Advocacy

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) on March 2 announced she will not seek reelection and will retire in 2016. The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) thanks Mikulski for her 38 years of leadership in Congress and for her strong and unwavering support of the social work profession and issues important to social workers. With almost two years remaining before her ... Read More »

People who are transgender are becoming more visible in American society. Transgender activist and actress Laverne Cox, who appears on the hit Netflix series “Orange is the New Black,” made the cover of Time. And Chaz Bono, the only child of well known entertainers Sonny and Cher, made an Oprah Winfrey Network documentary about his transition from female to male. ... Read More »

Recent cases involving the injury or deaths of people of color during encounters with law enforcement officers have put more attention on racial profiling, according to the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Social Justice Brief The Role of Racial Profiling in Encounters with Law Enforcement. Studies show people are more likely to stop people of color for traffic violations, ... Read More »

Many social workers may be unaware that on November 14 the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would take up the case King v. Burwell, which challenges the legitimacy of the Affordable Care Act (ACA). In previous challenges to ACA, the opposition questioned the constitutionality of the individual mandate required in the law. However, this more recent case does not ... Read More »

President Obama signed into law The Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act (P.L. 113-183) that will: Encourage states to combat sex trafficking among youth in foster care, promote normalcy for foster youth; Help move more children from foster care into adoptive homes or the homes of relatives; and Increase the amount of child support provided to families in which ... Read More »

The international human rights community will join forces for 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence between Nov. 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, and Dec. 10, which is International Human Rights Day. The campaign aims to raise awareness about gender-based violence as a human rights violation at the local, national, regional, and international levels. ... Read More »

With the issuance of the St. Louis County grand jury decision not to indict Officer Darren Wilson in the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, the National Association of Social Workers urges reforms that would help end the excessive use of police force. The association also hopes this tragic incident will put increased public attention on the ... Read More »

In recent years, there has been a growing national movement to challenge the practice and premise for using solitary confinement as a method of behavioral control in the nation’s prisons, jails and juvenile facilities.The strong opposition to solitary confinement is primarily based on questions about the belief that use of such practices is a clear human rights violation. Before we ... Read More »

The National Association of Social Workers applauds President Obama’s decision to issue an executive action that will likely lead to as many as five million previously undocumented immigrants to be able to remain in the United States. This action was very meaningful to immigrant families with children who were born in the United States (and are therefore U.S. citizens) and to ... Read More »

National Association of Social Workers (NASW) senior staff members joined up to a hundred Tanzanian social workers on Oct. 27-31 for the Tanzanian Association of Social Workers (TASWO) annual meeting. NASW Deputy Director of Programs Heidi McIntosh, MSW, and NASW Manager of Social Justice and Human Rights Mel Wilson, LCSW, MBA, were not there simply to observe the process. They ... Read More »