Navigating Political Advocacy: Strategies and Stories from Civically-Engaged Social Work Researchers

As social workers, we are bound by the NASW code of ethics to "engage in social and political action" and "advocate for changes in policy and legislation to improve social conditions to meet basic human needs and promote social justice." However, social workers' rates of political engagement seem to be inconsistent and in some instances, even falling. For example, where there used to be nine social workers serving in the US Congress, in 2025 there will only be two.

Many academic researchers have aspirations to influence public policy with the outcomes of their research, but this goal often remains abstract and unrealized in practice. For all the talk of "translating research for policymakers," few of us are truly skilled in doing so. Many among us possess only a superficial understanding of the intricacies of policymaking, hindering our ability to effectively bridge the gap between research, practice, and policy.

To address the question of how social work researchers can meaningfully contribute to policymaking at all levels of government, this roundtable brings together a diverse panel of social work researchers who have held varied roles in the public policy process, and at varied levels of government, including the following:

• A local elected official who will speak to involvement in grassroots community work and municipal policymaking in a working-class city.

• A former state legislator who has championed social justice policies as a policy advocate, movement builder, and lawmaker.

• A social welfare researcher engaged in policy advocacy who has used his research to inform social welfare policy in Massachusetts. His research also examines the policymaking process.

• A former Congressional staffer, and founder of the Congressional Social Work Caucus and the Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy who will speak to the role of social workers in social work policy and advocacy at the federal level.

Inviting active participation and conversation with attendees, the panelists will share examples from their experience and discuss the following topics:

• WHY civic engagement? What is at stake? What are the consequences of social work researchers becoming disengaged from political advocacy, and what could be gained from our effective participation in the political sphere?

• WHO are we as advocates? What should be the role of social work researchers in grassroots, municipal, state, and federal political work? What is our value-add as social work researchers, and what are our limitations? How should we engage in these spaces thoughtfully vis-a-vis our positionalities?

• HOW should we engage? How can social work researchers be effective at making political change? What are some of the common misconceptions and misunderstandings researchers have about how policymaking happens in practice, and about the constraints facing policymakers? How can we effectively translate research for policy advocacy, catch the attention of policymakers, and work in multidisciplinary teams?