policy maker administrator.docx
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Social Workers in Administration
Many career paths lead social workers into administration. Frequently,
these are social workers who concentrated on the more macro aspects of
the profession while in school. Often administrative social workers find
employment in private nonprofit agencies as Chief Executive Officers
(CEOs), executive directors, or program directors. Many also find work in
government agencies as heads of various government divisions, program
directors, or even commissioners of entire departments. Social workers at
the top levels of management are responsible for many administrative tasks.
For example, they ensure their agency conducts regular strategic planning,
which often involves community needs assessment. They oversee program
development, which includes program design, fundraising, and program
evaluation. Social administrators are responsible for staff development,
including hiring, evaluation, and termination. Social administrators are also
involved in policy advocacy and community education as well as interagency
collaboration.
Administrators of private nonprofit agencies assist with board development
for their organizations. This typically includes working with existingboard members to recruit and train
new board members. Social workers in
nonprofit management, given the importance of volunteers in nonprofit organizations,
must also take responsibility for recruiting, developing, and managing
volunteers.
In addition, nonprofit administrators spend a great deal of their time in
fund-raising. Funds are raised in many ways. Vehicles for fund-raising
include grant writing, grass-roots events such as walkathons and road races,
annual campaigns to solicit individual donations, planned giving involving
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bequests, and capital campaigns to raise money for the development of new
facilities.
Social workers who go into administrative practice often enjoy developing
and administering new programs to meet emerging community needs. Given
their macro perspective, they like working with larger systems. And they enjoy
collaboration, coordination, and leadership. But if you have a macro perspective,
yet dont want administrative responsibilities, maybe social welfare policy
development would be a better match for you.
Social Workers in Policy Practice
Social welfare policy defines the context in which social services are developed
and delivered. Many social workers, particularly those who concentrated
in macro practice as students, find employment in policy practice.17
Policy practice in social work, by definition, involves the formulation, enactment,
implementation, and assessment of social welfare policies. While
some social workers in policy practice hold elected offices, social workers
more often find jobs as policy planners or policy analysts. Some work for
elected officials or in government agencies at the national, state, or local
levels, while many others work in private nonprofit agencies, especially
large nonprofit agencies at the national and state levels, agencies such as
the Childrens Defense fund, the Child Welfare League of America, or United
Way of America. Social workers firsthand knowledge of the needs of various
client populations is highly valued by policymakers in national, state,
and local government.
Social workers engaged in policy work carry out a variety of specific
tasks. They help to define social problems, analyze the values underlying
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such problem definitions, set policy goals and objectives in relation to the
problems, outline policy options for achieving these goals and objectives,
consider various criteria for evaluating policy options, and ultimately, decide
on final policy proposals to advocate and implement. Social workers
involved with policy development sometimes are only involved in the
research and analysis that goes into developing proposals, while at other
times they make direct recommendations as to which policy options they
consider best. This is because social workers knowledge of how health and
human services are produced, distributed, and consumed is critical to the
policy development process.18
For this and other reasons, social workers in
policy practice enjoy the opportunity to develop
and influence policies that affect many people.
If policy practice as well as case work,
group work, and community organization are
not for you, social work offers employment in
still another area: research.