The Social Work Activist Collective (SWAC) is an alliance among organizations led by workers (i.e., students, practitioners, and social work faculty) within the field of social-service work.
These organizations engage in various forms of movement work within the profession, and all share the same goal of transforming the social, economic, and political conditions that shape how social work and those who labor within it are perceived, funded, and legitimized.
Who is a SWACtivist?
A SWACtivist is anyone in the field of social-service work who works to create radical and lasting change.
Our Mission
SWAC seeks to promote social justice and dismantle systems of oppression by advancing transformative policies, advancing equitable services, and advocating for ethical practices and representation of social workers at every level.
Our Principles
1. Provide tools for organizing for collective change in human service workplaces, the profession, and academic programs;
2. Connect people to groups for organizing inside and outside the profession;
3. Network for action to fight harmful policies and protocols levied against human service workers and service users;
4. Mobilize to name, address, and dismantle social and economic inequities;
5. Expand base building to offer support to current organizing efforts;
6. Develop new leaders within social service and social change organizations dedicated to sustained actions that contribute to the long-term transformation of our field and ensure opportunities for training and ongoing support;
7. Provide support and representation to social service workers who are organizing or litigating for systemic change.
8. Mobilize through sustained collective action, using anti-racist and abolitionist praxis and ensuring an empowering work model to help dismantle systemic social and economic inequities and transform the professionalized social-service field into a solidarity-focused model.
Caminante, no hay camino / Traveler, There Is No Road
by Antonio Machado
Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.
“Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.”
“We Make the Road by Walking”
The creation of this collective is an organic process that emerged from the need for collective action towards liberation. We know that this collective is not all-inclusive, and we invite you to join us as we knit together a repository of resources, training, base-building, and action. Collectively, we can be a resource for groups and individuals that want to do this messy and important work. We believe that freedom can be achieved through the intersection of creativity and action. To this end, we take on the call from Horton and Freire and stand alongside each other as “we make the road by walking.”
