Social Justice

collage of issues: voting, prison, pollution, border, barbed wire

Our Social Justice Priorities

Five social justice priorities serve as guiding principles for NASW's national office and Chapters:

Learn more about NASW's social justice priorities >>


Social Justice Briefs

Near Certain Cataclysmic Consequences of a Mass Deportation Program

With the return of Donald Trump to the presidency, the struggle against a national mass deportation program has reached a level of urgency. This is because the day-one priority of the new Trump administration — and that of the Republican led Congress —is to radically change immigration laws and policies. Chief among those actions will be to expeditiously move forward with the administration’s Mass Deportation Program.

With that in mind, NASW ‘s social justice brief — Near Certain Cataclysmic Consequences of a Mass Deportation Programhas been prepared to help social workers to gain an in-depth understanding about the nature and consequences of deporting as many as 15 million people.


Project 2025 on Social Safety Net: A Social Work Perspective

The Heritage Foundation’s Presidential Transition Project, also known as Project 2025, seeks to fundamentally reshape federal government policies across various sectors, including social safety nets, civil rights, and environmental protection. This initiative poses a substantial threat to social justice, as it also includes measures that would roll back regulatory protections, reduce social welfare programs, and dismantle the federal civil service system. This policy brief examines the potential impacts of Project 2025 and both the far-reaching consequences for vulnerable populations and the broader implications for social equity and justice.


Mobilizing Against Hate

Social workers have long held the value and the importance of collaboration, community-building, unity, and social justice, and the notion that an attack on one community is an attack on all communities. No one – no individual, no family, no community and no society - is safe when discrimination, prejudice, injustice, and hatred towards any group or groups is allowed to flourish. And yet that is the very circumstance in which we find ourselves today.


Voter Intimidation: A Tool in the Far-Right’s 2024 Strategic Plan

As with racial gerrymandering, voter intimidation as a tool for disenfranchisement is not new. Like gerrymandering, voter intimidation can be traced directly back to the end of Reconstruction, which ushered in the Jim Crow era. The Compromise of 1877 was an off-the-record deal between southern Democrats and representatives for the Republican presidential candidate (Rutherford Hayes) to settle the disputed 1876 presidential election. The southerners threw their support behind Hayes and, in return, Hayes withdrew federal troops from South Carolina and Louisiana—effectively ending Reconstruction in those states and the rest of the South. The end of Reconstruction immediately resulted in southern legislatures passing a series of laws requiring the separation of whites from “persons of color,” soon known as the “Jim Crow laws.”


The Ominous Cloud of Gerrymandering Hovering Over the 2024 Election

The political turmoil that has engulfed the country in recent days is unsettling, frightening, and to many, unlike anything experienced in modern times. The closest parallel is perhaps the political atmosphere that existed in the decade leading up to the Civil War. Like the national divide in pre–Civil War America, the tensions today are not simply philosophical differences. We are seeing a deeply felt battle over America’s, existence and the outcome could lead to the end of democracy as we know it.


Reimagining Policing: Strategies for Community Reinvestment

Policing in America has a long history of preserving the violent legacy of slavery and upholding white supremacy. The tragic and unjust murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubrey, Tony McDade, Eric Garner, and so many other Black and Brown Americans by police officers has led our nation to reexamine the systems that we look to for safety and justice.


Implications of Coronavirus (COVID-19) for America’s Vulnerable and Marginalized Populations

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic is exponentially increased among those on the margins of our society. Therefore, it is critical that these families and individuals included in federal and state governments’ efforts to fight the spread of COVID-19, and that they are protected from related social and civic disruptions that will occur as the virus spreads.

Read more Social Justice Briefs >>




racial justice report cover

Undoing Racism Through Social Work, Vol. 2

NASW Report to the Profession on Racial Justice Priorities and Action

NASW convened racial justice scholars and activists to build a collaborative vision for anti-racist social work. Learn about priorities for social work education, training, practice, workforce, research and policy in this report.

Download "Undoing Racism Through Social Work, Vol. 2"


NASW Members who attended NASW's 2023 Advocacy Day

NASW Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill

Nearly 100 social workers from 44 states and two U.S. territories attended 143 meetings with Congressional offices in the U.S. House and Senate on June 28, 2023

Read about their advocacy work on behalf of social workers and those they serve


collage of African American people feeling calm

Racial Equity

Learn how NASW and our members are addressing the racism pandemic.

Get racial equity resources


social work talks logo

NASW Social Work Talks Podcast



voting booth with flags

Social Work Blog

Read articles about social justice issues related to social work.

Visit Social Work Blog


Social workers for social justice

 Download the Social Justice Poster