[Episode 121] In today's episode of the Social Work Podcast, I speak with Dr. Darlyne Bailey and Dr. Terry Mizrahi about the Special Commission on Macro Practice. We talk about how their social work experiences led them to co-chairing the Special Commission, the relationship between case and cause, moment and movement, and process and product. We talked about the false dichotomy between micro and macro practice, and that there is nothing wrong with focusing your energies on one or the other. We ended the episode with a call for the social work profession to focus energies on increasing the percentage of macro-concentration social work students to 20% by 2020.Download MP3 [50:18]
Transcript
IntroductionJonathan Singer: Hey there podcast listeners, Jonathan here. Did you miss me? I missed you. But I haven’t forgotten about you. I’ve been working hard behind the scenes to get some amazing content for you.
Today’s interview is the first in a series of podcast episodes focusing on the macro side of social work. In 2017, Steve Burghardt, a professor from the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College in New York City, reached out to me and asked, “why aren’t there more episodes focusing on macro content?” This isn’t the first time I’ve been asked why most of my episodes focus on micro practice. The answer is simple – my clinical and research expertise is in micro practice – the work with individuals and families that I reference all the time on the podcast. I know how what practice issues are important, I know how to frame the issues, I know the experts, and I know whether my guests know what they are talking about. I don’t have anything against macro practice. I’ve worked as a community organizer. I’ve lobbied representatives. I’ve been involved in writing legislation. But I’m less confident in knowing how to be the arbiter of what you want to hear about regarding macro social work. And then Steve did something beautiful. He didn’t just point out what’s missing, he offered to help fill the gap. Not by being a guest, although we will have Steve as a guest on the podcast soon. Steve’s expertise is in macro social work. He knows the issues. He knows the people. Steve offered to help me come up with topics, guests, and some of the information necessary to set the stage in my introductions. I took him up on it.
Over the next few years we’ll be bringing you episodes that explore the macro side of social work. Why? Because whatever affects the pond affects the fish. I was going to call this the Macro Social Work Podcast, but I was too late. In August 2018, Stephen Cummings (not to be confused with Steve Burghardt) started the MacroSW podcast as part of the amazing #MacroSW Twitter chat. You can learn more about that at https://macrosw.com/podcast/.
To kick things off we have two giants in the field of social work, Dr. Darlyne Bailey, former Dean and now Professor of Social Work at Bryn Mawr College and Dr. Terry Mizrahi, past president of the National Association of Social Workers and professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York.
In today’s episode, Darlyne and Terry will introduce The Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice in Social Work. They serve as Co-Chairs of the Special Commission's Leadership Committee. They will be talking about how the Special Commission came about, and what it seeks to accomplish over the coming years. Here’s Darlyne describing the origins of the special commission. [transcript forthcoming]
If you want to learn more about the Special Commission, please head over to the ACOSA website at acosa.org. ACOSA is the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration, a membership organization founded in 1987 for community organizers, activists, nonprofit administrators, community builders, policy practitioners, students and educators.
And now without further ado, on to episode 121 of the Social Work Podcast. The Special Commission on Macro Practice: Interview with Dr. Darlyne Bailey and Dr. Terry Mizrahi
Interview [forthcoming]
APA (6th ed) citation for this podcast:
Singer, J. B. (Producer). (2018, December 11). #121 - The Special Commission on Macro Practice: Interview with Dr. Darlyne Bailey and Dr. Terry Mizrahi [Audio Podcast]. Social Work Podcast. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkpodcast.com/2018/12/specialcommission.html
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