Why Do Social Workers Become Policy Actors?

The study examines factors related to social workers’ involvement in policy practice by examining their engagement in legislative advocacy in Israel. Based on the three components of the Policy Practice Engagement Framework—opportunity, facilitation and motivation—the study focused upon a group of social workers who were actively involved in legislative advocacy as part of their professional job. In order to learn more about their features and the circumstances of their legislative advocacy, they were asked about their testimonies and were then compared to a group of social workers who have never participated in the deliberations of legislative committees. The sample consisted of 190 social workers evenly divided between the two groups. The findings underscore that the intersect of opportunity, facilitation, and motivation created a context that encouraged the involvement of social workers in a specific form of policy practice. The study findings emphasize the opportunity and facilitation components of the framework over the motivational.