Political Social Work Careers and Leadership: From Jane Addams To You!

Abstract

In the first part of this book, you were exposed to an array of domains in which political social work can be practiced and reflected on your own ideology, political knowledge, skills, efficacy, privilege, and use of power. You learned how to apply theories, assessment skills, and models in political contexts. In the second and third parts of this book, you used these knowledge and skills to design and implement effective strategies for electoral and advocacy campaigns. In the final part of this book, you have reflected on how to monitor and evaluate success within a political context and have considered how social work ethics and values apply to political practice. In this chapter, we encourage you to reflect upon all that you have learned and consider how you will integrate these skills into your own social work practice. Whether you are a student, a practitioner, or a faculty member, we hope you will find suggestions in this chapter for ways to increase your political activity. In Chap. 1 we told you to “consider yourself asked” to get involved. In this chapter, we ask you to bring all that you have learned together to develop your own specific plan for political involvement.