Abstract for: Charting a path for social work to adapt to a changing policy landscape

Social work is essential to the U.S. health, education, and social care systems, and a major contributor to the U.S. economy. Emerging federal and state policy changes—together with internal structural challenges and overall workforce dynamics—present a convergence of urgent existential and practical threats to the profession. To date, the field has not responded as quickly or effectively as is needed given the profound challenges. A multi-institution team, hosted by Boston University, is planning a System Dynamics Strategy Workshop with social work thought leaders. The group will engage in intensive GMB over two days to explore the structural and systemic threats posed by policy disruptions and to identify strategies and messaging for the field. The workshop will be grounded in candidate reference modes derived from internal analysis of social work education and employment. Significant formative work informs the ongoing design of this workshop including organizational systems maps, causal diagrams, CISWH’s policy tracker and analysis of reference modes and are a robust foundation for convening and framing the workshop. The workshop will be completed in June 2026 with results ready to be shared and discussed during ISDC. The workshop is intended to be a first step for convening and identifying priorities for the future of social work. Additional structural insights about the dynamics impacting the profession, prioritization of next steps for engaging broader perspectives through group model building, strategizing about movement building strategies, and framing messages for internal and external advocacy will be central to our presentation at ISDC. To check grammar and formatting of citations; using human-in-the-loop approach to find and organize public data into datasets.