challenged me to revisit these issues. The experience further instilled my belief that to be true advocates for our clients, social workers must be advocates within the larger system. Those who show up are best able to create change. More often than not, it is the bankers and lawyers or the corporations and their accountants who shape our laws and policies. These are the “experts” with numbers and words. On paper, it may be easy to justify trimming services and programs. Social workers, however, deal with the people behind the programs. Since we are the “people experts,” isn’t the political debate incomplete if our voices are not heard? Social workers must take the time to examine the framework through which we deliver services. We know what programs and policies are effective and efficient and which are not. We know what the real implications of cutting certain services are, both long and short term to individuals and society. Why should we expect our lawmakers to really understand our side of the story unless we tell them? And we must tell them! We cannot afford to stand idly by while groups with no interest in our profession and little interest in those we serve continue to have the biggest impact on policies that affect us. But is just changing the law all that is needed? Dr. Joan Zlotnik, Ph.D., Executive Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research, argued in her Plenary Speech that it is the budget process that determines the health of any program created by law. Money is the lifeblood of most programs, yet identifying and obtaining adequate funding is something that most social workers know little about. If legislative advocacy seems like foreign ground to most social workers, then the budget process is surely conducted in a foreign language. We must learn the language of pro forma statements and balance sheets and take part in the process because a new program without adequate funding is worthless. As our political climate skews further away from social work values and as budget deficits continue to increase, the legislatures will continue to hold us more accountable for the dwindling resources we are allocated. This is why it is imperative that social workers advocate within the fiscal process on the local, state, and federal levels. Social workers are affected by changes in laws, government policies, and appropriations as much as any profession. Those on the margin (our clients) are the most affected. Until we acknowledge the increasing importance of both legislative and fiscal advocacy, we will continue to be undermined by under-funding. If we expect our clients to be advocates for themselves, then we must lead by example. WHAT'S NEW NASW has produced a CD-ROM, NASW Social Work Month 2004, called The Power of Social Work, that you can use to promote the profession and Social Work Month (March). Go to the NASW website: www.socialworkers.org for additional information and ideas. President Bush’s Commission has issued a new 2003 report, Achieving the Promise: Transforming Mental Health Care in America. This report provides current data, statistics and recommendations for service delivery and copies can be ordered through the National Mental Health Information Center at 1.800.662.4357. Go to: http://www.mentalhealthcommission.gov/ Find Out Everything You Wanted to Know about Nonprofit Advocacy. Announcing the launch of www.NPAction.org, a web site dedicated to arming nonprofits with the tools and knowledge they need to advocate for their cause. At NPAction.org, you can:
Take part in advocacy polls NPAction.org is a project of: OMB Watch, 1742 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009. (202) 234-8494. http://www.ombwatch.org (Thanks to Rhonda Impink for sending ISP this link.) Policy Matters Initiative Aims at Setting Benchmarks for State Policies Policy Matters is an initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Policy in collaboration with the National Center for Children in Poverty and Child Trends. The project aims to establish consensus among policy experts and state leaders regarding best state policies to enhance child and family well being. The hope is that Policy Matters will eventually produce a “Kids Count” type product, which will demonstrate how all 50 states measure up on certain benchmarks related to school readiness, educational success, positive youth development, family economic success, strong family relationships, and family health. Additional information can be found at the Center for the Study of Social Policy website - http://www.cssp.org/major_initiatives/state_policy (Thanks to Sharyn J. Zunz, PhD, MSW; Assoc. Professor of Social Work at the University of New Hampshire for sending ISP this link.) The Social Security Administration issues a report each year that presents data on the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program and the people who receive benefits from it. The report covers such topics as federal benefits rates and total annual payments, work incentives, awards, denials, state-administered benefits. SSI provides a guaranteed minimum level of income for needy aged, blind or disabled individuals. Go to: http://www.socialsecurity.gov/policy PRACTITIONERS AFFECT POLICY, BSW ESSAY by Adrienne Goldsboro, Richard Stockton College At the 3rd Biennial Policy Practice Forum on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, ISP sponsored an essay contest for the 400+ students in attendance. They were asked to write about the forum’s theme: Practitioners Affect Policy. Judges selected the essay of Ms. Adrienne Goldsboro, a senior at Richard Stockton College Deptartment of Social Work in New Jersey, as the most outstanding BSW entry. Below is Ms. Goldsboro’s essay: My visit to Washington to attend the Biennial Policy Practice Forum both enlightened me and filled me with hope. Unsure of my purpose of going on this trip, I arrived at Richard