NASW Social Work Talks - Ep 121: Voting Information Day with Vot-ER
Episode Date: October 7, 2024Vote ER and NASW on mobilizing for the extremely important 2024 presidential and down ballot elections. It goes without saying that the upcoming election is one of the most important elections in term...s of preserving America's democracy since the Civil War. Hopefully, this podcast will be able to share some important information about what is at stake for social workers, and more importantly, what is at stake for the individuals and families that you serve.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Hi, my name is Mel Wilson. I'm a Senior Policy Advisor for NASW National's Office.
I want to welcome you to this podcast with Bo DeR and NASW on mobilizing for the extremely important 2024 presidential and down ballot elections.
It goes without saying that the upcoming election is one of the most important elections in terms of preserving America's democracy.
since the Civil War. Hopefully this podcast will be able to share some important information
about what is at stake for social workers and more importantly what is at stake for
the individuals and families that you serve. Our panelists for this podcast are two social workers
who are major players in getting the health care and related social services providers
fully engaged in the 2024 election. So without any ado, let me introduce Vanessa Navarro
and Christina Kazanove. Christina, could you begin?
Sure. Hi, everyone. My name is Christina Kazanove. I am a member of NASW Florida,
and one of the luckiest people in the world to get to partner with Vote ER on a regular basis.
I am a professor of undergraduate social work specializing in macro and policy at St. Leo
University, a small private university about 30 minutes north of Tampa, Florida. And we have been
partnering with Vote ER for a couple of years now and utilizing the tools to help my students,
faculty and staff on campus get registered to vote and then locally in our community as well.
I'm also a proud to be the legislative committee chair for the NASW Florida chapter
in which we have been able to incorporate Vote ER within our chapter and throughout our members.
So I'll turn it over to Vanessa so she can go ahead and introduce herself.
Yes, my name is Vanessa Navarro. I am currently an intern working at VoER. I learned of VoER
through Christina. She was my professor when I was getting my bachelor's in social work
at St. Leo. Since then, I did go on to get my master's at Boston University where I was macro
focused. And I did my whole year placement at Vote ER as well. So I'm pretty familiar with Vote ER
and how it works and also like where social work and civic engagement connect and intertwine and
why one can't really exist without the other. So. Thank you both. Vanessa, I'll start with you
on this first question. Could you just tell us the history of Vote ER? And part two on that is,
I know Vote ER works for a lot of partners, including NASW. What that process is in the
partnership and the relationship with partners and Vote ER? Yeah, of course. So Vote ER was
started in Boston, Massachusetts at MassGen by Dr. Alistair Martin, who is an emergency room
physician he uh one evening he a woman came in with her two children and they were seeking
shelter and it was really cold outside and the woman was like i can't spend another day outside
with my children i really need some help so dr martin actually called the on-site social worker
which kind of just proves that we are such important resources in hospitals and healthcare
institutions. But he called the onsite social worker and he was like, what can we do to help
these people? And she was like, well, Massachusetts is a right to shelter state, which means that if
they are a resident of Massachusetts, have children, the government has to provide them
shelter. So they just have to show proof of residency. So the woman had just moved to the
state and she didn't have anything to prove that she was a resident of Massachusetts. So
when Dr. Martin posed that question to the social worker, the social worker said, well,
we can register her to vote to establish residency. And he took that back to the patient
and they said that they have never been asked that question before. They've never been asked
to register to vote and that was kind of like a light bulb moment for him and as a doctor he sees
a lot of non-medical issues like the social determinants of health so people coming in with
problems not being able to afford food etc so he thought why not be able to make registering to vote
more accessible so he created this um well with a team and he created these qr code badges that
healthcare workers and individuals can wear around their necks and they'll just need that like
they'll have a patient scan that and the qr code takes them to a website to the vote er website
which is completely non-partisan it just asks you if you're inquiring about registering to vote
If you need a mail-in ballot, any questions about voting, there's a live chat with VoteRiders, which is also a nonpartisan organization that provides information about voting, and also to check your voter registration.
So it's a really helpful tool amongst a lot of other ones that Vote ER has to make it easy to have these conversations with the populations that healthcare providers encounter, which is everybody.
So, yeah, it's really cool. And in terms of partnership, I'm actually going to pass that to Christina, who is a partner with Vote ER, so they can go into a little bit more detail about that process.
So, like I stated in my opening, I became a partner of Vote ER many years ago.
