NASW Ohio serves to magnify the voice of Ohio’s Social Workers, upholding our profession’s ethical standards of social and political action. Join today to strengthen our advocacy voice.

Advocacy on Your Behalf 

• With your support, NASW Ohio advocates for social workers at the state licensing board to balance the public’s interest with our professional needs as social workers

• NASW Ohio advocates on your behalf by voicing the concerns of social workers like you during state discussions of compensation, reasonable caseloads, and more.

• NASW Ohio helps inform policy on social justice and client-based issues.

• Check out how NASW Ohio is advocating for paid internships.

• Learn more about our response to the ASWB Exam and how we are working to address disparities through short term & long-term solutions. 

• In Ohio, and around the country, we have seen a sharp increase in threats to ethical social work practice. NASW Ohio is fighting hard to stop attempts to criminalize or bring licensure discipline upon social workers for just for doing our jobs. Read more about what we are doing to protect ethical practice. 

• Check out our work on Abortion Access & Reproductive Justice 

  • On May 5th, 2022 NASW Ohio, along with Abortion Fund of Ohio, filed suit against the City of Lebanon, Ohio over its unlawful abortion ban - and won! Click on the link above for more information. 

• Follow along with current legislation that NASW OH is working on here!

Your Voice During Elections

• With your help, we’ll continue to be influencers at the Statehouse and on election day, working to meet the needs of Ohio social workers in human services, mental health, and equitable financing of state services.

• Find out more about how NASW Ohio is influencing Ohio's political system through our Political Action for Candidate Election (PACE) Committee.

Join our Advocacy Work

• Every March, during Social Work Month, NASW Ohio Chapter hosts Advocacy Day to connect social workers to their state legislators. Find out more or register to attend here.
• Join our Legislative Advocacy Committee. NASW members and non-members are welcome.
  
• Join our Task Force on Social Work Criminalization by emailing dsmith.naswoh@socialworkers.org. This focuses on the many harmful proposed bills at the intersection of bodily autonomy & limiting the ethical practice of social work - primarily abortion and gender-affirming care bans.   

From micro to macro practice, NASW is leading the way for advocacy centered practice...

• NASW Ohio, in partnership with the Voting is Social Work campaign, actively educates social workers on the importance of political engagement both for themselves and their clients. Our Voting is Social Work workshops cover the ethical and legal guidelines for nonprofit voter engagement work, issues of ongoing voter suppression, and strategies for empowering clients in civic engagement.

  • Read more about Local Elections and Civic Engagement

  • Watch an NASW Ohio recorded webinar on voter engagement.

• Engage with NASW Ohio's work to ensure Black Lives Matter here. 

• In the fall of 2020 NASW Ohio began the process of forming an Anti-Racism Working Group. In the Spring of 2021 the first iteration of the group began focusing on evaluating and updating the Chapter’s continuing education (CEU) programming to ensure that all CEUs provided by NASW Ohio adequately adhere to anti-racist ethics and practice standards. We began utilizing the Culturally Responsive Scorecard for Social Worker Continuing Education developed by the working group since fall 2022.