Open Access Resources


Lifelong learning is the foundation of social work and keeps social workers up to date with information on how to best serve clients, populations and communities. It is a way for practitioners to not only continue to improve their skill sets, but to also add some color to any grey areas where one may not be as well informed. 

In order to better support practitioners and agencies in their service delivery, we are working to create an open access webpage. With the creation of this webpage, we hope to provide applicable information to better our profession, advance social justice actions in our communities, maintain practitioner competency and improve the well-being of individuals we engage with.

In an effort to provide information that is relevant and timely we collaborated with community partners to gather resource request from individuals in the field. We understand that the resource needs are always changing and this list is not exhaustive. Please email new resource requests to ccec@ku.edu. We look forward to collaborating with you! 

Resource Topics to Explore on this Page

  • Macro Social Work Resources

  • Evidence Based Practice

  • Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

  • Self Care

  • And More!




Macro Social Work Resources

  • Advocacy 101

    A beginners guide on how to advocate at the legislative level. This brief has general tips and a bit of information geared toward Kansas legislative action. It provides a broken down summary on how a bill becomes a law, how to identify your KS legislators and how to follow the progress of a proposed bill.

  • Center for Evaluation and Innovation - Advocacy Strategy Framework

    This resources challenges what a traditional approach to advocacy may look like. Advocacy may appear overwhelming and at times it can be, this brief provides a non-linear diagram with broken down information that can help shape how to continue to move forward in your advocacy goals.

  • Center for Evaluation and Innovation - Advocacy Theory

    This 31-page brief provides information about ten different policy theories and how their application applies to your goals. This resource also provides a variety of diagrams that create this break down in an easy way to understand and apply.

  • Dos, Donts, Tips and Tricks for Powerful (c3 Compliant) Policy Advocacy

    This presentation about lobbying as a 501(c)(3) organization is available as a recorded presentation or downloadable slides. Information regarding how to lobby as organization legally and effectively.

  • Nonprofit Lobbying Guide

    A discussion and analysis of federal and state law applicable to charities and other not-for-profit organizations that engage in lobbying, voter registration, or other political activities in Kansas.

  • No Royal Road: Finding and Following the Natural Pathways in Advocacy Evaluation

    As efforts at driving change become more diffuse, involve more actors, and have more transformational goals, we need a radically different approach to thinking about and assessing what effective advocacy looks like. Clear answers and simple tools are appealing, but they ultimately won't result in good representations of reality or provide the knowledge advocates need. This brief proposes adjustments for how we think about and approach advocacy monitoring, evaluation, and learning.

  • Community Organizing - Dara Frimmer

    Dara Frimmer shares a TED talk about inspiring social change through community organizing. They share the power of using stories and building relationships that inspire real change with information provided by those directly impacted. "Survey's will never be able to produce the feelings and the emotions and the sense of connection people receive when they sit together and share their stories.."

  • Community Organizing - Ray Friedlander

    Ray Friedlander discusses the power of community organizing. "The way that the world is around you is not that way by chance our community, our society, our culture and our government are the way that they are created that way from previous generations...and this is why your imagination is so important. Your imagination allows you to envision the world around you, see it as something differently than it already is and picture the steps necessary in order to make change..."




Evidence Based Practice Resources

  • APA Diagnosis by Treatment

    The purpose of this part of the website is to provide information about effective treatments for psychological diagnoses. The website is meant for a wide audience, including the general public, practitioners, researchers, and students. Basic descriptions are provided for each psychological diagnosis and treatment. In addition, for each treatment, the website lists key references, clinical resources, and training opportunities.

  • Evidence Base Practice Resource Center

    SAMHSA is committed to improving prevention, treatment, and recovery support services for mental and substance use disorders.The Evidence-Based Practices Resource Center provides communities, clinicians, policy-makers and others with the information and tools to incorporate evidence-based practices into their communities or clinical settings.

  • Open Textbooks

    Open textbooks are licensed by authors and publishers to be freely used and adapted. Download, edit and distribute them at no cost.

  • Open Access Textbooks

    Openly Available Sources Integrated Search (OASIS) is a search tool that aims to make the discovery of open content easier. OASIS currently searches open content from 117 different sources and contains 388,707 records.

