Consider the following scenario: 1) The community coalition for which you serve as lobbyist has

Consider the following scenario: 1) The community coalition for which you serve as lobbyist has been engaged in a legislative fight for additional funding for child abuse prevention programs. The biggest opponent is the Speaker of the House in the state legislature—the state controls the budget for this type of program, and he has refused to even allow the House to consider any bills increasing the spending for this work. You have tried media pressure, individual lobbying of House members, intervention with the Executive Branch, and even appeals to the Speaker’s donors, but nothing has budged him at all. The Legislature is due to recess in 2 weeks, and at your coalition meeting today, the mood was bleak. No one is optimistic that the Speaker will relent, and no one can find a way around him to get the money needed to keep the existing programs in operation and to expand in order to meet needs in the northwest corner of the state (where there are no programs) and for ethnic and language minorities (who are currently severely underserved). While you are meeting with an influential state senator about a different matter, she confides that she has confidential information that the Speaker was confirmed for a child abuse allegation a few years ago, and that that experience explains his hostility to your coalition and its goals. She suggests that ‘going public’ with this information would, at the least, dislodge the Speaker’s opposition and potentially even force him to resign. You know that it would be relatively easy to have one of your coalition members who works in child welfare corroborate the senator’s allegation, and you don’t doubt her prediction about the impact of publicizing it, if it indeed is true. You can’t see any other way to win the funding that you know will benefit hundreds, if not thousands, of children and their families. Discuss in detail at least 5 potential ethical considerations related to this case. Name the NASW Ethical Standard (by number and title) and identify potential dilemmas. Consider the following scenario: 2) You are the Executive Director of a nonprofit organization that provides after-school programming for adolescent girls. The agency began as part of the Catholic Church but is now an independent 501(c)3 organization. You supervise staff who provide academic enrichment, life skills training, career preparation, and recreational opportunities to more than 400 mostly low-income teens annually. Your staff has recently become concerned about rising rates of teenage sexual activity among your participants—several girls have become pregnant, and many more talk openly about unsafe sexual practices. A group of girls who are clients at the organization have approached staff about starting a sex education program, as they have little available sex education that is culturally appropriate. Working with the group, two of your counselors develop a plan to create a new coalition committed to comprehensive sex education and teen pregnancy prevention. They have outlined several goals, including increased funding for such programs and additional resources for provision of contraceptives in this community, which faces a shortage of health care providers. They have also identified several potential members, including a local health clinic, a church, the youth representatives of your programs, and two local high schools. After discussing their strategy and ensuring that they can take on coalition-building tasks in addition to their regular duties, you encourage them to proceed. The following week, you receive an irate call from your Board Chair, who has served on the Board since the organization’s founding and is enraged at a ‘rumor’ that you have given your blessing to the organization’s participation in a coalition to ‘hand out condoms to our girls.’ He vows that, if you do not stop your staff from engaging in such activity, he will call for your dismissal. Discuss in detail at least 5 potential ethical considerations related to this case. Name the NASW Ethical Standard (by number and title) and identify potential dilemmas.
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9576702_1_MicroEthics.docx