Social workers are known to work on a variety of different issues in a range of sectors and areas. Social work can entail anything from working at a school with children to community management. Regardless of the type of social work a person engages in, the ultimate goal is to be of service to society.
A big part of social work is advocacy. If you think about it, social workers are actually advocates of a better society by virtue of their work. If not for their services, many aspects of society would be worse. Social workers have an influence on the economic, political and social framework of a country.
Here are some examples of social advocacy.
Human rights advocacy
The core of social work is to serve people who are vulnerable at the hands of society or their own personal battles. The work that social workers put into their jobs serves to protect and safeguard human rights by being a pillar for the oppressed. Social workers are known to work toward building policies and educating the masses about issues of inequity between different groups of society.
Policy advocacy
Social workers are involved in influencing and building frameworks that are there to help people. This work allows the most unheard and marginalized members of society to have representation. Policy work can be related to matters such as health, shelters, and law enforcement. Social workers are very good agents of policy advocacy because they interact directly with people who need help, which means they know the issues that need to be addressed in great depth.
Case advocacy
Being able to help even a single vulnerable individual is just as big as helping a community because individuals make up communities. Case advocacy entails helping different people who have difficulty navigating through life on their own. Many people are dependent on intensive care not only for their physical health but also for their mental health and are therefore unable to live a good-quality life. Social workers become a voice for these cases and work on building better care systems for unique individual needs.
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Conclusion
Social work is very diverse, and advocacy encompasses every aspect of it. Every social worker becomes an advocate for change and inclusion simply by choosing to take on this job and help people every day.