And the reason for that is in my state, Florida, in recent legislative sessions, Florida lawmakers
have passed several bills that have made it more difficult for third party organizations
to conduct voter registration using traditional methods like paper registration.
So in response, Vote ER became the perfect solution, empowering individuals to take control
of their own voter registration process, which aligns perfectly with the core principles
of social work, empowerment and self-actualization.
So when I partnered with Vote ER, it was very simple.
I attended something that they call a basic training in which they go over that story
that Vanessa just shared with all of you and the tools of scanning the QR code and you being able
to do that right then and there in the training, being able to see how easy that process is,
and then being able to order your badge for yourself if you're going to do this as an
individual or for your organization and the tools that you needed. So after I attended that,
I partnered with Vote ER because I really like that cutting edge technology, which works
great with the demographic of students I work with.
And it also was very easy and useful for my older demographic, my faculty, staff members
and other community organizations.
Beyond that, we were able to assist people in finding their voting location, their voter
registration updates, requesting mail-in ballots, and then getting that state election information,
which was perfect because on a university, we don't have just students from Florida. We have
students from all 50 states. So I don't have to be an expert in all 50 states laws. They just scan
that QR code. They do the work. And if they're not able to do it because their state doesn't allow
online voter registration, it stops them. But the thing that's key is I got to ask them and I got
the thought thinking in their head so that they can then go to the next step and do what they need
to. So in addition to our campus efforts, my group of students that we call the YVOTE campaign,
six dedicated... What campaign is that? The YVOTE campaign. The YVOTE, okay. Yeah, it's a group of
six dedicated students. Vanessa was an alumni from Why Vote as well. So in addition to our
campus efforts, we were able to also expand this to two of our local health clinics right in our
local area. And then being a member of NASW, I approached my chapter executive director and I
said, hey, is it possible for you to partner with Vote ER? And we start rolling this out with
members. Vote ER has a Southeast director who oversees all partnerships in the area.
We're able to sit down with Reed. That's his name. He's fabulous. And we're able to sit down and talk
about how we can create a partnership with NESW Florida. And from there, it's just branched into
a wonderful partnership locally and then throughout the state of Florida.
Great. One of the things you guys both brought up is that Bodear originated with basically doctors in a very defined medical community.
So we're being clear that that extends and expands and it's inclusive of social workers and non-treating physicians or nurses, which is an important thing because from what Christina was explaining that the involvement of NESW chapters and other social worker organizations that certainly are welcome to participate in this.
The next question, and you guys can both answer this, is having to do, we're trying to target this podcast to coincide with National Voter Education Day, which is the October 7th, if I'm correct.
so either one of you or both of you could you talk just give a little background what that is
what it's a week i said a day it is actually the week uh dealing with voter education what's what
is it and how do we fit into all that process yeah so national uh what is it called it's national
voter education week um so it is a non-partisan campaign happening on october 7th until the 11th
And it helps voters find their polling place, understand their ballot, make a voting plan and encourage others to get involved.
It's really just trying to educate eligible voters on how to prep to be able to cast their ballot and cast it confidently.
And this year, Vote ER is encouraging health professionals to be ambassadors and our professional ambassadors and our partner organizations to make sure that their staff members, patients, and communities have the resources that they need to get out the vote.
We're really hoping to use this week to encourage folks to make their own plans when they vote.
how will they get there if it's going to be in person if they're early voting when will they do
it etc because really when you make a plan you're more likely to be able to go through with that
plan so voter education week is really just a time to bring that to light and as social workers
you know have those it's an easy way to have those conversations where it might not be easy
to slip in in the past. So yeah, Christina. Yeah, what I'll expand on that is it's a week
long initiative. And you can as a social worker, if you're in a large organization in a private
practice, you can find different ways to incorporate this without a heavy lift, right?
Because I think that's the most biggest barrier for social workers is how do I incorporate this
that it doesn't take away from the day-to-day work that I'm doing? How do I ask this question
during a time that's really super sensitive in the topic that I'm covering with my client?
