An amplifier for the voices of Nova Scotians
In partnership with the NSCSW, the Legal Information Society of Nova Scotia (LISNS) developed an advocacy toolkit entitled We Have Power: a Guide to Engaging with Your MLA and Using Your Voice for Change. This plain language guide helps members of the public understand the democratic processes that affect their health and wellbeing, and be more empowered to engage in local politics. We all play an important role in advocating for a Nova Scotia that serves everyone’s needs. We all have the power to shape our shared future. And we can create a more just and equitable future for our province by working together.
Social workers know that significant change needs to happen in order to address or remedy the injustices and harms we see daily; so do the people we work alongside. Using We Have Power can be one way to elevate their voices.
Highlights
We Have Power includes:
- Tips for effective communication: Interactions with many systems (health, school, legal, community) can benefit from clear two-way communication.
- Levels of government: An overview of how important functions and responsibilities are distributed between the municipal, provincial and federal government, so that service users and their advocates can address concerns to those who are most able to create the necessary changes.
- Complain up the chain: Starting close to the problem and working upward can be more effective than working from the top down.
- Contacting your MLA: An overview of the role of the MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly) in Nova Scotia, and strategies for contacting them to address larger structural justice or human rights issues
Social justice advocacy: An ethical mandate for social workers
Our social work code of ethics calls on us to not only value social justice, but to actively promote it — whether we are engaging in micro, mezzo, or macro practice. Our professional development standards explicitly require social workers to advocate for social justice, and pursue learning that helps them become more effective and ethical advocates.
Social work demands that we that understand people in the context of their environment and relationships, that we understand how the safety and well-being of the individuals, families and communities that we support is deeply affected by larger systems, and that we understand that effective social work practice requires tending to these larger psychosocial, spiritual, structural and ecological paradigms.
This ethical mandate is further reinforced by our profession’s commitment to decolonizing itself, and addressing the ways in which colonization, white supremacy, systemic discrimination, racism and intersectional bias have affected the practice of social work. This recognition is a core part of the Canadian Association of Social Workers’ 2024 code of ethics which compels social workers to advocate, and demands that we shift from the illusion of neutrality towards collective recognition that we must actively oppose the larger systemic influences that harm individuals, families and communities whom have been historically marginalized or oppressed.
Integrating social justice advocacy into social work practice
Every person in Nova Scotia (including social workers) has the right to reach out to elected representatives on issues that concern them. Contacting government officials can be daunting, but We Have Power provides education and guidance in how to do so.
Social work practice is varied, and given this diversity, each NSCSW member must reflect upon their specific circumstances and consider the unique factors affecting their respective work environments. Social workers are therefore encouraged to seek out supervision and consultation as you consider integrating We Have Power into your practice. Identifying opportunities to expand beyond individual interventions into structural social work not only reflects the ethical mandate and social work theoretical framework of the NSCSW, but may more effectively address the needs and concerns of your service users.
Advocating alongside service users
- Meet them where they are at and build rapport
- Invite them to present problems in detail (to understand, assist with problem-solving and to reduce situational anxiety/increase cognitive capacity)
- Explore their hopes for the future/goals related to problems
- Complete a comprehensive biopsychosocial, spiritual assessment, including any structural, justice, or human rights concerns that may contribute to the maintenance of the identified problem(s)
- Explore what they have already done to resolve their issues
- Collaborate with them to set specific goals for moving forward
- Collaborate with them to develop a plan for moving forward that addresses both presenting problems and social and structural issues
- If structural concerns suggest it, introduce We Have Power or other self-advocacy resources:
- Review the resource(s) and provide appropriate education
- Explore and identify possible allies within their family and community (Who can help them move forward?)
- Support and empower them to make use of resources and to act on areas of concern to them
- Review and discuss potential outcomes to educate and support them
- Collaborate with them in evaluating outcomes and in planning any additional steps
Advocating within organizations
- Communicate with supervisors and administrators to assess internal support for advocacy initiatives
- Identify organizational allies and social work colleagues who support advocacy initiatives around shared common concern
- Explore support for advocacy within employee unions/labour organizations by interviewing shop stewards and union leaders
- Organize allies to develop the content, strategy and action plans for challenging organizational constraints/opposition/inertia to advocacy, working within the NSCSW Code of Ethics and in consultation with CASW and/or relevant labour organizations
Your organization may already have a strong culture of non-partisan advocacy. But even organizations that discourage action, encourage neutrality on structural issues, or have no history of advocacy initiatives (yet) will offer opportunities to co-create change.
Creating a social work group as an advocacy resource
- Organize an advocacy group in consultation with potential group members and NSCSW and identify issues of shared concern
- Brainstorm, debate, prioritize and select issue(s) of concern using a framework such as the NSCSW Social Policy Framework to guide this discussion and determine next steps
- Within the group, review and become familiar with We Have Power (and/or alternate advocacy resources)
- Identify decision-makers who need to be targeted
- With the group, develop advocacy goal(s) and action plans
- Identify additional social workers and other allies who may be aligned with the selected concerns and related targets
- Invite these allies to join the project
- Educate allies on decisions to date
- Help allies become familiar with We Have Power or other crucial resources being used by the group
- Take action! For example, if strategy includes letter-writing:
- Review letter formats provided by We Have Power
- Write and deliver letters to identified audiences (e.g. elected officials, public appointees, media)
- Arrange follow-up meetings or other activities as decided by the group
- Evaluate
- Determine next steps or future projects
Social groupwork was developed by social workers. It is democratic, non-hierarchical, and strengths-based, and emphasizes community relationships, mutual aid, and activity towards shared purpose. There is an international movement to promote and revitalize social groupwork that offers resources for social workers who practice with groups.
A foundation for advocacy
In partnership with the NSCSW, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia (CCPA-NS) released a new report in March 2020 entitled Creating the future we all deserve: A Social Policy Framework for Nova Scotia. The report lays out what is required for a transformative social policy agenda in our province.
The framework is intended as an advocacy and accountability document. It can be used in conversations with our neighbours, friends, co-workers, and elected officials about the kind of society we want and the social policies we need to support it. It can also be used as a tool for assessing government policy (both its action and its inaction). We also created a workbook that you can use to start applying the framework principles to the issues you care about.
Keep us posted
Please let us know how you use We Have Power and the social policy framework! We want to hear how you’re using these resources to envision – and advocate for – transformative change.
Land acknowledgement
The Nova Scotia College of Social Workers is located in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq. We are grateful to be able to live and work on this land. We are all Treaty people.
Resources for organizers
We Have Power
Social Policy Framework
Books
Grab your library card!
- Let This Radicalize You by Kelly Hayes & Mariame Kaba
- Democracy in Retrograde by Sami Sage & Emily Amick
- No Shortcuts: Organizing for Power in the New Gilded Age by Jane F. McAlevey
- Reimagining the Revolution by Paula Lehman-Ewing
- Organizing for Autonomy by CounterPower
- We Do This ‘Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba
- The Future is Disabled by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
- Direct Action by L.A. Kauffman
- Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
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CONNECTION is the official newsletter of the Nova Scotia College of Social Workers.