  • Plain Language Summaries

    Cochrane is for anyone interested in using high-quality information to make health decisions. Whether you are a doctor or nurse, patient or carer, researcher or funder, Cochrane evidence provides a powerful tool to enhance your healthcare knowledge and decision making.

  • Textbooks

    OpenStax is part of Rice University, which is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit charitable corporation. As an educational initiative, it's our mission to transform learning so that education works for every student. Through our partnerships with philanthropic foundations and our alliance with other educational resource companies, we're breaking down the most common barriers to learning. Because we believe that everyone should and can have access to knowledge.




Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Resources

  • The Advocacy Strategy Framework

    Our most downloaded resource, this brief provides a simple one-page tool for thinking about the theories of change that underline public policy advocacy strategies.

  • County Health Rankings

    County Health Rankings provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation breaks down county health factors and outcomes. This provides a starting point to understanding what health looks like where you live and work. Select your state on the map and sort through what times the health outlook in your area.

  • Fact Sheet - Gender Diversity

    A two page fact sheet with information about gender diversity and transgender identity in children. This resource provides information about prevalence, health and psychosocial consequences, cultural, diversity, demographic and developmental factors and affirming psychological interventions.

  • Pathways for Change: 10 Theories to Inform Advocacy and Policy Change Efforts

    One of our most popular publications, this brief, produced in collaboration with ORS Impact, summarizes 10 theories grounded in social science about how policy change happens.

  • RWJF Social Determinants of Health

    Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provides support to a variety of initiatives that influence health in the community. Access to research and multimedia information regarding social determinants of health.

  • Melanated Social Work Podcast

    Podcast hosted by four men of color; Josh McNeil, Marvin Toliver, Michael Grinnell, and Jesse Wiltey who discuss the field of social work through a variety of topics such as politics, music liberation and more.

  • Code Switch Podcast

    Hosted by Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby and other journalist of color, Code Switch is an NPR podcast that uses its platform to discuss race through a diverse and personal perspective.




Self Care Resources

  • The Art of Self Care

    The world as we know it is changing before our very eyes, and so is social work. Although the way that we serve clients today looks very different from yesterday, one thing remains the same: we still have a responsibility to competently serve clients while upholding the fidelity of the social work profession. To do this effectively, social workers must take care of themselves.

  • Intersections

    By Dr. Danna Bodenheimer, LCSW, author of Real World Clinical Social Work: Find Your Voice and Find Your Way and On Clinical Social Work: Meditations and Truths From the Field

  • Overlooked Competency

    Sometimes the last person social workers nurture is themselves. This neglect undermines healthy social work practice but can be corrected if clinicians not only pay attention to client care but also to self-care.

  • Mindfulness

    The practice of mindfulness is integral to our efforts to reduce stress and to increase our capacity to cope (Kabat-Zinn, 1990).

  • Prioritizing Self Care

    Mitigate your risk for experiencing secondary trauma and burnout by implementing these tips for promoting mental wellbeing while working in a demanding social services role.

  • Self Care Lab

    The Self-Care Lab (SCL) is the first known lab specifically dedicated to empirically investigating self-care among helping professionals. SCL conducts broad ranging research and training for social workers, educators, nurses, law enforcement, and students, among others.




Open Access Journal Articles

  • Read

    I have Nowhere to Go: A Multiple-Case Study of Transgender and Gender Diverse Youth, their Families, and Healthcare Experiences (Meg Paceley)

  • Read

    The Whitewashing of Social Work History Study shows mental health, support, not just substance misuse key in parental neglect (Kelechi C. Wright, Kortney Angela Carr, Becci A. Akin)

  • Read

    Screening for trauma and behavioral health needs in child welfare: Practice implications for promoting placement stability (Becci Akin, Ashely Palmer)

  • Read

    The Digital Divide Is a Human Rights Issue: Advancing Social Inclusion Through Social Work Advocacy (Ed Scanlon)

  • Read

    Challenges to Employing Shared Decision Making With Adults Under Community Supervision Who Have a Mental Illness (Jason Matejkowski)