Discussion

Week 4 6361 Ecology of Policy in Social Work Settings

Readings

Day 1

• Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate:

From policy practice to social justice. (8th ed.). Pacific Grove,

CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.

o Chapter 4, “Understanding the Ecology of Policy

in Government, Electoral, Community, and

Agency Settings” (pp. 100–140)

• Burns, J. C., Paul, P. D., & Paz, S. R. (2012). Participatory asset

mapping: A community research lab toolkit. Retrieved from

http://www.communityscience.com/knowledge4equity/Ass

etMappingToolkit.pdf

• Community Toolbox. (2016). 2. Assessing community needs

and resources. Retrieved from http://ctb.ku.edu/en/assessingcommunity-

needs-and-resources

Day 2

• Rome, S. H., & Hoechstetter, S. (2010). Social work and

civic engagement: The political participation of professional

social workers. Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare, 37(3),

107– 129.

Managing public opinion and understanding the balance between its influence and your advocacy goals is a delicate matter. It is a task fraught with uncertainty because, as a policy advocate, you must navigate through the territory of politicians, bureaucrats, and lobbyists whose primary goals are to appease and please their constituents.

In this Discussion, you select a social problem that is of interest to you and identify how public opinion influences the process and political approaches involved in addressing that social problem.

Discussion Policy Process and Public Opinion

 a description of the importance of public opinion in

addressing the social problem you have selected  Sex Trafficking with children and adolescents is my social problem. How does public

opinion influence political approaches to the problem? Explain. What

policy advocacy approaches and skills can you use to address the

problem with political leaders? What are the social justice implications of

your approach?

Be sure to support your post with specific references to this week’s

resources. If you are using additional articles, be sure to provide full

APA-formatted citations for your references.