Open Letter from Social Work Students, Alumnx, Staff, Faculty, and Administrators in Support of Black Lives Matter and Defunding the Police
We, the undersigned social work students, alumnx, staff, faculty, and administrators, endorse the Black Lives Matter platform and commit to the action steps outlined in An Open Letter to NASW and Allied Organizations on Social Work’s Relationship with Law Enforcement, authored by Dr. Laura Abrams and Dr. Alan Dettlaff, https://medium.com/@alandettlaff/an-open-letter-to... and the subsequent Affirming the Call for Social Work to Fully Support Defunding the Police, https://medium.com/@alandettlaff/affirming-the-cal...
We, the undersigned, call on individual stakeholders of schools, departments, and programs of social work to:
1. Publicly endorse the Black Lives Matter Petition to defund the police and reinvest in “our communities.” https://blacklivesmatter.com/defundthepolice/
2. Call for the NASW, CSWE, and allied organizations to add racial justice to the code of ethics and anti-racism to educational policies and standards.
3. Take seriously calls for abolition in our profession by hosting (or otherwise participating in) public conversations with those who are working to transform harmful institutions (e.g. child welfare and policing).
4. Recognize social work’s historical role in perpetuating anti-Blackness and regulating the lives of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous families.
We, the undersigned, call on deans and directors of social work schools, departments, and programs to:
5. Develop an organizational position statement on the divestment and reinvestment of law enforcement budgets that excludes expansion of law enforcement and instead supports community-driven alternatives to public safety.
6. Discontinue field placements in programs that uphold the Prison Industrial Complex — such as probation offices, prisons, jails, and others.
7. Demonstrate full support of students who in their fieldwork and curriculum activities refuse to engage in practice with the police.
8. Terminate partnerships with police departments, military apparatuses (such as the ROTC), and other similar organizations.
9. Create events or other learning opportunities to discuss how social work can move forward as a profession outside the current criminal legal system.
10. Revise curricula to include content about the harms that policing and law enforcement have caused Black people and other marginalized communities, and the ways social work has been complicit in these harms.
Please sign below to add your name to this endorsement and commitment to Black Lives Matter and defunding the police.
Updates
July 19, 2020
Seeing two hundred fifty names on this list reminds me of why I fought to enter this field in the first place. This profession must grapple with its history now instead of looking away.
July 17, 2020
Seeing one hundred people from our own social work community sign this letter feels deeply validating after so many years of feeling ignored by our own institutions. This initial milestone proves that we are ready to finally confront the painful history of our profession and demand something better.
Reached 250 supporters
July 16, 2020
Reached 100 supporters
July 15, 2020
July 13, 2020
Watching this list grow reminds me of the colleagues I talk to daily who are exhausted by the current state of our field. We are just a few signatures away from hitting our first hundred and landing that momentum is vital for the meetings we have ahead with leadership.
6 Comments
So much of social work is just policing under a different name. Glad this is being addressed openly.
Yes! We need to stop the cycle and reinvest in actual community resources for real.
Abolition is the only way forward. We cant keep pretending we can fix broken systems from the inside.
Its time to stop ignoring the systemic issues inside the profession. Glad to see some leadership taking a stand on this stuff
Finally. It was about time the field starts looking at how we actually hurt the people we are supposed to be helping. Thank you for this.
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Open Letter from Social Work Students, Alumnx, Staff, Faculty, and Administrators in Support of Black Lives Matter and Defunding the Police
We, the undersigned social work students, alumnx, staff, faculty, and administrators, endorse the Black Lives Matter platform and commit to the action steps outlined in An Open Letter to NASW and Allied Organizations on Social Work’s Relationship with Law Enforcement, authored by Dr. Laura Abrams and Dr. Alan Dettlaff, https://medium.com/@alandettlaff/an-open-letter-to... and the subsequent Affirming the Call for Social Work to Fully Support Defunding the Police, https://medium.com/@alandettlaff/affirming-the-cal...
We, the undersigned, call on individual stakeholders of schools, departments, and programs of social work to:
1. Publicly endorse the Black Lives Matter Petition to defund the police and reinvest in “our communities.” https://blacklivesmatter.com/defundthepolice/
2. Call for the NASW, CSWE, and allied organizations to add racial justice to the code of ethics and anti-racism to educational policies and standards.
3. Take seriously calls for abolition in our profession by hosting (or otherwise participating in) public conversations with those who are working to transform harmful institutions (e.g. child welfare and policing).
4. Recognize social work’s historical role in perpetuating anti-Blackness and regulating the lives of Black, Latinx, and Indigenous families.
We, the undersigned, call on deans and directors of social work schools, departments, and programs to:
5. Develop an organizational position statement on the divestment and reinvestment of law enforcement budgets that excludes expansion of law enforcement and instead supports community-driven alternatives to public safety.
6. Discontinue field placements in programs that uphold the Prison Industrial Complex — such as probation offices, prisons, jails, and others.
7. Demonstrate full support of students who in their fieldwork and curriculum activities refuse to engage in practice with the police.
8. Terminate partnerships with police departments, military apparatuses (such as the ROTC), and other similar organizations.
9. Create events or other learning opportunities to discuss how social work can move forward as a profession outside the current criminal legal system.
10. Revise curricula to include content about the harms that policing and law enforcement have caused Black people and other marginalized communities, and the ways social work has been complicit in these harms.
Please sign below to add your name to this endorsement and commitment to Black Lives Matter and defunding the police.
Updates
July 19, 2020
Seeing two hundred fifty names on this list reminds me of why I fought to enter this field in the first place. This profession must grapple with its history now instead of looking away.
July 17, 2020
Seeing one hundred people from our own social work community sign this letter feels deeply validating after so many years of feeling ignored by our own institutions. This initial milestone proves that we are ready to finally confront the painful history of our profession and demand something better.
Reached 250 supporters
July 16, 2020
Reached 100 supporters
July 15, 2020
July 13, 2020
Watching this list grow reminds me of the colleagues I talk to daily who are exhausted by the current state of our field. We are just a few signatures away from hitting our first hundred and landing that momentum is vital for the meetings we have ahead with leadership.
6 Comments
SOCIAL WORK NEEDS A MASSIVE OVERHAUL. Stop working with systems that cage our clients. Keep it up.
So much of social work is just policing under a different name. Glad this is being addressed openly.
Yes! We need to stop the cycle and reinvest in actual community resources for real.
Abolition is the only way forward. We cant keep pretending we can fix broken systems from the inside.
Its time to stop ignoring the systemic issues inside the profession. Glad to see some leadership taking a stand on this stuff
Finally. It was about time the field starts looking at how we actually hurt the people we are supposed to be helping. Thank you for this.
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SOCIAL WORK NEEDS A MASSIVE OVERHAUL. Stop working with systems that cage our clients. Keep it up.