But it's really simple. If you break up this week into five themes, the first one is just asking
them, are you registered to vote? The next day, do you have a voter plan? The next day, where is
your polling location. It takes this big momentum into smaller chunks. And there's easy ways for
social workers to do that. You know, one of the biggest things that VoteER and I always tell other
social workers is, do you have a question in your intake form, right? We all have an intake form to
try to get to understand our clients. So do you have that question in your intake form? Are you
register to vote? It's a simple question that if you don't feel 100% comfortable asking, it's right
there on the phone. And if they say yes, then you can have a follow-up question says, do you need to
update your registration? Because that's another wonderful thing about this week. It reminds us
to update if you ever changed your name, if you've changed your address, or if you just want to make
sure you're still on the rolls because states can take you off. So it's a good way to just ask,
are you registered? Do you need to update your registration? And then I also incorporate having
in a timeframe that is comfortable, meaning maybe at a discharge when you're starting to do that
follow-up, starting to do the follow-up plans. And when you're going to reach out to them in a
couple of weeks or a couple of months asking, hey, do you know that the election's coming up
in November? Do you have a voting plan? And if they say, I have no idea what that is.
Five simple questions. Do you know where your polling location is? What time of the day are
you going to go? Do you know who's going to help you with transportation? Or do you need
transportation? What about childcare? Are you going to need that as well? And what additional
information do you need to know about the candidates? Those five simple questions can
be part of a voting plan that we could do at discharge. Or if we feel comfortable enough
during our sessions, just mention that. Because as Vanessa said, voting is a predictor of health
determinants. What we see is that those that vote have stronger health determinants because
politicians are putting more resources back into those communities because they see that they're
more engaged. So this week is a great opportunity to incorporate some simple questions into your
day-to-day conversation to make sure that your clients and community are on a pathway to better
health. Great. Actually, I want to ask a question out of sequence because of what you guys just
said about working with clients in terms of voter registration
and voter involvement.
Are there any, I used the word prohibitions,
any kind of ethical issues around approaching,
maybe a better phrase, how do you
approach without being intrusive or really blurring boundaries?
And both of you guys can answer the question.
Yeah, so like Christina said, finding those natural ways
to do it like during a biopsychosocial or a discharge or just a place where it'll naturally
fit in. I think the most important thing is, is that social workers and health providers are
going to know the best place to do these things. And to really rely on their knowledge of when
is their best practice to be able to kind of input those questions. At Vote We Are, we do have
um conversation starters so if there needs if if the social worker or health provider needs
kind of an idea of where to start those are really good to have um just because it
kind of gives you an idea of where you can ask these sort of questions uh but again um each
place is going to have different things that are like emergent or emergency so obviously you want
to be cognizant of those and not um ask the questions particularly at that time so
definitely um take into account those things but again yeah this that's why the badges that we have
is so great and the custom materials and all the things all the resources that vote er provides
uh because it's really up to you to be able to include it uh where you know it'll be most
most beneficial to your clients and which will have the most impact and be able to get them to
where they need to be. Christine, did you want to add anything? Yeah, what I'll add to that is
it is legal to ask somebody if they're registered to vote. The National Voter Registration Act of
1993 allows us to be able to do that. But if we're looking at the ethical components of it,
We have to be very cautious in how we propose it and how we ask. We always have to stay nonpartisan, meaning that we're not suggesting what party they should be a member of, what candidate they should vote for.
We're strictly asking them, are you registered to vote? And then giving them a reason for it. Because sometimes we hear, well, my vote doesn't matter anyways. And giving them a reason why. Because it does matter. Because every vote is important to the process, particularly at the local level.
But even saying something like that, there's no skin in the game, right? I'm not telling someone you should vote for this person because you have to and they're dependent on your vote. You need to stay nonpartisan. But it is legal for you to do that. Now, finding the best time, that's going to be really based on you, right?
I heard a social worker in a training say, you know what?
I work in the ER.
There are people coming in that are in dire need.
I don't think that's the right time.
Probably not.
Absolutely not, right?
You don't want to be taking their vitals and then saying, hey, are you registered to vote?
But, you know, being able to assess the situation.
We're fantastic at that.
We know when to assess.
We know when to challenge our clients because they're ready for it.
We know when to terminate with our clients because they've done the work.
It's the same thing here.
Don't forget your social work skills.
Find the appropriate time to ask them to do it.
But it's legal to do it as long as you're nonpartisan, as long as you're not coercing somebody in one way or another, and as long as you're doing it with the best intention, and that is to uphold democracy.
That's the whole reason we're doing this.
One of the things that I know VoteER and NASW, it's part of the advocacy around Vote.gov with the major agencies, federal agencies, which is a direct client initiative about voter registration, making sure that it gets to those folks who have much more of a stake than we do into the outcome of an election.
And again, it's nonpartisan, but it's really great that social workers will be having at least some conversation with their clients about the importance of that.
So bravo to both of you.
