Looking Back to Move Us Forward: Social Workers Deliver Justice as Human Rights Professionals (1 credit hour)
Program Summary: This course explores social work’s foundation as a human rights profession and describes early efforts to advocate for a wide range of social, economic, and environmental reforms. The course highlights social work’s essential role as an advocate for social justice but also acknowledges the evolution of the profession toward professionalization and clinical practice. The course examines the limitations of the micro/macro divide and advocates for the promotion of rights-based approaches in all areas of social work practice.
NASW Code of Ethics Value: Social Justice
Ethical Principle: Social workers challenge social injustice. Social workers pursue social change, particularly with and on behalf of vulnerable and oppressed individuals and groups of people. Social workers’ social change efforts are focused primarily on issues of poverty, unemployment, discrimination, and other forms of social injustice. These activities seek to promote sensitivity to and knowledge about oppression and cultural and ethnic diversity. Social workers strive to ensure access to needed information, services, and resources; equality of opportunity; and meaningful participation in decision making for all people.
This course is recommended for social workers and is appropriate for beginning and intermediate levels of practice. This course is not recommended for NBCC ethics credit.