I’ve never done this before, and you all might tell me you hate it, in which case I’ll probably never do it again.
But my ‘interesting stuff I’m not sure what to do with” email folder has gotten pretty full, and my calendar has gotten super tight, and I’m quite candidly not as diligent about Twitter as I should be, so I thought I’d give this a try.
Here are some links that I don’t want you to miss. I’d love to hear your reaction to them, and I’d be delighted to discuss them, but I just don’t know how to pull each into a coherent blog post of its own.
So, instead, a sort-of early holiday present:
some links, from me to you.
What do you think?
- All-In Nation, a report from PolicyLink and Center for American Progress about the policy changes necessary to build a society of racial inclusion and economic justice, and the benefits that would accrue to all of us, from such a shift
- Social Work Helper post questioning the retreat of social workers from the forefront of the struggle for civil rights
- Economic Policy Institute’s Family Budget Calculator, a really helpful tool for illustrating just how far minimum wage doesn’t stretch–it’s pretty stunning, really, to imagine what it is like to try to make the math work, when the stakes are as high as your children’s well-being.
- Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap interactive tool, for anyone who thinks that no one could possibly be hungry in their community
- Social Work Helper post on hate speech on Twitter–really, really scary stuff
- Bolder Advocacy post from the 4th of July (so, yeah, I really haven’t cleaned this out in awhile) about how nonprofit advocacy is patriotic. I couldn’t agree more!
- Storify from my live Twitter chat last spring on political advocacy for social workers–I can’t believe I never posted this!
- U.S. Census Bureau announces decline in public school expenditures in 2011, for the first time in nearly 40 years
- Insightful e-politics post about how ‘big data’ is really just listening to people–what social workers, of course, do best!
- Article debating the merits of online advocacy, aka ‘slacktivism’–is the jury still really out? What do you think?
- Bolder Advocacy post about moms’ activism to pass paid sick leave ordinances–I love moms, I love paid sick leave, and I love Bolder Advocacy!
- Idealware report on cutting-edge social media
- From my backyard, an article on ideas for reducing suburban poverty
- Economic Policy Institute report on King’s unfinished march, complete with some of the most discouraging infographics I’ve seen lately–we should all be doubly resolved to finish the campaign for jobs and equality
- Washington Post report on rising poverty among older Americans, highlighting the risks to seniors, in particular, if entitlements are cut–we often forget that the comparatively low rates of poverty among older adults is a policy victory, not an accident of fate, and it’s one that could easily be undone
- New tools for evaluating community organizing and advocacy
- Idealware report on creating infographics
Close knowledge makes a difference
There was another part from The Ghost Map that made me think about social work, and about you all, which means that it ends up here.
So, yes, just a little more cholera.
See, the doctor who ended up tracing the spread of the disease, and documenting the outbreak in a way that gave needed credibility to germ theory and ultimately brought down the idea of ‘miasma’ (smell=disease), was from the neighborhood.
He lived near Broad Street, where the pump contaminated with cholera was located, and that intimate knowledge was essential to helping him untangle the truth.
At the time, remember, most people thought that, since smell brought disease, dirty houses (read: poor people) would have the most illness, because they would smell bad. There were many low-income households in and around the area infected with cholera, and, so, most of the ‘outside experts’ were quick to conclude that it was their poverty, and the smells associated with it, that were quite literally killing them.
But John Snow knew better.
He knew of wealthier households living next to poorer ones, where both fell ill. He knew of very poor households that nonetheless maintained immaculately clean homes. He knew that most of the stereotypes were flawed. He knew that people were dying–real people, with grieving families–because he knew many of those afflicted.
This knowledge meant that he couldn’t fall back on the prevailing wisdom or the platitudes about poverty and disease. He could see facts more clearly, and his inquiry had an urgency stemming from his investment in the community and its suffering people.
And that, I believe, has lessons for social work advocates, too.
I believe that we can work effectively across communities, and that skills and relationships and real empathy are just as important as ‘matching’ membership on specific criteria.
But I also believe that it might be easier to miss things, nuances that really matter, if we see a community more as monolithic, which we’re more likely to do if we’re not embedded in it. I believe that too much distance can render us less effective, less committed, and, ultimately, less likely to succeed.
That’s one of the reasons that social workers make great organizers, and great advocates–we’re on the ground and we know how these issues work and we tend to notice details. We know and care about our work, and that matters for how we engage with it.
In history and still today, being close to the truth makes it more likely we find it.
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Posted in Analysis and Commentary
Tagged policy change, research, social work