The next question sort of segues into a little bit of not politics, but understanding where we are and with the environment that we're dealing with in the upcoming election.
I started off saying that this is perhaps the most important election
in since the Civil War, and some people say ever.
In your minds, and this is a sort of free form, you guys can just lay it out there,
in your minds is what I just said, is that hyperbole or as social workers or folks who
are involved with voting mobilization, do you agree that this is something that where everybody
needs to really be committed to what's at stake as a nation. And I'll just, Vanessa, why don't you
start? Yeah, sure. So at VoteER, we look at every year as a voting or as an election year. Yes,
there are issues that are very important on this one, but we really look at, we don't really look
at who people are voting for or who wins but we're just making sure that all eligible eligible people
are registered to vote and turn out to vote so we support every eligible citizen to vote in every
election um and that's a big thing because our work does not end when this election ends it has
to continue especially when it comes to local elections and um yeah so every election matter
matters we work to ensure that eligible eligible people are registered to vote so that they can
participate in every election yes presidential cycles but also ballot initiatives special
elections local elections decisions that really impact communities health outcomes happen up and
down the ballot in every election cycle so while it's not essential it's not necessarily hyperbole
um i think consider i think considering all elections as important is very
vital to the work that we do
yeah what i want to add is i think your question is very poignant and i'm going to speak as
as a social worker not so much vote er so i do want to make that distinction because i think
what your question is, is it hyperbolic? And while it may sound hyperbolic, the claim that
the 2024 election is one of the most important pulls weight when we consider the significant
political and social challenges that we're seeing in the United States. You know, just as the
election leading up to the Civil War dealt with deep division over the direction of our country,
most notably the issues of slavery and states' rights. Today's election is often framed as a
battle over states' rights and democracy and civil rights. Key issues like voting rights,
the integrity of the democratic process, reproductive rights, climate change,
economic inequality is all at the forefront. And for many of us, particularly people of color,
women. We're feeling that intensity. We're living it. We're seeing it happen. And particularly in
my state, we've seen it over and over again, where civil rights are the forefront of these topics.
So whether it's about maintaining some sort of democratic norm or addressing these
or social issues. To me, it's not a hyperbolic statement for a lot of us, for the clients that
we see on a day-to-day basis, for the communities that we live in. We're seeing the impacts of voter
suppression and legislators taking on these extreme positions. We're feeling that. And it
makes our work as social workers harder when we are trying to make our clients better and feel
empowered when we're up against such opposition. So I think there is a historical significance
tied to this election. But what I want to say is, is we have to remember the power that we have.
How can, I could speak from the national office, you could speak from the state, NASW, you could speak from VODR, but the everyday social workers, what can they do to really get directly involved?
And I'll throw something else out there. I'm not sure that social workers always know how to do that at the local level. A lot of things are always local. And this is something that, again, doesn't have a right or wrong answer. Your insight would be really great for social workers.
But then you want to do something.
Yeah, Christina is going to have great insight on the legislative part and doing that sort of advocacy.
But I'm going to kind of echo something that you said earlier, and that is simply asking the question is something that social workers can do.
Like, don't be afraid to ask those questions or ask the question, are you eligible to vote?
And again, as long as you remain nonpartisan, it is legal to do so.
So I did want to echo that because as we go into Voter Education Week, I know this is going to be released in that week.
And there's going to have to be like a little bit of lower lifts because of just the time frame.
So easily just asking the question is super important and something that they can do.
And then there's also I obviously have to speak from the vote aspect of it.
there's also a lot of educating that they can do um through some of the programs that we have
we have vote er basics which is basically a foundational training on how to use our vote er
tools which include the badges and the custom pieces and also it goes over the conversation
starters so you actually live role play the conversation starters and you can workshop
how you're going to approach patients, clients, even colleagues. And I think that's one thing
that we don't talk about enough is having conversations with your colleagues about
these things. So that's also something social workers can do. Because a lot of colleagues,
I think Christina and I have talked about this in the past, in some conferences that we do,
they feel like that's not their place. And they don't understand that they are a trusted messenger
for our clients. And it's really important to have these open dialogues with our colleagues.
And that's something that can be done as well. Just opening up that conversation
and seeing where that goes and seeing what you guys can do and come up with is always great.
