Dr, Nancy A. Humphreys the founding Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Political Social Work Practice. Another important aspect of political social work practice involves effort to get social service clients involved in the political process.
Social workers belong in politics as a natural extension of our mission.
The policies that are important to social workers and their clients are most often decided in the partisan political arena. One important way to influence the adoption of policies is for social workers to be political decision makers or in the political arena influencing those politicians. A second and equally important reason for social workers to be involved in politics is that our training uniquely prepares us to effectively work in politics. The papers included in this particular collection cover such varied subjects as biographies of two social workers, Jeanette Rankin and Ron Dellums, who served with courage and distinction as elected officeholders, two papers on aspects of voter registration in disadvantaged communities, a paper that explores the involvement of social workers in politics in other countries, another paper details a project that involved clients in the political process and two small studies of students and experienced social workers about their attitudes toward social workers who are active in politics.