Every year, the Alliance hosts Social Service Workforce Week to advocate for social service workers and raise awareness of workforce strengthening efforts across the globe. To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Alliance, this year's Social Service Workforce Week will celebrate global-, regional- and country-level progress in strengthening the social service workforce over the past decade. It will also explore remaining and emerging challenges in relation to strengthening the workforce and put forth a vision of what the next decade of social service workforce strengthening may look like.
How to get involved:
As a global network, we seek to showcase content from our members and partners throughout the week. We invite you to contribute, either through a blog post, social service worker profile, or other multimedia platform. All content should be submitted to our Communications and Advocacy Manager, Alena Sherman (alena at socialserviceworkforce.org). Deadline for submission is October 2, 2023.
1. Contribute a blog post:
Throughout Social Service Workforce Week, the Alliance will feature blog posts related to this year’s theme in our daily email campaigns (to over 4,000 individuals) as well as on social media.
We are open to all ideas for blog posts given that they relate to this year’s theme. Blog posts could:
- explore the progress of a specific social service workforce strengthening efforts in a specific region, country or context;
- showcase the impact of a specific social service strengthening effort on the lives of children, families, individuals or communities;
- examine a specific challenge or emerging issue impacting the workforce or efforts to strengthen the workforce and how it might be addressed;
- reflect on the evolution of social service workforce strengthening;
- provide a vision for the future of social service workforce strengthening efforts;
- explore the impact of an Alliance initiative or resource on social service workforce strengthening; or
- a combination of any of the above.
For more guidance on drafting a blog, please see our Blog Submission Guidelines.
2. Contribute a social service workforce profile:
Social Service Worker profiles are personalized worker profiles intended to educate the public about the diversity of the social service workforce and the essential roles that these individuals play in caring for children, families and communities facing adversity. They can be first-person profiles or written by someone after interviewing a worker. Profiles will be featured in our daily email campaigns as well as on our social media.
When completing a profile for this series, we recommend including the following information in your piece:
- Name, title and organization of the worker
- Main reason(s) why the person decided to become a social service worker
- Description of the worker’s role and typical daily schedule and tasks
- Types of support or services provided to children and families and what the worker believes are the results of this work
- Aspects of the job that the worker loves the most
- The qualifications or skills the worker feels helps one succeed in this role
- Quote from worker about the work or people’s reactions to the job
For more guidance on drafting a social service worker profile, please see our Worker Profile Submission Guidelines.
3. Contribute content in other multimedia formats:
We are open to receiving content in other multimedia formats, such as videos, as long as it is relevant to the theme.
