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This article examines aspects of community organizing within social work and progressive or transformative planning within urban planning, with an implicit question as to whether these two practices within their respective professions can work together to achieve progressive goals. For each profession, I first review the professional histories and the ethical codes of each discipline, next discuss how these more activist trends emerged, and then compare the two practices to suggest possibilities for joint efforts toward the social justice goals embedded in each defining statement. I discuss the context for both types of work, as well as the means by which individuals in each discipline work toward progressive goals. Questions I consider include how similar the social justice orientations within their disciplines are, and how community organizers and progressive planners can work together for social justice goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article provides results from interviews and a focus group conducted at two different points in time in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which explored impacts of the pandemic and adaptation among water advocacy organizations in southern Ontario, Canada. Our findings show that despite the destabilizing and sometimes devastating impact of COVID-19 on grassroots organizations and their programs, by disrupting business as usual the pandemic also created the conditions for experimentation, innovation, the establishment of new capacities and strategic foci. In this paper, we share descriptive narratives from water activists in our geographic area about how they adapted and innovated their work despite the challenges of the pandemic. Our findings illustrate and add nuance to themes emerging in the literature about the impacts of the pandemic on environmental advocacy groups and other nonprofit organizations, and generate new themes for further exploration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Trump administration's immigration policies, over the course of four years, repeatedly conflicted with social work ethical principles, resulting in family separation and pervasive fear in immigrant communities throughout the US. The ethical principles of the social work profession are reflected in social work education competencies, including engaging in policy practice to advance justice. Using immigration policies as context, this paper provides details of a classroom activity that teaches social work students how to use Twitter to engage in advocacy and policy practice. Guided by experiential learning theory, the classroom activity can inform future pedagogical advancements in social work education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This "From the Archives" article provides the text of Belle Moskowitz's 1923 speech to the National Conference of Social Work, in which she encourages social workers to engage in the political process at the local, state, and national levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas conventional theories depict the migrant organization in terms of its social and cultural dimensions, an emerging line of research expands "established models" of migrant organizations, empirically by widening the scope of analysis to include informal entities, and theoretically by taking account of their complex, dynamic functions. This study joins such discussions by examining the activities of refugee-run organizational entities, and then developing a synthesizing theoretical framework. Data were collected through 40 interviews of organizational leaders in 30 U.S. states, using Bhutanese refugees as case study. Findings suggest five types of "welfare support activities" of refugee-run grassroots organizations, and thus a repositioning within their institutional network, raising questions about organizational legitimacy and access to resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in deportations under the Obama administration followed by reduced discretion in arrests in the U.S. interior by the Trump administration has had tangible effects on undocumented immigrants and their communities. The unpredictability of removals, coupled with a sense of foreboding, directly impacts health, limits health seeking behaviors, and instills fear of government institutions. We describe how advocates with the Washtenaw Interfaith Coalition for Immigrant Rights reorganized their urgent response phone line to address an increase in number and complexity of calls, provide a case study of a typical call, and suggest strategies for replication in similar communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article, we share results from a comparative study exploring the dynamics of community engagement surrounding local water advocacy organizations in two Canadian communities. Although emergent local issues and the perception of crisis triggered some short-term community engagement, social factors such as collective identity, a sense of community, and sense of efficacy appear to be more important for sustaining and deepening engagement. Drawing on the results, we show how the pyramid of engagement, by depicting activist engagement as a multilevel, developmental process, can serve as a useful tool for community engagement scholars and practitioners alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Local currency holds promise for relieving poverty while enhancing social capital and helping communities meet goals. In spite of this, governmental policies have created barriers to its full success. This article examines local currency from a community development perspective, reviews the policy environment in the United States, and identifies policy changes that can support local currencies. Four major types of local currency—proxy, fiat, local exchange trading systems, and time banks—are described. Federal policy barriers in the US Constitution, statutes, and tax regulations as well as state prohibitions to local currency are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article proposes a new model of community intervention called the Motivation and Persuasion Process (MAP), a community intervention model to equip community members with specific skills on how to engage in productive community advocacy. This article describes the principles behind the MAP, its objectives, and its application. Implications for community practice, policy advocacy, and research are addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study explores the first decade (2002–2012) of the California Senior Leaders Program (CSLP), including participants' creation of a formal advocacy group, the California Senior Leaders Alliance. Grounded in concerns with ageism and invisibility, the CSLP provides recognition and support for diverse California elders engaged in community building and social justice work. This study employs qualitative analysis of data from participant interviews, event evaluations, program documents, video footage, and participant observation. Findings show emotional, learning, and networking benefits for participants, intergenerational influences, collective capacity and coalition building, and contributions to policy. Program challenges are described, and future directions discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents results of the outcome evaluation of Neighborhoods Working in Partnership (NWP), a community-based participatory research project of the Detroit Community–Academic Urban Research Center, designed to enhance policy advocacy skills through training and support, thereby increasing community capacity, engagement, and empowerment of Detroit residents to change policies. Focus groups and conversational interviews were conducted with NWP participants. Results indicate that the workshop empowered participants and enhanced dimensions of community capacity. Participants reported engaging in policy advocacy activities and various policy successes. Participants identified challenges and facilitating factors to their policy campaigns. Recommendations for similar trainings are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, advocacy efforts to establish social policies that legally recognize same-sex relationships and protect lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people from employment discrimination have increased considerably throughout the country. To inform these advocacy campaigns, we investigate endorsement for LGBT civil rights among heterosexual college students (n = 1,714). Students, overall, were moderately supportive of LGBT rights. Twenty-one variables were found to be significant in the initial analyses; however, only seven retained significance in the final analysis which controlled for all variables. Results suggest that political ideology and specific LGBT attitudes are most influential. Religiosity and having LGBT extended family members are also important. Implications for LGBT advocacy efforts are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Macro practice focuses on community-level interventions, such as management, organizing, research, and policy advocacy. Despite social work's deep roots in this type of work, macro practice and macro practitioners often practice without support or connections with other macro practitioners, and are underrepresented in the profession. In 2006, a group of social workers, including academics and practitioners, formed the Association of Macro Practice Social Work (AMPSW). AMPSW works to strengthen the professional identity of macro practitioners, elevate the status of macro social workers, and address common concerns within the social work profession. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the editors discuss the article "In Defense of the Community Reinvestment Act," by Jill Littrell and Fred Brooks, the case study "Globalization and Free Trade Agreements: A Profile of a Nicaraguan Factory Community," by Wendy Sellers Campbell and colleagues and the article "Review and Analysis of the Benefits, Purposes, and Motivations Associated with Community Gardening in the United States," by Carrie Draper and Darcy Freedman.