Defining Social Justice
The Social Workers’ role in social justice is to fight through policy practice and policy advocacy and help clients advocate for themselves. Working to promote social justice is a core ethical requirement of all social workers. The Social Work Code of Ethics preamble states, “Social workers promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients…Social workers are sensitive to cultural and ethnic diversity and strive to end discrimination, oppression, poverty, and other forms of social injustice.”
Working toward promoting social justice is one of the six core social work values as outlined in the Code of Ethics. In the ethical principles section of the Code, social justice is defined. As one of the six core values of social work, the Code defines social justice in this way.
Comparing Social Work and Social Justice
“Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers’ social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity. In addition, social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people.” – NASW.
Social work is not the same thing as social justice. Instead, social workers strive to achieve alongside their clients and colleagues. Social justice is also for those who are not social workers. These include citizens, community organizers, nonprofit organizations, elected officials, and activists. Social work recognizes the numerous social injustices that persist in society and requires professional social workers to be aware of these injustices and work toward change.
Fighting for Social Justice through Policy Practice
As noted in the NASW Code of Ethics, social workers should work with and on behalf of their clients. Schools of social work prepare the social worker to work toward social justice through policy practice and advocacy. Policy practice entails empowering clients to advocate for change independently and in communities. Policy advocacy means advocating for change on behalf of vulnerable groups.
Hoefer (2019) describes the “unified model of policy practice” as a clinical approach that combines generalist practice with policy practice. In this unified model, the therapist asks clients to become social change agents. They are encouraged to advocate first or themselves to address challenges or injustices they are facing in their lives and then to make broader changes that will affect the entire community. The clients are empowered while the clinicians also address clinical issues through generalist practice.
The Unified Model of Policy Practice
The following is an example of how the unified model of policy practice might work. A client comes to see a social worker working in a therapeutic or government setting and complains (among other concerns that may be clinical or also policy-oriented) that her landlord is not responding to requests for repairs to be made to her apartment. The social worker works with the client on clinical problems such as depression or anxiety (in a clinical setting) while empowering her to advocate for herself and her family. Instead of calling a government agency to complain about the landlord on behalf of the client, a social worker will encourage the client to make the call herself.
The social worker then encourages her client and perhaps works with her to advocate for a new law in her town or city that would require landlords to respond to repair requests within a given time frame. By empowering clients to become their advocates, social workers help clients create positive change in their own lives and the community. In addition, the social workers build the client’s sense of agency to change her circumstances, which can also help alleviate depression and anxiety.
Fighting for Social Justice through Policy Advocacy
Policy advocacy is slightly different. It involves working for social justice via policy change on behalf of vulnerable populations. A social worker may join a coalition or work with community members, or she might be more of an individual activist. However, all social workers can achieve greater social justice as policy advocates no matter where they work.
Social workers may go about their advocacy work by lobbying elected officials, working within their agencies to make a change, or by building coalitions around particular issues in the community. Professional social workers empower communities to advocate for change, and they also do some of the work themselves. As students, social workers learn how to become policy advocates. They can participate in a wide variety of advocacy activities. These include organizing meetings, educating the public, writing letters to the editor, creating petitions, or engaging key stakeholders.
Recognizing Social Injustice
Social workers should fight for greater social justice in several key areas. First, they recognize when specific communities are marginalized or disenfranchised. Then, they fight for greater power and influence for these communities. They should always combat racism and oppression, gender inequality, and discrimination wherever they see it. These are vital issues of social justice.
Fighting for social justice also involves advocating for a more just economy. Economic injustice comes in many forms. Examples are low wages, job discrimination, a lack of job training opportunities, or high unemployment in specific communities. They can fight for greater economic, social justice by advocating for policies. For example, they can fight to reduce poverty or increase employment and training opportunities in communities.
Prevalance of Social Injustice
Unfortunately, social injustice is prevalent throughout society and occurs not only in urban areas but rural and suburban ones as well. Social injustice also occurs in organizations and social institutions and systems such as the education system, criminal justice system, or healthcare. Professional social workers can identify many different types of social injustice.
Additionally, social workers need tools to understand stakeholder power dynamics. Furthermore, they should know how to advocate for policies or programs to reduce social injustice. Finally, fighting for social justice should be central to the work of all social workers across settings, including in counseling agencies and offices, schools of social work, human service agencies, public schools, community organizations, and nonprofits.
Is social justice the same as social work?
When it comes to social work and social justice, the two are not the same. When it comes to social work, the focus is to achieve goals with a social worker’s clients and colleagues. Social justice is for everyone. This includes citizens as well as nonprofit organizations, elected officials, community organizers, and activists. While social work recognizes the many social injustices that are happening in society, social justice is simply a part of social work and not the only focus. There are four different types of social justice. Distributive justice is basically determining who gets what while procedural justice determines how people can be treated fairly. Retributive justice is punishing people for their wrongdoing and crimes, while restorative justice focuses on restoring relationships to rightness. A social worker is aware of these different types of social justices so they can better help their clients improve their lives.
What does social justice mean in social work?
While social justice and social work are not the same things, they really cannot be separated either. Social workers develop very strong communication and empathy skills to be able to relate to their clients since their clients are usually experiencing trauma and stress. Some of the things that a social worker’s clients may be experiencing are due to different types of social injustices. This means that social workers are focused on ensuring that all people are treated with dignity and respect. They also promote these ideals within places, such as hospitals, schools, nursing homes, community centers, and more. Social workers pursue social change because it is their role to protect and help people and children who are oppressed and vulnerable. Social workers focus on a variety of social injustices, especially when it comes to poverty and other issues that directly affect most of their clients. Other issues social workers focus on include unemployment, discrimination, and even domestic violence. Social workers also go to bat for their clients who are experiencing clinical depression, poor health, and substance abuse which often stems from economic and social problems within our society. Some of those social injustices include unemployment, unaffordable housing, inflation, poverty, and other environmental issues.
What are examples of social justice work?
In addition to social work, there are other career paths that fall under the umbrella of social justice. Each one allows a person to help individuals, groups, and communities address various social injustices. One career path is that of a mental health worker. While it is very closely related to the field of psychiatric social work, a mental health worker or counselor provides not only support for people who are experiencing mental or behavioral issues but also the treatment they need. It is the role of mental health workers to evaluate their client’s mental health. They can then develop treatment plans and goals for their client to improve their life.
Victim advocates are very important, especially when it comes to emotional support and justice for victims. For example, a victim advocate that works with domestic violence victims can help them navigate the court system. The victim advocate will attend all hearings with them, help them locate a proper attorney, and provide the emotional support they need in confronting their abuser. Victim advocates can work for nonprofit organizations as well as government agencies.
A community developer is another career path that students can take to fight social injustice. A community developer is responsible for creating community-wide programs that can support the overall well-being of the public. This can be in the form of outreach activities, such as clothing and food pantries.
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