Tanya Rhodes Smith
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About Tanya
Rhodes Smith’s research examines voting as a social determinant of health and social work intervention. Her work and scholarship include the development of evidence-based civic engagement training models for social workers, organizations and underrepresented populations, including formerly incarcerated. She is the Director of the Nancy A Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work and has trained thousands of social workers and leaders to be more politically active as elected officials, voting advocates, campaign volunteers, and staff. She advocates for expanded voting rights and access locally and nationally and is a member of the Hartford Votes~Vota and Full Citizens Coalitions.
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Discusses the role of political social work in competency-based social work education and provides a framework for faculty, field supervisors, and students to connect political action to their education in order to build confidence and competence related to political engagement.
Discusses the role of political social work in social work education. Provides a framework for faculty, internship supervisors, and students to connect political action to their education in order to build confidence and competence related to political engagement.
Describes the implementation of a voter engagement model in social work education. Findings demonstrate the efficacy of this model in increasing social work students’ perceived importance of voting to their practice, their likelihood of voting in future elections, and their likelihood of engaging others in voting in future elections.
Highlights the increasing disparities in voter turnout among various demographic groups over the past four decades. Describes the conceptualization of voter engagement as a three-legged stool, consisting of voter registration, regular voting, and basing voting decisions on self-interest. Stresses that neglecting any one leg weakens the potential for generating political power and influencing elected officials.
Reviews the racist history and outcomes of felon disenfranchisement and calls on the profession of social work to act on professional knowledge, ethics, and values by working to end the disenfranchisement of people with felony convictions.
Presents one component of a model for integrating voter engagement into social work education: the provision of training for field instructors on nonpartisan voter engagement at two universities over two years.
Describes and evaluates an educational experience in the US that prepares social work practitioners and students to run for elected office; to work in leadership positions at the local, state, and federal levels; and serve as effective advocates for social change. Plans for future political engagement before and after the training were compared.
Outlines the "Power of Three" strategy, designed to engage undergraduate students in voter outreach during their BSW studies. The approach involves assigning BSW students the goal of registering a minimum of three people to vote and engaging community members in the voting process. The findings suggest that this strategy is effective in increasing students' participation in voter engagement activities and improving their understanding of the significance of voting in the context of social work practice.