From Oppression to Inclusion: Social Workers Advancing Change

From Oppression to Inclusion: Social Workers Advancing Change provides students with a framework for examining the history of oppression and how it perpetuates social divisions and injustice. The text features culturally affirming material to help readers develop awareness of multicultural and intersectional voices, and promotes the practices of collaboration and capacity-building with community members to advance change.

Part I helps students dismantle the generalized categories many individuals are placed within by officials, instead stressing the basic needs of food and shelter for all, the shared connection to family, and the vast range of identity perspectives. Part II presents the history of social welfare organizations, examines the relationship between racism, discrimination, and economics, and reviews the identities most often connected to exclusionary messages. Part III shows how institutions that provide services to community citizens operate. Part IV builds on the history of oppression in the United State and the role of the social worker to help readers understand innovative opportunities to provide leadership and facilitate partnerships with service users and community entities to advance social and economic justice.

Designed to encourage conversation, self-reflection, and social analysis, From Oppression to Inclusion is well suited to graduate-level social work courses in diversity.

Gwenelle S. O’Neal is a professor in the Graduate Department of Social Work and a faculty mentor at West Chester University. She earned her doctoral degree in social welfare from Columbia University and her master’s degree in group work from New York University. Dr. O’Neal authored and coauthored many publications within the social work discipline, including articles, book, and book chapters. She is a licensed social worker in the state of New Jersey.