Opinion: Why Doesn’t NASW Support the Breathe Act?
by Marilyn Montenegro
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), as the largest organization of social workers in the United States, acts as the public voice of our value-based profession. Yet they still have not advocated for support of the Breathe Act.
According to the NASW Code of Ethics, “Social workers promote social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients. “Clients” is used inclusively to refer to individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.” The Breathe Act promotes social justice and social change with and on behalf of clients. The Breathe Act addresses the opaque, intertwined systems that support structural racism and promotes social change. The Breathe Act is exactly the type of policy change that the NASW should be developing, and that failing, should be supporting.
Why doesn’t the NASW support the Breathe Act?
What is the Breathe Act?
The Breathe Act is proposed legislation that offers a radical reimagining of public safety, community care and they ways in which we spend money as a society. The Act addresses 4 basic concepts:
Divest resources from incarceration and policing
Invest in new, non-punitive, non-carceral approaches to community safety that lead states to shrink their criminal-legal systems and center the protection of Black Lives – including Black mothers, Black trans people and Black women.
Allocate new money to build healthy, sustainable and equitable communities.
Hold political leaders to their promises and enhance self-determination of all Black communities.
What Social Work Essential Workers Understand
Individual social workers are uniquely positioned to understand both clients’ needs and the barriers to meeting those needs. They are aware that systems based on coercion and punishment are fundamentally toxic and can not be reformed. Systems based on negative consequences induce trauma. Trauma informed solutions fail when implemented in trauma inducing settings.
Social work and social work-related systems that are based on negative consequences and retribution do not serve communities well. Systems embracing declared values such as public safety and the best interests of the child, routinely implement operational standards that lead to physical and emotional trauma, family separation, imprisonment, mental illness, and poverty. These systems cannot be reformed, they must be changed in fundamental ways.
What the NASW Does Support
The NASW has produced “2021 Blueprint of Federal Social Policy Priorities: Recommendations to the Biden-Harris Administration and Congress”. In order to Achieve (the goal of) Equal Opportunity and Justice the report advocates “Continue to Reform the Criminal, Legal, Justice System and Promote Smart Decarceration “. The recommendations do not “offer a radical reimagining of public safety, community care and how we spend money as a society.” Rather words and phrases such as “advance. expand….incentivize…reform…enhance…modify...” are used.
By their support of fundamentally racist institutions, they have failed to reimagine a better system and a better world.
A Radical Reimagining
Social Workers are urged to bring the voices of those with lived experience to the table, to listen, to have cultural humility and to support and facilitate client directed planning for change. Black Lives Matter, our community “client” has articulated a bold reimagining, it is incumbent upon our professional organization to have cultural humility to listen to, support and facilitate the reimagining presented in the Breathe Act.
This historical moment presents an opportunity for change, as Naomi Klein suggests times of crisis, such as a national pandemic and economic downturn, provide the opportunity for the successful introduction of new ideas. As social workers, we can respond with bold and radical ideas to promote social justice or cooperate with those who provide ideas for increased citizen surveillance and limited free speech.
We call on the NASW to act boldly, to support the values of the social work profession, to advance a new paradigm, to join Black Lives Matter in reimaging the public welfare through the Breathe Act.