Madeline Pérez De Jesús &
Cindy Dubuque-Gallo
Most would agree that social work – which is rooted in the values and ethics of social justice – is in the social change business. So… is social work a political act?
Politics and the exercise of power are still the environment in which we as a society put our collective values into action. Our guests argue that voting (that contentious little thing that’s been in the news lately) is social work. They describe their work with the National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign and the 2020 National Voter Registration Day Project. Our guests discovered quite a bit and make the case that social work political activity should be an essential, not a so-called “extra” aspect of our professional focus and activity. It all couldn’t be more timely…
Madeline Pérez De Jesús, LMSW, MPhil, PhD is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work & Equitable Community Practice at the University of Saint Joseph-CT. Madeline has numerous published works including articles in Social Work with Groups and Reflections: Narrative of Professional Helping and the co-authored text Theory & Educational Research (Routledge Press). Madeline is part of the leadership team of the Voting is Social Work National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign.
Cindy Dubuque-Gallo, LMSW, MAT is a PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work and an Adjunct Professor of Social Work at the University of Saint Joseph. A long-time social justice activist, Cindy is passionate about political social work and has spoken at the Nancy Humphrey’s Institute for Political Social Work Campaign School for nearly a decade. Cindy is on the leadership team of the Voting is Social Work National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign. Cindy’s dissertation research focuses on the National School Lunch Program, debt shaming practices, and the problem of rising school lunch debt.
Show Notes:
Voter Registration Reality: A View From the Social Work Field
https://www.socialworker.com/feature-articles/practice/voter-registration-reality-view-from-social-work-field/
The National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign
https://votingissocialwork.org/
Voter
https://vot-er.org/votesw/
