Professional organizations and associations advocate for policies that effect their members and the fields that employ social workers. These organizations also advocate with legislators to pass laws that social workers favor.

• National Association of Social Workers-the largest professional social work organization.
• National Association of Social Workers, Ohio Chapter-sign up for their e-newsletter to keep up with social work issues effecting you.

Additional professional organizations:

• American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT)
• Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW)
• Clinical Social Work Federation (CSWF)
• Council on Social Work Education
• Gerontological Association of America Policy Center
• National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW)
• National Association of Counsel for Children (NACC)
• National Council on the Aging
• School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA)
• Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR)

To access information about the social work licensure exam, exam preparation materials available to social work students, and the social work licensure board in Ohio, click here.

1. You can keep up to date with Social Work literature by signing up for Table of Content alerts directly from journal websites.

For example, the journal Social Work, the "premier journal of Social Work" is published by Oxford University Press. You can sign up for alerts from this journal here.

2. The New Social Worker: the social work careers magazine is an online magazine with an interesting and useful approach to what is happening in the world of social work.

3. .Almost every government agency and large non-profit sends out regular emails or e-newsletters. Singing up for these free resources is an easy way to keep up with changes in policy and with new research. Select the agencies and organizations that best match your interest. Here are a few examples:

Center for Community Solutions Look for "Join our mailing list".

SAMHSA (Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration) Look for "Sign up for SAMHSA Email Updates"

Child Welfare Information Gateway Go to the bottom of the home page>>CONTACT US>"Subscribe to Free Updates".

After you graduate, you will no longer have OFF-CAMPUS access to the Cleveland State University databases.

However, you will still have remote access to some of the same databases through OPLIN (Ohio Public Library Information Network). Some examples are: Sociological Collection, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, MEDLINE, Academic Search Premier and ERIC.

• A complete list of OPLIN databases is here.
• You can access these databases from here. 
• You will have to authenticate with your library card number in order to use the databases.

(Please note that the versions of the databases in the public library are different from the versions of the databases available to the Cleveland State University students. The public library versions have less access to full-text articles. (You may be able to find some full text articles via Google Scholar.)

Please contact Fran Mentch if you have questions. 216-687-2365 or f.mentch@csuohio.edu.