But as far as legislation, I'll pass that to local level staff. I'm going to pass that to
Christina so interesting I'm an educator so I'm going to take us all back to you know social work
101 when we talk about those three different levels of practice micro level macro level and
mezzo level and I use that as a way to talk to social workers that want to get more involved
you know we got to start with the micro level which is you are you what do you know about
local politics your local leaders your local elections what do you know so you know being
able to look at what is happening in my community election wise how many how many of you your
listeners know if they have a municipality election coming up how many know who their city
councilman is, or their judge is, or who's running for sheriff, you know, being able to be in an
informed voter, it's not enough just to go and vote in the major elections, we need to be informed
voters. We don't want to have a high amount of undervotes, meaning people coming to the ballots,
and they're voting for the top half of the ballot and not the bottom half, because they don't know.
So it starts with you. What is your knowledge? And then where do you get this information from?
That's the number one question I get from members in Florida in NASW is how do I look up this info?
Well, as much as sometimes we can't trust social media, your politicians, your local politicians,
they're on social media because it's free. They don't have to pay all this money to get
fancy websites and things like that they're posting about their positions they have facebook
lives or or instagram lives or they're talking about it so i always say direct them go there
first and look them up and then see what information you can find there a lot of local
newspapers in your area do a wonderful deep dive on these candidates some of them will send them
questionnaires to all the candidates that are running for a certain position and then you can
see all their answers. And there's a lot of right now, a lot of town halls, you know, your local
legal women voters may be having a town hall where they're bringing all the candidates in
that are talking. So you get to hear who they are. So it starts with you being informed.
If you are informed, then the next part that I say is that mezzo level. Ask your clients,
Hey, do you know who's running? You know, do you know where you get this information from? Do you know what's on your ballot? You know, we have amendments coming up in this next election in a lot of our states and that writing can be very confusing.
so being able to talk to our clients about those amendments and then for my macro folks the ones
that are like I got it I already talked to my clients I'm so informed then your next thing is
to use your voice you know your state has at least in my state we have something called delegation
meetings in which the those state representatives and senators from my district come together or my
county come together and they have a meeting, a couple of meetings when they're not in session
and they are open to the community where I can go and introduce myself and say I'm an NASW
member and I want to talk to you about the concerns that social workers in my state are feeling
or even writing an op-ed in your paper, you know, submitting something in on a topic that's really
important to your community that you want to bring attention to. There's so much that we can do as
social workers, I think we underestimate our power, our influence, and our knowledge.
But find that level that's right for you. If we need to start at the micro,
let's start there. If you're macro level, then I can't wait to hear your voice.
You know, let me add a couple of things really quickly.
Can I add something? Did you mention the League of Women Voters?
i think you did refer to yeah yeah so i just wanted to plug the league of women voters and
also vote writers who are in partnership with vote er they're completely non-partisan and uh
they provide like christina said like information on when elections are information about uh the
who are who's getting elected um so those are fantastic resources for social workers to use
and to provide to their clients as well when it comes to, you know,
getting that deeper knowledge and confidence in voting.
Right.
The piece I was going to add, too, is that there's a shortage of poll workers.
And one of the things that we should put out there that any of our social workers can to be at the local level
is specifically to be poll workers.
This is a very, very touchy area because there's the intimidation of poll workers.
There is an effort to influence them negatively, but there is a real critical area.
And we often get at the national office requests for poll workers.
And lastly, the whole issue.
Go ahead.
Yeah, I was going to say I've been a poll worker as well in the 2022 election.
election, I was able to do that. And let me reassure your listeners who may be a little
bit nervous about that. Yes, it's a real concern. But your supervisory of election is going to
train you to the T. I have never seen anybody trained so well compared to them. Anytime there
was a concern during the actual process of the role that I was in, there was somebody to step
in and help. You know, I ran into no issues with it. But there were people on the ground ready to
assist. And it just was a feeling of empowerment. And if you are a listener that's questioning if
this is truly a democratic process, what a great way to see it up front in person, do that too.
So, yeah, absolutely. We need more poll workers. You know, be nice to them when you see them.
They've been there all day. Right. But it's a great opportunity for social workers.
Yes, that's true. OK, last question, ladies.
What can NASW do to really insert itself, not just in this election that we were saying, but in the long run?
We talk a lot, and we do a lot of writing over here about voter suppression and gerrymandering, some of those macro kinds of discussions, but we should have a role as a national office.
Do you have any ideas where we can be more helpful?
Yeah, I'm actually going to take that one first, if you don't mind, Vanessa.
I think the biggest rule that we need to take as social workers is to really come together and
understand that it is the role of all social workers. I go back to those levels, micro,
meso, and macro. And for the longest time, social workers that have been in the game for a while
like me, we were taught that this was a macro social workers role. They're going to handle this.
