SOCIAL WORK INTERVENTIONS FOR ERADICATING OPPRESSION

• A high school social worker agrees to serve as faculty advisor for a gay-straight alliance.

• Employed by a neighborhood redevelopment agency, a social worker talks with neighborhood residents about vandalism targeting the home of a household headed by a gay male. With the agency’s support, the residents convene a neighborhood meeting to discuss the problem and develop a plan of action.

• Social workers join GLBT activists in an action of civil disobedience outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to protest the agency’s withdrawal of funds for a conference on lesbian health issues.

• A state NASW chapter officially endorses an amendment to the state’s human rights act that would protect GLBT people from discrimination in employment, housing, education, public accommodations, and access to credit.

• A social worker at a community mental health agency advocates with the board of directors to include sexual orientation and gender identity as protected categories in the equal employment opportunity policy.

• A social worker in a group home for people with developmental disabilities interrupts a colleague’s anti-gay joke, telling her that she finds the joke offensive, hurtful, and disrespectful of the agency’s GLBT clients, staff, and board members.

• A social worker in a hospital-affiliated oncology clinic realizes that several lesbians are currently receiving chemotherapy treatments at the clinic. She approaches them individually to explore if they would like to participate in a support group for lesbian cancer survivors.

• A social worker testifies before a state legislative committee about the need for increased funding for HIV-prevention education programs for men who have sex with men.