Agents of Change: The Role LEAD Plays in Identity Formation, Community Engagement, and Social Justice Advocacy

Higher education institutions have a role to equip students with skills for community engagement and civic participation through a variety of methods. Social work educators aim to prepare students with the knowledge, skills, and values to promote social justice and human rights through practice, research, and advocacy. For some students, a limited understanding of advocacy can influence their community engagement and identity as agents of change. Studies show that learning experiences connecting students to the community promote active citizenship, social justice, and human rights efforts. Events such as Legislative Education and Advocacy Day (LEAD) expose social work students to the legislative and advocacy process with the intention to promote civic engagement and enhance social work advocacy skills. This study utilized photovoice as a community-based action research approach to explore the impact of LEAD on social work students’ engagement, advocacy skills, connection to the social work community, and perceptions of advocacy. Participants were asked to take photographs of their experiences, provide insight into the photos, and participate in a debriefing session. An analysis of the discussion around the photographs identified ten thematic codes suggesting that events such as LEAD can be a tool utilized by social work educators to enhance student understanding of advocacy (approaches, perspective, and engagement), development of advocacy skills (skills and processes), social work identity (purpose, support for the voiceless, and community), and social justice efforts to create agents of change.