Core Competencies and Practice Behaviors

By the completion of the advanced specialization level, policy practice students learn to:
 

1. Identify as a professional social worker and conduct themselves accordingly.
    
   1. Apply professional use of self.
   2. Display professionalism and respect for client systems and colleagues.
       
       
2. Apply social work ethical principles to guide professional practice.
    
   1. Analyze the ethical issues and values underlying policy choices.
   2. Engage in the development and critique of policy that upholds ethical standards and social work values.
       
       
3. Apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgments.
    
   1. Analyze challenges to policy development or implementation.
       
       
4. Engage diversity and difference in practice.
    
   1. Identify a broad range of variables (e.g., age, ethnicity, culture, immigration status, race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, ability, disability) that affect the development of social welfare policy.
   2. Articulate advanced understanding of the impact of social welfare policy on diverse populations.
       
       
5. Advance human rights and social and economic justice.
    
   1. Use knowledge of the effects of oppression, discrimination, and historical trauma on social work populations to guide the development or implementation of social welfare policy.
       
       
6. Engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research.
    
   1. Locate, collect and analyze data relevant to social policy problems.
       
       
7. Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment.
    
   1. Understand how individual behavior is shaped by the social welfare policy environment.
       
       
8. Engage in policy practice to advance social and economic well-being and to deliver effective social work services.
    
   1. Assess the feasibility of alternative policy options.
   2. Prepare and present policy descriptions and/or proposals.
       
       
9. Respond to contexts that shape practice.
    
   1. Understand the definition of social policy issues.
   2. Identify and articulate prior efforts to solve a policy issue.
       
       
10. (a) Engage, (b) assess, (c) intervene, and (d) evaluate with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
     
     
    1. Engagement
        
       1. Engage with policy makers, community constituents, or organizations.
           
           
    2. Assessment
        
       1. Assess community readiness for policy change.
           
           
    3. Intervention
        
       1. Advocate for policy recommendations.
       2. Evaluate policy recommendations in social and/or economic terms.
           
           
    4. Evaluation
        
       1. Evaluate one's own performance as a practitioner in policy practice.