Human Services Organizations Are Involved in Policy

¶ … human services organizations are involved in policy advocacy (one organization should be from the video carousel and one from your area of interest). Then explain one benefit and one limitation of engaging in policy advocacy. Be specific and provide examples.

One of the most interesting of policy advocacy examples associated with the transcript is the employment barriers issue that has to do with criminal history, where individuals are barred from employment or even fired after many years of service simply because they have a criminal record, and usually one that has little if any impact on the job they are or could be hired to do. The Michigan Organizing Project adopted this issue as one that required policy advocacy and went local to do so.

"We took that question to the city commission elections last year at this time in September, October of 2009. And were very persistent in talking to city commissioners. Got two of them to make this a sort of cause that they were willing to run on. Once the elections happened, one of the first things that they brought up with the city administration was let's look at how we go about hiring. And, through those various kinds of meetings and various public hearings that we attended with the city commission, we kept this on their agenda for another several months and then March of this year; the city manager announced that they would no longer ask about criminal history. (John Musick, transcript, p. 6)

Recognizing the local concern in Kalamazoo regarding employment barriers and well as post offender challenges to employment is a significant opportunity for policy advocacy and local change that has a significant impact on many people, not just the offenders themselves but their families and their whole communities. Offenders who serve time and then are simply returned to society with no resources return to the patterns of criminality that made them offenders to begin with, and many do this simply because they see no other way to survive in the community (Jenson & Reed, 2006, p. 81-89). It has been shown in countless examples as well as a significant amount of research that recidivism is reduced by the involvement of offenders and ex-offenders in gainful employment. That employment is contingent of training, education and in this case policy advocacy as individuals never given an opportunity are unlikely even if they are educated and trained for the job to get a job after incarceration or offense. This is a lasting problem that should be addressed in policy advocacy as well as client advocacy.

The issue of domestic violence similarly allows opportunities for policy advocacy, be it advocating for local policy change that allows funding to domestic violence shelters or opportunities that empower domestic victims by supporting their needs (an example of client advocacy). One of the paramount organizations in the fight against domestic violence is the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.