One can list all of the issues facing Americans today – student debt, human ttrafficking, police brutality, mental health care deficits, homelessness, unemployment – but the task becomes insurmountable.
While the social work profession is the backbone of reform and is also one of the fastest growing careers in the United States, challenges in the field have become just as overwhelming as the communities they serve.
Alleviating these issues will help our nation as a whole. YSocial will address the following workforce issues — challenging work conditions, issues reported at the work place by social workers, and its implications on the next generation of social workers.
Challenging work conditions:
Threats to personal safety
Onerous paperwork
High caseloads
Issues reported at the workplace:
Increases in paperwork
Severity of client problems
Caseload size
Waiting lists for services
Assignment of non-social work tasks
Decreases in job security
Staffing levels
Availability of supervision
Reimbursement
Implications on the social work profession:
Rapid professional shortages
Impeding retirements
The lack of recruitment incentives
The lack of retention incentives
High incidences of suicide
High incidences of burnout
Secondary traumatization
Our Commitment
Through our shared commitment to eradicating these issues by 2025, YSocialWork’s approach is to travel around the world to develop grassroots, millennial-led organizing strategies and to build stronger partnerships with young allies of social workers across the globe.