Legislative Activities

Position Statement: To advance professional social work practice and the profession and to promote human rights, social and economic justice, and unimpeded access to services for all.

There are so many ways to make your voice heard and advance the social work profession and the lives of clients through legislative advocacy and activism.

The MA Chapter of NASW works in coalitions to advocate for a range of priority legislation ranging from social work professional issues to fair and progressive taxation.

For example, NASW and our members successfully lobbied for passage of the Malpractice Tribunal bill in the 2005-2006 legislative session. This legislation added licensed social workers to the categories of health care professionals already protected by the medical malpractice tribunal.  The new law, signed by the Governor in July 2006, provides screening protection for social workers from frivolous lawsuits. 

In 2006, NASW also worked tirelessly on the campaign to raise the minimum wage and we won! As a result, in 2008 MA has the highest minimum wage in the nation at $8 per hour. Wins like these build our power as social workers and as a profession and make us more effective when lobbying for all of the other bills we have prioritized.

You can get involved in NASW-MA's legislative activities by testifying at hearings, lobbying your legislators on one of the priority bills we have identified, or acting as a Legislative Liaison and signing up for legislative alerts.