Alumni Spotlight: Isaac Sanders
Isaac Sanders, MSW 2018
Consultant and Social Work Doctoral Student
Isaac Sanders graduated with a Master of Social Work (MSW) with a macro specialization in 2018. Today, Sanders owns a consulting firm and is a PhD student at the University of Washington School of Social Work. They previously worked with the Anchor Communities Initiative (ACI) for A Way Home Washington, an organization dedicated to preventing and ending youth homelessness.
Sanders gives their advice on knowing how you would prefer macro social work over clinical social work.
“If you feel like you can't work in the system because it's not working well, then you’re a macro social worker,” Sanders said.
Sanders feels that they are impacting the community with their work - a part of the reason they chose macro social work.
“What I wanted to do was bridge the gap between the macro level things that we talk about as concepts and what is actually happening to people on the ground,” Sanders said.
Sanders shared their experience with KU’s MSW macro specialization program for a Q&A.
"If you feel like you can't work in the system because it's not working well, then you’re a macro social worker." - Isaac Sanders, MSW 2018
Q&A with Isaac Sanders
What drew you to macro social work?
When I was going through my first year of my two-year program at the University of Kansas, I remember taking classes that were for direct practice ... what it would look like to be a direct practitioner. It didn't feel like it was getting at the thing I wanted to get at as a black queer person who was growing up in Kansas and all over the country just because I was a military brat.
I saw how the problem was much bigger than the individual story, and in taking policy courses and understanding how policy really impacted the way that people could do the direct practice. I wanted to be in that realm and be able to do that work. And really make those mezzo- and macro-level changes within communities because I felt like as much as I could do with an individual, I can do so much more impacting the community, and that's what drew me to macro social work.
What’s the most rewarding part of macro social work?
It’s very rewarding work to see things happen in real time where people are like, I know that this isn't working, but what small thing could we do differently to change this part of the system that would house three more young people. If we took this rule away or if we made this not a requirement for things, then how many more people could go through this program and be sheltered rather than living outside on the streets?
How did your KU MSW degree play a role in equipping you for jobs in macro social work?
A lot of the grant writing and grant writing skill sets have given me this mindset of, ‘This program operates this way, but what if you applied for money in this way to make this operate differently?’ Or maybe the funding isn't being utilized correctly. Or you're saying it only can be utilized this way. But can you go back to the funder and ask a question about how this can be done differently.
... A lot of the way that we talked about this work at A Way Home Washington is the system is built the way that it's supposed to operate.
So, if we're trying to strive for a system that's actually going to end youth and young adult homelessness, we need to be asking the questions that will end youth and young adult homelessness.
That also means asking questions to philanthropists and government officials about the way that money is being spent, and I don't think I would've had the wherewithal to even think that way, if I hadn’t gone to the macro social work program.
What should aspiring social workers know about macro practice?
You are working with clients and you're finding that you can't do certain things because of rules and regulations and problems, and if you're like, ‘I'm not OK with it,’ and you'd be more willing to break a rule than to do the things and keep doing that work ... you’re macro social worker.
You're supposed to be the person who's more disruptive and more of like a table shaker in that work, and that was how I felt I was. Even though it took me a second to get there, it is one of the most rewarding things and I think that you should constantly be questioning the way the system operates.
But if you feel like you can't work in the system because it's not working well, then you’re a macro social worker.
This article is part of a Q&A series featuring KU Master of Social Work graduates who completed a specialization in social work macro practice. Learn more about the master's degree program on the Master of Social Work program overview page.