NASW Needs Your Voice in These Critical Times

Workforce

By Barbara Bedney, PhD, MSW

“I would like to think that at a critical moment, I was an effective voice for the voiceless.”

I chose this quote from civil rights leader Whitney Young to start my column, because as social workers—and as a nation—we find ourselves in that kind of critical moment. Like Young, we need to make our voices heard, as all around us people are having their voices taken from them.

As I write this, we are on day 22 of a government shutdown that has left thousands of federal workers, including many social workers, without a paycheck to support themselves and their families. There also is the very real likelihood that in the next week or two, millions of families who rely on programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program will no longer be able to put food on the table.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration is using cities, including Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., as “training grounds” for the deployment of the National Guard. This administration continues to detain and deport immigrants without any proof or due process; is unleashing egregiously biased and dangerous proposals against the transgender community; and is eroding the principles on which democracy rests—including free speech and the right to vote. These are principles social workers have long fought for, and in many cases have led the fight for, and we need to continue to fight for them now. We need to make our voice heard. At NASW, with your help, we are doing just that.

NASW and its Colorado Chapter joined the American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and 11 other organizations in an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Colorado’s conversion therapy ban in Kaley Chiles v. Patty Salazar et al. We are pushing back against President Trump’s executive orders that cut programs such as Head Start and WIC, reminding Congress it is their job, not the president’s, to appropriate funding for these programs. With your help, our voice on those issues has been loud and clear, in the form of more than 4,000 emails sent to Congress urging them to do their part to continue funding these programs. That is advocacy in action. That is the power of social work: your power. It is all of you being the voice we need in this critical moment.

But there is more to do. Most telehealth flexibilities in Medicare that had been in place since the COVID-19 pandemic have now expired due to the government shutdown. This jeopardizes the ability of many of our clients to access the critical services we provide. We encourage you to use your voice here, too, by visiting our Action Center to urge members of Congress to co-sponsor legislation supporting our ability to provide these services.

If you are a member of NASW, consider contributing to our political action committee to help us elect candidates who support social work goals. Volunteer in your community if you can. Reach out to colleagues who have lost jobs due to the shutdown or federal agency closures to see how they’re doing. As the midterm elections approach, work with us to help protect voting rights. Most importantly, take care of yourself and those around you. We need you. This is our critical moment, and we have just begun to show how powerful we are when we make our collective voice heard.

Barbara Bedney is chief of programs at NASW.