Stockton College at 5:30 AM and boarded a bus loaded with interested social work students ready to travel from New Jersey to Capitol Hill. As an eager student, I mentally prepared myself to be open and receptive to all of the new knowledge that I was going to gain from this experience. I sat in the forum and listened attentively to all of the proud social workers. Each speaker talked excitedly about their beginnings in becoming activists for social services and social workers. There were common threads that wove each speaker together about how each had a desire to be “effective.” The speakers (all of whom had an MSW degree) promoted awareness to everyone about how to play a part in the political process and possibly controversial roles in advocacy. Some speakers talked about the obstacles they had faced, including injustices, lack of knowledge, and fears. But they all spoke about persevering and overcoming these obstacles. When I left the forum that afternoon, I felt an inner push to ask questions and find out more about the political policies involving social services and social workers at the state level. I returned from Washington and began to search the Internet for websites on New Jersey state policies. I also contacted our local governmental officials to find out the various forums in which I could possibly participate. I was not aware prior to the forum that we had state representatives who advocated for us. Now I want to know who is speaking for me and how I can let them know about my concerns. I currently am not positive about what I have to offer when it comes to policy issues, but I know that I have a desire to do more and to be an active advocate in the political process. HARMS CHALLENGES SOCIAL WORK STUDENTS Speech by Steve Harms, MSW, Deputy Secretary for Health and Human Services, Commonwealth of Virginia Mr. Steve Harms, MSW, Deputy Secretary for Health and Human Services in Virginia, spoke in February, 2003, to approximately 225 social work students at the NASW Legislative Rally Day. Below are the highlights of his remarks. What a privilege to address so many who have committed their lives to serving others! Speaking from my obviously biased opinion, there is no more honorable profession than social work. I’m proud of this common bond and calling that we share. I have two purposes for addressing you today. First, to expand your vision of what social work can be, and [to point out] the influence YOU can exert on social policy. My second purpose is related to my first. I’m here on a recruiting mission. It is my hope that some of you, or maybe ALL of you, would be motivated to join me and others in speaking up for the needs of the disadvantaged - particularly in these troubled economic times. My path into social work was indirect, but perhaps not unlike the path many of you have taken. I had a general sense that I wanted to help others. That’s quite a hazy goal, but my path into social work started as nothing more than that. I graduated from college with a degree in psychology, after starting in engineering. You can imagine that call home when I switched majors. My parents asked: What are you going to do with a psychology degree? But after graduation, I was blessed with a number of opportunities to test my skills in helping others. I started in a community mental health center as an inpatient psychiatric aide. I lived and worked in a group home for troubled teens. I did community-based family counseling. I worked as a coordinator for a housing rehab project for poor families. But through all these jobs, I began to crave more skills. I wanted to become more effective in helping the families and individuals I worked with. That’s when I came to the doorstep of VCU’s School of Social Work - which changed the course of my people-helping career. I came seeking more skills as a clinician. I left with an insatiable appetite to influence public policy. I had hoped to become more skilled at helping individual families. I left with a desire to improve the lives of many through social action and advocacy. The school facilitated a field placement in a non-traditional social work setting -- as an intern with the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission. This watchdog agency in Virginia, much like the GAO at the federal level, is responsible for program evaluations and policy studies. That field placement led to a 20-year career as staff for the Virginia General Assembly, including work for the Senate Finance Committee. Now you might be thinking, how exciting can that kind of work be, when compared with face-to-face work with clients? Why would a social worker ever want a job as a program evaluator or a budget analyst? So, let me ask you this:
These have been some of my mountain-top experiences in non-traditional social work. Do you have
the vision and desire? Several years ago, I met a mild-mannered
older woman with a heart for serving the homeless. She was deeply
hurt when she was forced to turn away needy families from her
overcrowded shelter. She had no clue on how state budgeting works
or how state tax collections are distributed. Yet, she was persistent,
almost pesky. She was successful in arranging personal meetings
with governors and scores of state legislators. Each and every
year, she would trek hundreds of miles to the state capitol and
around the state to champion this cause. Today, more than $6 million
per year in state funds is allocated for homeless shelters, and
to other innovative programs helping families move from shelters
to permanent housing. Funding for these programs was instigated
by one “case worker” with a vision and desire to help
the homeless You know better than most—the range and severity of human need is expansive. Do you have the skills? I’ve talked about vision and desire. But you need to couple those with skills. Here’s what YOU can do, even if your professional focus is in clinical work.
