Are you unsure about your State’s licensing laws or possibly considering a move to another state? Finding this information out on your own can be a frustrating process, and you may not know where to begin your search process. Well, Social Work License Map has created an interactive website to help kick-start your licensing journey for your State or a state you are maybe contemplating a move to.
Recently, Social Work Helper was listed on the Inspired Advocates list of top advocacy blogs, and I decided to reach out to Inspired Advocates which is a project of Social Work License Map to find out more about their efforts in providing up to date information relevant to the social work community. I had the opportunity to interview Brian Childs who is a content developer for Social Work License Map, and here is our interview.
SWH: Tell us about Inspired Advocates, and what led to the creation of Social Work License Map?
I studied History and Spanish at the University of Georgia and went on to earn a Masters in Journalism from NYU. Currently, I oversee content and technology projects for SocialWorkLicenseMap.com and Inspired Advocates is one of those projects.
Inspired Advocates is a dynamic ranking of websites in the social justice blogosphere designed to raise awareness, build community and educate bloggers on how to promote their sites using search engine optimization, social media and outreach. Any site with a blog that is relevant to the social work space can submit themselves to Inspired Advocates. Once approved, they are ranked by our algorithm which looks at domain authority, frequency of posting, user interactions and the quality of the content.
Social Work License Map was created to be a free resource aspiring and current social workers to help guide them through the licensure process while also providing practical information such as salary, scholarships and career tracks.
SWH: How is the site useful to students, aspiring social workers, and practitioners?
For students considering a career in social work, or any career really, it can be difficult to assess the pros and cons and the best path to move forward. What are the opportunities available in the field? What level of education to do you need to pursue your goals? How will you pay for that education? When you graduate, are there going to be jobs available?
While we can’t advice individual students on their specific circumstances, we have tried to create a helpful resource for the aspiring social worker by researching information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, state social work licensing boards, and scholarships for social workers and placing them in one convenient location. Social Work License Map is meant to be an overview of the available information, with links pointing back to more in-depth sources.
For current social workers, we have provided guides to help with questions relating to resumes, interviews, cover letters and conferences. Our newest project, Inspired Advocates, is intended to raise awareness of online projects by social workers or online social advocacy efforts that overlap with the social work field. After our campaign to raise awareness of this new tool, we will be publishing a series of guides to social media, search engine optimization and creating content for the web to help educate advocates on how to increase their online presence.
SWH: How did you collect and verify data to ensure the accuracy of licensure laws in all 50 states, and how often is it updated?
We collected the data from the relevant state social work licensing board then contacted those licensing boards to make sure we had represented the process accurately. This research and fact checking process was last completed approximately 18 months ago and will be updated again after we’ve completed our outreach and awareness campaign for our new Inspired Advocates tool.
SWH: Does your site also provide information about becoming a social worker and social worker salaries, and how reliable is the information?
The information on becoming a social worker largely comes from sources such as the Council on Social Work Education, the National Association of Social Workers and the Association of Social Work Boards as well as a variety of schools of social work. The information on social work salaries comes from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Throughout our research we attempted to use the most reliable sources for this information.
