The role of advocacy in social work encompasses nearly every aspect of the job. Social workers must be able to advocate for clients, families, communities, and policies in almost any type of case. In doing so, they can guarantee social justice and equal opportunities for marginalized individuals. However, the definition of advocacy in social work varies by field, case, and client. What Is Advocacy in Social Work? Social work advocacy entails professionally supporting clients and communities by standing up for their needs, views, rights, and dignity. Effective advocacy takes many forms based on your specific role, so there's no easy social work advocacy definition. However, the main focus is often speaking up for those who are currently unheard, whether they're facing systemic issues or simply not having their needs met. Many advocacy cases involve social injustice, such as civil rights and poverty issues. For example, legislative advocacy helped social workers speak up for LGBTQIA2S+ rights, including marriage equality. Today, individual and policy advocacy can help social workers keep one another accountable when addressing sexual orientation and gender diversity. These practices help social workers avoid stigmatic biases toward LBTQIA2S+ clients and communities. Types of Advocacy in Social Work Distinguishing between different types of advocacy in social work is critical for meeting clients' needs. Even if you typically stick to one field, such as clinical healthcare or community cases, you should still understand other practices. In doing so, you can avoid biased assumptions and quickly adapt to clients' needs. Review the different types of advocacy in social work below. Individual Advocacy Many social work cases involve individuals and families, such as clients searching for housing, employment, or community resources. Individual advocacy requires you to work with clients more directly. Rather than correcting the systemic issues, your goal is usually to fix the specific impact your clients are experiencing because of those issues — especially if the issues can't be solved on an individual level. Unlike policy and legislative cases, most individual social work cases don't immediately appear to be advocacy issues. Instead, they usually focus on a problem directly impacting the client, such as child welfare or mental health. As a social worker, you must identify when social injustices impact clients' success and advocate for them accordingly. Examples of social injustices that may pop up in individual social work cases include: A patient receiving inequitable care due to racist practices A client struggling to find a job due to their ethnicity, background, or name An immigrant family seeking resources in an unfamiliar location LGBTQIA2S+ parents being denied services for their children's welfare Policy Advocacy Policy advocacy in social work focuses on laws, regulations, and other public decisions. Social policies make up the foundation of almost every institution, including schools, hospitals, and governments. How these policies are written and interpreted often impacts marginalized groups more than their decision-makers realize — which is why we need social work advocates. Depending on the case, public-policy social workers advocate for individuals, families, communities, and groups. So you should be able to recognize the impact of public policies on all levels to vocalize and demand change effectively. Community Advocacy Community advocacy in social work is similar to individual advocacy, except you typically won't work with just one client or family. Instead, this type of advocacy requires you to work with communities, teams, and marginalized groups. Community social workers often advocate for policy changes. However, their main focus should be limiting how systemic issues impact the community, even if the laws and policies don't change. Legislative Advocacy Similar to policy advocacy, legislative advocacy focuses on changing regulations and public decisions. However, legislative social workers typically focus primarily on government lawmaking. For example, they may oppose the enforcement of discriminatory laws or speak against outdated wording in a new bill. Since many legislative cases don't involve individual clients, social workers must find other resources and experiences to advocate for marginalized communities. In 2023, various National Association of Social Workers (NASW) members advocated against anti-LGBTQIA2S+ legislation. While many of these cases are still ongoing, the social workers cited people's experiences and the harms of conversion therapy to oppose the laws.