Perhaps you’ve heard the expression, “to be a leader, you must excel as a servant.” The very essence of social work is service. Thus, each one of you is a leader. May your service—whether in the highest levels of government or in the neighborhood homeless shelter, whether in a state capital or in the farthest reaches of the world—light the way for others to follow. Thank you again for inviting me today. What an honor to serve with you in this profession! STATE NEWS The White House claims that states have not spent $6 billion dollars in past funds for the “No Child Left Behind Act.” California failed to spend $671 million, Ohio has $409 million left, Oregon has $56 million, and Texas still has $412 million to spend. 43.6 million Americans have no health insurance. Some states are experimenting with their own initiatives in the absence of a viable federal initiative. Maine is developing a plan called Dirigo-Latin for “I lead”-for residents whose employers do not offer health coverage and who are ineligible for Medicaid. Rhode Island is starting to provide subsidies to workers who cannot afford their share of the premiums offered by employers. New York is promoting Healthy NY, a program designed to assist small businesses provide affordable insurance to employees. Access Health is an initiative of a city, Muskegon, MI, where workers and employers pay premiums and the county pays a portion with Medicaid funds. A dozen states are now publishing the names of individuals who owe state income taxes online. Connecticut has collected over $161 million in overdue tax debts. Maryland calls its program, “Caught in the Web.” Louisiana named its program, “Cybershame.” South Carolina has its “Debtor’s Corner.” Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Washington, and Washington, DC all have a version of this aggressive tax-collection initiative. State spending on higher education dropped for the first time in 11 years. Showing extreme vulnerability to economic downturns, higher education lost 2.1 percent for 2004-04 state spending. Nevada was the only state to increase funds by more than 10 percent (30.2%) and Hawaii provided a 7.9% increase. California cut higher education by 5.8% and Massachusetts cut back by 19.3%. Colorado reduced its funding by 13.7%. New laws for 2004: In Illinois, a new law allows only dentists to split tongues (if you are bored with nose rings), not tattoo parlors. In Texas, women must wait 24 hours and be offered state-approved materials about abortion risks and fetal development. In New Mexico, customers are required to purchase cigarettes “face to face” rather than from self-service machines. In Illinois, to reduce racial profiling, state troopers must now record the race of any motorist they stop. In Illinois again, it is now illegal to drive in the left-hand lane of an interstate highway for more than one-half mile. Pennsylvania expanded its prescription drug program for seniors. In fiscal year 2004, states have allocated only 3 percent of their tobacco settlement money to tobacco prevention. This is down from 9.2% in 2000. For the report from the National Council of State Legislatures, go to: http://www.ncsl.org LOCAL BALLOT-BASED ADVOCACY ASSIGNMENTS IN THE POLICY PRACTICE CLASSROOM —Victor Manalo, Ph.D. With the New Federalism, the federal government gives greater autonomy to states and municipalities. As a result, Schneider & Netting (1999) argue for social workers to become more active politically in state and local government. Much of the social work teaching literature is focused on legislative advocacy, defined as “activities that secure the enactment of--or the defeat of--specific legislative proposals” (Jansson, 2003). However, there are other types of advocacy in policy practice, such as ballot-based, analytic, and troubleshooting advocacy (Jansson, 2003), which can be implemented at the local level as well as at the state and federal levels. This article describes the implementation of a local-level, ballot-based advocacy assignment in a graduate social work policy practice course. The author discusses the impact of this assignment on students’likelihood of engaging in policy advocacy in the future as well as their level of satisfaction with the assignment. The results show that, after taking this course, students are likely to engage in local-level, ballot-based advocacy activities in the future and that they are satisfied with their experiences in the course. Jansson (2003) defines ballot-based advocacy as changing the composition of governments or getting a ballot initiative enacted or defeated. Ballot-based advocacy includes activities such as voter registration, getting out the vote, hosting campaign debates or fundraisers, working on political campaigns, advising the NASW Political Action for Candidate Election (PACE) committee on candidates for endorsement, or running for public office. In order to give social work graduate students experience in ballot-based advocacy, the instructor required them to volunteer at least 3 hours in a local political campaign for elected office. This local, ballot-based assignment consisted of four parts:
Out of a class of 26 students, 22 of the students participated in the local, ballot-based advocacy assignment (in this course, students could choose to complete state-level legislative advocacy as well-only 14 students completed this assignment, while half of the students completed both assignments). These 22 students volunteered for a total of 14 different local political campaigns—12 city council seats, 1 mayoral seat, and 1 school board seat-in the City of Los Angeles and in 9 different cities around Los Angeles. While students were to complete 3 hours of volunteer work for their chosen campaign, the majority of them volunteered for more than 4 hours. During the academic quarter that this course was offered, many local elections (city council, mayoral, and school board) in and around Los Angeles were taking place. Allowing students to research the local elections taking place in their own communities encouraged them to make informed choices about the candidate whom they would support. Through volunteering on the campaign of their choice, students met their neighbors, made valuable contacts within their communities, and demonstrated policy practice skills. The campaign paper highlighted the major issues in their communities for students and reinforced the importance of a campaign’s “power resources” (Jansson, 2003). In order to prepare and motivate students for this assignment, the instructor provided students with a “Campaign Training Day.” In cooperation with policy instructors from another local graduate social work program, this training day gave students the opportunity to learn about ballot-based advocacy skills in an electoral campaign. Over 50 students from the two graduate social work programs attended the campaign training where they heard from two social work candidates for local office and a campaign consultant, who all shared their campaign experiences and recruited volunteers for their campaigns. Many of those students volunteered for these two social workers’campaigns. In addition,
