Promote the Vote: Positioning Social Workers for Action

This timely, relevant text is a comprehensive compendium of critical information about voting in the United States. It frames voting as an integral aspect of social work practice and provides concrete suggestions for how students can increase their involvement in expanding voter participation by marginalized groups.

This book:

• Examines the current social and political context 
• Introduces multiple perspectives on why voting matters
• Presents a brief history of voting rights in the United States
• Explains the nuts and bolts of campaigns and elections
• Discusses who votes and who doesn’t, how people vote, and why
• Describes voter suppression tactics and identifies obstacles facing low-turnout groups
• Highlights strategies to expand voter participation
• Provides concrete examples of how students can help maximize voter participation
• Explores how voter engagement intersects with social work at all levels of professional practice

The only social work textbook devoted entirely to the topic of voting, Promote the Vote: Positioning Social Workers for Action is the ideal supplement for classes in social welfare policy, policy practice, human rights, and social justice. Filled with research findings, practical information, and case examples, this book provides social work students and professionals with the knowledge, strategies, and tools to engage clients and their communities in the electoral process. With voting rights quickly becoming a flashpoint in the struggle for equity and justice, now is the perfect time for this valuable resource.

Sunny Harris Rome, MSW, JD is a Professor in the Department of Social Work at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, where she teaches courses on social policy, legislative advocacy, social work and the law, forensic social work practice, and community change. She also developed and teaches a course called Voting, Empowerment, and Social Justice, in which students implement creative strategies to engage low-turnout communities in the electoral process. Her previous textbook, Social Work and Law: Judicial Policy & Forensic Practice, is widely used by schools of social work throughout the United States and abroad. Prior to entering academia, Prof. Rome was a litigator for the U.S. Department of Education and a lobbyist for the National Association of Social Workers, where she focused on issues including child welfare, poverty, education, and civil rights.

Prof. Rome is committed to advancing social work’s role in policy practice. She is the Immediate Past President of Influencing Social Policy (ISP) and serves on the Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice in Social Work. She was on the original Steering Committee for the Policy Practice Forum and was instrumental in creating an annual social work Policy Conference (Policy Conference 2.0) and a national policy Teaching Institute. She has made dozens of presentations on teaching policy practice and has been involved in numerous curriculum development projects. She is the recipient of her college’s Master Teacher Award, her university’s Teaching Excellence Award, and was recognized as Teacher of the Year by her state’s Social Work Education Consortium. Most recently, she received her university’s Seeds of Change Award for faculty community engagement. She has an MSW degree from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and a JD degree from Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.