On March 31st Be Proud! Hold a Social Work Shout Out in your community!
The purpose of the Social Work Shout Out is to give a voice to the social work profession and to demonstrate the size and diversity of the profession. As a profession social work struggles a great deal with our public image. The goal behind organizing the Social Work Shout Out is very simple- to make the profession more visible in a positive light.
The basic game plan for any employer/school or NASW chapter organizing an event is as follows:
1)Determine a date. Ideally, your effort will occur on March 31st the date in the Philadelphia area. If not the 31st, please consider March 15th as another choice as it is world social work day.
2)Pick a location where there is significant commuter traffic (pedestrian or car traffic).
3)Make sure you have any required permits or permission to organize a group at the selected location. Keep in mind that some locations are very expensive to get permits from.
4)Determine what time will be best for your group with the ideal choices being 7-9am and 4-6pm. Most important is to pick a time that will draw the largest crowd of social workers and social work students to be visible.
5)Identify a sponsor to print tee shirts (all participants will ideally wear matching Tee Shirts that read “Social Workers- Strengthen the Fabric of Society”).
6)Review attached materials to determine if your group will hold signs, hand out brochures or just wear matching shirts.
7)Market the event to students to get the largest number possible.
8)Be sure that there are enough professional social workers planning to attend the event in case members of the public have questions or make requests for help.
9)Reach out to the schools, NASW chapter and larger social work employers in your community to try and get as many social workers to participate and support the event as possible.
10)Release a press release (see sample for ideas) one week before the event and on the day of the event. If possible connect your event to other events in the same state, region or across the country to make the story more appealing to news outlets.
11)Encourage students to post on Facebook, YouTube and twitter during the event about the profession and their participation in the event. Remind them to be sure to keep posting and uploading for the next hour after the event. The more internet traffic the more we can create a truly viral message.
Included in this toolkit are the tools to help you make this day a success in your community. Good luck and Be Proud!!