Assignment #1: LGBTQIA+ Issues and Social Work Practice: Please choose a specific issue of relevance to LGBTQIA+ social work practice, at the clinical, policy, or program level. Integrate and cite at least 6 well-researched sources that provide information or evidence related to this topic, which can overlap with articles on the syllabus, but should include at least one additional source.
Content: In an 8-10 page paper, please:
Identify the issue, which can be broad, e.g. health care barriers for LGBTQIA+ people, violence within or against LGBTQIA+ communities, the impact of intersecting oppressions (around race, class, ethnicity, ability, immigration status, HIV status, etc.) on LGBTQIA+ people, poverty within LGBTQIA+ communities, etc., or it could be very specific, e.g. police profiling of trans Latinx women around sex work, relationship violence for bisexual-identified women, HIV risk among young MSM of color, etc.
Identify challenges and obstacles for LGBTQIA+ people in accessing resources, including safety, support, and services around the issue you identified. This should be explored fairly thoroughly in this paper.
Identify one or more potential solution(s) to the challenges and obstacles you identified. Solutions can include policy change, best or promising practices around services, new interventions, including any. You must include information on groups actively working on the solutions, e.g. legislative advocacy groups, community organizing groups, service organizations, local activists, etc. Potential solutions should be briefly identified and assessed at a high level, but deeper exploration of one solution will be part of the next assignment.
Share how this learning will impact your practice, including support, training, or experience you plan to seek out to support your own cultural competency, and strengthen your ability to support and ally with marginalized LGBTQIA+ people and communities.
Assignment #2: Advocacy around LGBTQIA+ Issues and Social Work Practice: Please choose a specific advocacy issue relevant to LGBTQIA+ social work practice. If possible, this should be the same issue you identified in your first paper, but in cases where that is not really feasible, or you have refocused your interest, it can be a new and different issue—please note: new and different issues will need to be approved by the instructor. Assess or restate the issue’s prevalence, impact, and current efforts to address the issue. You will attend an event associated with the effort to address the issue, and include your assessment of the event as part of your paper. Analyze the effectiveness of the campaign or effort, including the specific event you attended. Finally, include why you care about this issue, and the way what you have learned will impact your practice.
Content: In an 8-10 page paper, please:
Identify the advocacy issue, which should, If possible, be the same issue you identified in your first paper, but in cases where that is not really feasible, or you have refocused your interest, it can be a new and different issue—please note: new and different issues will need to be approved by the instructor. .
Attend an event associated with the effort to address the issue, and assess the role the event you attended plays in the campaign or effort to move the cause forward.
Assess the issue’s prevalence, impact, and current efforts to address the issue. Identify any active campaigns to advance the cause, and who is working on this issue, e.g. coalitions, advocacy organizations, grassroots organizing groups, elected officials, etc. Analyze the effectiveness of the campaign or effort, including the specific event you attended. Share any additional ideas you have around what could improve the effectiveness of the effort.
Include why you care about this issue, and the way what you have learned will impact your practice, at the clinical, programmatic, policy, and/or administrative level.
Examples of topics for this paper include:
i. The lack of resources for LGBTQIA+-identified survivors of violence, and wide-scale efforts from the current administration to rollback protections for LGBTQIA+ people; or
ii. The lack of cultural competency within emergency room (ER) staff dealing with LGBTQIA+ patients, and an effort to raise money or pass legislation with attached funds to conduct wide-spread training around LGBTQIA+ cultural competency within hospital ERs;
iii. Concerns around the fate of LGBTQIA+ immigrants under this administration, and Know Your Rights campaigns, with associated legal services, being promoted within NYC.
