School of Social Work promotes student involvement in state politics

By Mike Frontiero
VCU School of Education

Students and faculty in Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Social Work are featured in a new, nationally-released instructional film that demonstrates how students can communicate with state lawmakers to improve the lives of needy Americans.

The 20-minute film "Policy Affects Practice and Students Affect Policy" was distributed to all 425 bachelors of social work programs and 142 accredited masters of social work programs in the United States. It will be viewed by over 40,000 social work students.

It was produced by Influencing State Policy - a Richmond-based advocacy group founded and chaired by VCU social work professor Robert L. Schneider, Ph.D.

The increasing delegation of social policy responsibility from the federal to state level has many implications for the profession of social work, said Schneider. "To the extent social workers place relatively more weight than others on social justice, one would expect their policy emphasis to reflect these values. The importance of such policy emphasis is especially critical when reduced federal aid and struggling state economies dictate either raising taxes or reducing programs," he said.

The video shows how social policy is connected to social work practice in everything from cuts in Medicaid and welfare roll reductions to failed policies on runaways, said Schneider. Actual VCU School of Social Work students, not actors, describe how policies affected their clients, and they explain how they overcame their anxieties and fears to initiate advocacy to influence legislators and affect policy change.