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Understanding the impact of state licensing on social work practice remains a critical concern for social work academics and professionals alike. Given the complex social problems of our times, social workers need to be prepared to intervene with the individual, in various structural dimensions, and to engage in policy debates at the core of human injustice and suffering. Currently, there is insufficient research on the impact of state licensing on the profession and on accredited social work education. The purpose of this article is to begin to address this by providing an overview of the current state of social work licensing across the United States and to analyze the implications of social work regulations as they relate to the future of macro social work practice and education.

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Increased attention is being given to university-community partnerships. Among such partnerships is service learning, a pedagogical model that integrates experiential community service activities and academic learning. Traditional service learning models often diverge from social work methods that embrace strengths, empowerment, antioppressive principles, and citizendriven approaches. This article presents the integration of a progressive service learning model into a graduate-level social work macro practice course. The model gives explicit attention to respecting the dignity and worth of the individual by sharing power and developing collaborative relationships between students and community residents where both are serving and learning together.

Contemporary trends in social service delivery systems require human service agencies to engage in greater levels of advocacy to reform structures and protect programs that serve vulnerable populations. Objective: The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure the policy advocacy behavior of nonprofit human service agencies. Method: Organizational demographic and policy advocacy behavior data were collected from 43 nonprofit human service agency executive directors. Results: The researchers determined that the Policy Advocacy Behavior Scale evidenced adequate reliability and validity. Conclusions: The Policy Advocacy Behavior Scale shows promise as a tool to inform future research on social work practice models that integrate policy advocacy methods.

Implications for state licensing laws, are considered, along with how this impacts education, the work force, and professional identity.

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