It's Your Move
Social work practice mobility/license portability is a public safety issue, a workforce issue, and a technology issue in this era of increasing use of electronic practice in health care professions and increasing mobility of the workforce in general. In 2014, the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), whose members include the social work regulatory and licensing bodies in the U.S. and Canada, adopted social work practice mobility as a strategic initiative and began the challenging work to bring greater consistency to regulation of the profession throughout North America.
To support these efforts, the organization has created a website, MovingSocialWork.org, to serve as a central resource to distribute information about the mobility initiative and to solicit feedback from social workers, social work regulators, and social work educators. The website includes the following sections: the issue, where we stand, our efforts, take action, and news.
“When ASWB included practice mobility in the strategic plan, we knew communication would be critical to making mobility a reality,” said ASWB CEO Mary Jo Monahan, MSW, LCSW. “We will use this site to share information as we learn more and make decisions, and to gather input and insights from our varied stakeholders.The success of this initiative depends on collaboration like this. We anticipate that the website will become a hub for activity.”
The site was developed by The Ivy Group of Charlottesville, Virginia, using mobile-first design principles. Mobile-first design emphasizes making the entire website easy for users to access—from reading to contributing content—whether they are using a smartphone, tablet, or computer.
ASWB is the nonprofit organization of social work regulatory bodies in the United States and Canada. Members include 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and all 10 Canadian provinces. The association owns and administers the social work licensing exams used by its member boards.