Listen to the podcast that started it all.

Started in 2018, Doin’ The Work: Frontline Stories of Social Change features interviews with social workers, educators, activists, and others working for social change.

We amplify folks doing anti-racist, anti-oppressive, liberatory work. Racial, social, economic justice. Community-based. Powerful thinkers and action-takers. Engagement in praxis. We aim to elevate and provide counter-narratives to the dominant system. Learn together to enhance our practice.

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E66 Operation Stop CPS – Amanda Wallace, BSW
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Amanda Wallace, Founder and Executive Director of Operation Stop CPS, discusses the surveillance and regulation of families, particularly Black families, within the child protection system. Having worked in child protective services for a decade, Amanda realized the harm being inflicted on children and families, leading her to advocate for change. Operation Stop CPS intervenes to assist families affected by the system, including those who have had their children taken away, emphasizing the system’s connection to historical and present-day anti-Black racism while aiming to build a movement to end family policing through education, advocacy, and support.
E56 Addressing Racism in Social Work Licensing #StopASWB – Charla Yearwood, LCSW; Cassandra Walker, LCSW, CCTP; Alan Dettlaff, PhD, MSW
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Charla Yearwood, Cassandra Walker, and Dr. Alan Dettlaff join the podcast to discuss the ASWB’s long-awaited release of social work licensing exam pass rates by race and age. The data reveals significant racial disparities, confirming what many have long known—that the exam is racially biased and discriminatory toward Black, Latinx, and Indigenous social workers. The conversation unpacks how ASWB has avoided accountability and why this exam must be challenged. This episode is part of the growing movement to end the use of this racist exam and calls listeners to take action.
E51 Abolish the Family Policing System (”Child Welfare”) – Joyce McMillan & Victoria, MSW
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Joyce McMillan, Founder and Executive Director of JMac for Families and Parent Legislative Action Network, and Victoria, a PhD candidate at UCLA and community organizer, discuss the family policing system—commonly known as the child welfare system—and their abolitionist work. They explain how the system targets families in poverty, disproportionately harms Black, Brown, and Indigenous families, and functions as a carceral system of surveillance and control. Drawing on their personal experiences, they highlight the lack of rights for parents, the misuse of mandatory reporting, and the need to shift from separation to true family support. Together, they call for a complete transformation rooted in justice and care.
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