They're going to do the policy and the research and the advocacy and the voting. But what we have
seen over the last six years, that it is not enough to just rely on the macro social worker.
It's not enough just to rely on one organization to do it.
We all have a role in this because we all want to make sure not just our clients and our communities are doing well, but we're doing well.
We can't help others if our needs and our cup isn't being filled.
So I need every mezzo social worker, every micro social worker to come and join, join me, join you, Mel, join you, Vanessa, along with us.
But we also need to be cognizant that we have to do better in our training.
so a call to that i have to the national office and to my chapter offices into every unit chair
that's an nsw member have a workshop on and bring vote er in on how to ask people to register to
vote bring do a workshop on in the next what we have 44 days to the election do a workshop on
what's on your ballot. So everybody knows what's on your ballot. And then offer CEs if you can,
so that we can have more micro social workers involved. Because micro social workers weren't
trained to do this. There's such a gap in our knowledge that we need to start building that
knowledge. And then the last thing that I would say is to address the discouragement
that some social workers may have, that my vote is not going to make a difference because I'm in
a swing state or my vote's not going to make a difference because I'm in a very blue state or
red state. So what's the point? The thing is, what we're talking about is voting for the upcoming
election. But what we're really talking about is upholding the democratic process. And that's a
365 day job. It ends on November 5th and it begins on November 6th. And we need to be able
to be involved for 365 days. And the small wins that we get is momentum. When our client shows up
on time for the first time in weeks, that's a win, right? We celebrate that. So when we get
the social work licensing compact passed, that's a win. When we get our candidate into the school
board after a 14-year incumbent, that's a win. But it takes a lot of work and it takes 365-day
commitment. So we need to constantly talking about how do we organize. We need to constantly
talk about the policies that are impacting at the local, state, and national level. And we have to
have training year-round talking about these issues so that social workers feel more comfortable
and feel more excited to mobilize when it comes to election times. Vanessa, do you want to add
Oh, yeah. So I think it was a perfect segue to what I was thinking. So a chapter at NASW can make a commitment to partnering in nonpartisan voter engagement work with Americans. And you can sign up to be a partner at VoteER. Should I say the whole link? It's kind of long-ish.
or actually you know you have an opportunity because we're taping this to yeah i had that
as an attachment if you want to include that okay perfect um yeah so we have a link it's vote er
uh vote v-o-t-e-r.org uh backslash partner with us and uh vote er has worked with over 400
institutions across the country. I personally have done trainings on voter engagement and the
connection between voter engagement and social work for the NASW for certain chapters. Just
recently did Wisconsin and Michigan, and I'm going to be speaking to Louisiana coming up. So if you
want, if certain chapters want to have VoteER come out and do, not come out, but do like a
Zoom presentation or anything like that, they can email speaking-engagements at voteer.org.
In addition to that, just sharing the resources we have. We have digital materials. Definitely
ordering a badge obviously is super important. It's such an easy way to get that conversation
started. And we have digital materials online, which can be found in our shop. But in addition
to those resources, we collaborate with a number of partners who share information about what's on
the ballot uh vote 411 um is run by the league of uh women voters and they help clarify what
someone is able to do and also have information on voting laws and things like that and then vote
writers as i said before is a really tremendous uh resource to support voters on um also that front
like clarifying um what they can do and what they can't do so um those are great resources to have
um so if nasw wants to look into those and then yeah so honestly just really echoing what um
christina said i'm providing those resources and uh trainings i just recently graduated from uh
with my MSW. And there is that divide between macro and micro,
I think, like, as a macro worker, I was inundated with
policy and advocacy and all of those things. And then when I
would talk to my, my friends who were in the micro or doing the
clinical program, there was a lot of like, no, that's, that's
a macro thing. And thankfully, I think through the CSW, there
have to be there has to be a policy component, graduating
from MSW, but I do feel like that's not enough. I feel like there needs to be more involvement
between both the micro, mezzo, and macro groups to really get the education on how important
civic engagement is as a social worker when it comes specifically to our code of ethics
and how we work with those ethics
in kind of navigating our practices and stuff.
So yeah, I think it's incredibly important.
That's great.
And I'll share too that we at the National Office
are really beefing up our webpage
and we have a very dedicated webpage
dealing with issues around voting rights
and voting process.
So anything that you might wanna post
through the National Office and through me,
just feel free.
I mean, this is, that kind of content is important.
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