If you missed the March 2022 Social Work Day on the Hill live sessions, you can watch recordings of the event on the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work Policy (CRISP) YouTube channel, including the panel “Social Work and the Future of Democracy” featuring CRISP co-founder Charles E. Lewis Jr., PhD, MSW, Mimi Abramovitz, DSW (NYU, GCSW Premier Sponsor), Justin Hodge, MSW (University of Michigan, GCSW Sustaining Sponsor), and Lenna Nepomnyaschy, PhD, MSW (Rutgers School of Social Work). The event generated enthusiasm and motivation for the active participation of social workers in democracy. In asking the question at the end of the day, “Can Social Work Help Save Democracy?” the answer was a resounding “yes!”
Watch the recording here.
Can Social Work Help Save Democracy?
Dr. Charles E. Lewis, Jr., director of CRISP, will moderate the morning Town Hall session with three members of the Social Work Democracy Project board of directors. They will discuss past and current threats to American democracy and will offer ideas about what needs to be done and the roles social workers can play in preserving and strengthening democracy.
Panelists will take questions and comments from viewers about our mandated responsibility as social workers to advocate for change to ensure that all people have equal access to the resources and opportunities to meet basic needs and develop fully. Voting rights is one of the social justice issues prioritized by the National Association of Social Workers. Our panelists will respond to questions and concerns from social workers attending the forum.
We began this discussion during our 2018 Social Work Day on the Hill shortly after the publication of Nancy MacLean’s groundbreaking book, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America in which the noted Duke University historian presented in great detail the plans of libertarians, led by the Koch brothers, to change the rules to ensure monied interests were not constrained by the will of the majority. We continue the discussion today as we have since witnessed the January 6, 2021 insurrection that attempted to decertify the election of President Joe Biden and numerous laws passed in states to suppress the vote or corrupt the process of counting votes.
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