the instructor shared his personal experience in ballot-based
advocacy and his participation in local government to provide
additional encouragement and motivation for the students to participate
in this local, ballot-based assignment. The instructor described
his experiences in collecting signatures and walking precincts
for a ballot initiative as well as his experiences as a Planning
Commissioner and a candidate for city Overall, the students were satisfied with their campaign experience, and, as a result of completing their ballot-based advocacy assignment, the vast majority of them stated that they would be “likely” to volunteer on a political campaign in the future. In conclusion, policy practice instructors may decide to continue to experiment with a variety of policy advocacy activities across different levels of government. In order for these experiences to be successful, students need as much support as possible from the instructor and the social work program. Policy practice instructors may want to consider inviting motivational guest speakers involved in policy practice; working with their NASW state chapter and/or local units to develop assignments; allowing students time in class for planning, strategizing, and debriefing for these assignments; and giving students a variety of options or choices of assignments to fulfill their course requirements. References Jansson: B. (2003). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/ColeThomson Learning. Schneider, R. & Netting, F.E. (1999). Influencing social policy in a time of devolution: Upholding social work’s great tradition. Social work, 44, 4, 349-357. —Victor Manalo, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor and MSW Program Coordinator at California State University—Los Angeles School of Social Work. BPD POLICY FELLOWSHIP The Association of Social Work Baccalaureate Program Directors invites BSW students who are currently enrolled or who have completed a policy course(s) to apply for the Summer 2004 Policy Fellow Award. This BSW Policy Fellow experience provides an opportunity for an undergraduate social work student to spend the summer of 2004 in Washington D.C. to gain experience in political advocacy, lobbying, and participating in policy change efforts at the national level. The selected Fellow is expected to spend 8 to 10 weeks in Washington D.C. under the supervision of the Executive Director of IASWR. The Fellow usually shares office space at NASW Headquarters in downtown Washington D.C. The stipend amount awarded is $5,000 and can be used any way the Fellow deems necessary to assist in covering expenses. The Fellow is responsible for arranging his/her own housing. Students applying should have an interest in addressing social work issues through policy-change at the national level and have an understanding of the policy changing process. The student must be willing to perform administrative and research activities. Basic computer skills are expected including the ability to do research on the Internet. The applicant must submit a resume, a current copy of their transcript (unofficial), and two letters of reference (only one from a social work faculty member), that specifically address the applicant’s ability to work as an advocate on legislative policy. In addition, the applicant must submit a statement of approximately 1,000 words that responds to the following questions:
Deadline for receipt of the application material is February 17, 2004. Please send four (4) copies of the resume, letters of reference, transcript, and statement of interest to: Dr. Jack Sellers, Chair BPD Policy Fellow Committee Box 5029 University of North Alabama Florence, AL 35632-0001 jrsellers@una.edu 256-765-4391. The winner of the 2004 Policy Fellow Award will be announced by March 31, 2004. STUDENTS IN ACTION Two graduate MSW students, Mira Signer and Erin Osborne, from the VCU School of Social Work worked hard to get HB 1015 introduced to the 2004 Virginia General Assembly. Read this email to their professor after they testified. Dr. Schneider: I have to tell you about today. It was a great day for social work students in the policy arena. As you know, yesterday our bill, HB 1015, was reported out of subcommittee by a relatively surprising vote of 5-1. It was heard in full committee this morning. Erin and I testified and all I can really say is that I know you would have been so proud of us. We delivered our 1 minute testimony and then remained at the podium for approximately 15-20 minutes (although it seemed like forever) as we fielded question after question by the delegates. Erin did an incredible job answering several tough questions, including one in which Del. Black equated Emergency Contraception with RU-486 (the abortion pill) and death by gases from Nazi concentration camps. At one point, Del. Black got so out of line that Del. Dillard, the chairman of the committee and the patron of our bill, asked Del. Black to “act with civility towards the guest.” Unbelievable! The room was abuzz! The bill was reported out 13-7. After Erin and I were finished, so many people - at least 20 - including several delegates, told us what a great job we had done with testifying and answering all of the questions. Some even offered to write letters of recommendations for us! People we didn't know! We were even in the cafeteria and in the hallways and people stopped us to talk to us. I think this shows that students can and HAVE to be involved in the legislative process. People are so willing to listen to students . . . Frankly, I think they're so astonished to see young people involved in the political process that they'll listen to what they're saying. ISP MISSION
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- This page last updated on: Sunday, July 27, 2008 -
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