Advocacy

The South Carolina State House with the state flag flowerbed in the foreground. The National Association of Social Workers South Carolina Chapter (NASW-SC) is strongly against the proposed House Bill 3515, also known as the “Entrepreneur Freedom Act.” The purpose of this bill is to repeal and do away with licensure for social workers and many other professions in South ... Read More »

I live in a tiny town in a rural county, and I advocate for LGBTQIA+ folks like me. I fly rainbow flags on my home. I stand out, because going back into the closet isn’t an option. The school buses pass my house every morning on the way to the same school I attended, terrified, where I heard threats, veiled ... Read More »

Americans over the past three weeks have again witnessed the carnage of gun-involved mass killings. On November 19, 2022, five people were gunned down at a Colorado Springs night club frequented by members of the LGBTQ+ community. Only three days later, another mass shooting in Chesapeake, Virginia took the lives of seven other innocent individuals. The motivations of the perpetrators ... Read More »

The National Association of Social Workers Ohio Chapter (NASW Ohio) is demanding the state legislature not pass legislation that could seriously harm thousands of Ohioans who are experiencing mental health struggles. The Ohio Senate on Nov. 30 amended Substitute HB 509 to allow people with degrees other than social work to be a licensed social workers, an action that will ... Read More »

By Mel Wilson, LCSW, MBA The political climate approaching the 2022 Midterm Elections may very well be ranked with the years leading up to the Civil War as a period when the nation was facing the greatest threat to democracy. While that danger has by no means dissipated, it has certainly has been stalled by the Midterm Elections outcome. Predictions ... Read More »

  By Hannah Liu Immigration and Immigrant Families team, Center for Law and Social Policy For more than two years, children and families fleeing danger have been turned away at the U.S.-Mexico border without a chance to seek asylum under a misguided policy called Title 42. Last week, the Biden Administration announced that it would be expanding the policy to include ... Read More »

By Chad Dion Lassiter, MSW I was browsing a free book on the Internet recently and the first line stopped me. It started with Amartya Sen’s quote, “A misconceived theory can kill.” Immediately, I thought about the amount of death that has pummeled the United States over the past few years. More than a million deaths from COVID-19 to date, ... Read More »

By Paul R. Pace While every election matters, the November 2022 midterms are imperative because human rights like voting, reproductive health and LGBTQIA+—issues central to social work’s mission and values—are in deep jeopardy. In some states, these rights are explicitly on the ballot, says Tanya Rhodes Smith, instructor in residence and director of the Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political ... Read More »

    By Mel Wilson, LCSW, MBA In a recent surprise announcement, President Biden informed the nation that he was taking two significant steps related to federal marijuana policy. In that announcement, he stated that his administration will pardon individuals who have been convicted in federal court of simple possession of marijuana. However, the vast majority of those arrested, convicted, ... Read More »

Progress on Advancing the Improving Access to Mental Health Act (H.R 2035/ S. 870) The Senate Finance Committee (SFC) released its mental health workforce discussion draft component of its mental health legislative package (a summary may be found here). We are pleased to report two of three provisions of the Improving Access to Mental Health Act are included in section ... Read More »