Power Us is an international network of social work teachers and researchers and representatives from different service user organizations supporting the empowerment of marginalized and discriminated groups in society.IASSW and Power Us recognize the mutual benefits of service users’ involvement in the training of social work students and highlight the importance of the development of partnerships. Although, internationally Service User involvement in social work education has become a requirement, there are still many countries where the inclusion of users of social services is still considered as a ‘taboo’ issue and it has been ignored. Also, austerity policies across the world pose significant risks to both the quality of social work education as well as the scope and nature of social work services.
IASSW and Power Us, share common values and are united in their belief that social work education and social work and social care service provision need to be protected and further developed.
More specifically, the two organizations are committed, in good faith, to
• Co-organize learning opportunities that would emphasize the importance of service user involvement in social work education.
• Promote service user inclusion in program curriculum development in the IASSW member schools.
• Promote the inclusion of service users and “experts by experience” in the education and training of social work students.
• Develop specific guidelines of Good Practice in Service User Involvement in Global Social Work Education. These guidelines will be forwarded to IASSW schools and all members
would be encouraged to adopt them.
• Identify opportunities for joint research.
• Advocate and campaign for universal, non-discriminating and democratic welfare services.
• Advocate and campaign for accessible, democratic and free Higher Education. Strongly encourage that service user voices and perspectives are considered in all IASSW Committees and, when possible, include service user representatives in IASSW committees.
• Actively promote the partnership, for example to design and disseminate a Poster that outlines the goals of this partnership and encourages service user inclusion in social work education.
The monthly series is scheduled every month at 1400hrs CET. Click here to view the complete schedule. For session detail view the document [embeddoc url=”https://www.iassw-aiets.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/IASSW-PowerUs-webinars.pdf” download=”all” viewer=”browser”]
Currently we have successfully completed three sessions. All sessions are recorded and available on IASSW youtube channel and IASSW Website. Click here to view the recordings: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLyjlio-DvoyzRLt47wjmkny6SLI2N84ew
