Strengthen Entitlements and Safety Net Programs Across the Lifespan

Historically, social work has been the convener, advocate, and proposer of entitlement and safety net policies. Most recently social work appears to be asleep at the wheel while the welfare system is dismantled (beginning with reform in the 90s and moving into the push to privatize Social Security and Medicare). If the field of social work does not focus on policy, there will be little programs to help clients. Micro practice is driven by macro, but fewer and fewer social workers are interested in policy. This foreshadows a war on poverty with the rich making the poor poorer and not LBJ’s war.

 

Grand Challenges for Social Work Invites You to Go•Grander!