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Growing Together As Allies (GTAA)

Social Workers, the Vote and US Democracy

Session 1: September 14, 2021, 12-1:30 pm

Terry Mizrahi and Mimi Ambramovitz

SOCIAL WORKERS, THE VOTE AND US DEMOCRACY

Recorded Session

Social workers who sit at the intersection of the individual and society are well positioned to reach large numbers of unregistered voters. The field education department of social work schools represents the hub of National Social Work Voter Mobilization Campaign (Voting is Social Work). Since 2018 the Campaign, endorsed by more than 25 major social work organizations, has been working with schools of social work and their associated agencies to register large numbers of students, clients, and constituents to vote. This presentation discusses the historic role of social workers in voter registration, the benefit of voting, and the mounting barriers to a fair vote. It focuses on voter suppression designed to demoralize the electorate, to make people believe that their system is rigged and that their vote does not count, and suggests that voter suppression and systemic racism increasingly represent dangerous threats to democracy in the US.

votingissocialwork.org/#