Revolutionary Social Work

What is Revolutionary Social Work?

Revolutionary social work is a transformative way of being that values self-examination, relational accountability, and political clarity. It de-centers compliance and (re)centers humanity, kinship, and consciousness. Revolutionary social workers commit to their own ongoing transformation while fostering critical consciousness, collective care, and radical healing with others. Revolutionary social work moves through love, truth-telling, and the struggle for liberation. Its primary aim is to help us become more fully human.

RSW Values

  • 1. Kinning

    We build relationships that extend beyond blood and borders — with people, place, land, and lineage.

  • 2. Challenge the Status Quo

    We question what is presented as normal, inevitable, or apolitical — including within the profession.

  • 3. Non-Partisan Commitment

    We reject political alignment as a substitute for ethical clarity. Revolutionary social work thinks beyond parties, not within them.

  • 4. Relational Grounding

    We prioritize responsibility, reciprocity, and real human connection in all forms of practice.

  • 5. Indigenous and African-Centered Wisdoms

    We honor and uplift knowledge systems born of resistance, reverence, and relation.

  • 6. Transformative Reflection

    Revolution begins within. We unlearn what we’ve internalized to practice in ways that align with liberation.

  • 7. (Re)Connection

    We return to what was stolen, buried, or forgotten — self, community, ancestors, land.

  • 8. Love as Praxis

    Love is not sentiment. It is an ethic of care, struggle, and commitment made real through action.

  • 9. Unity

    We strive for wholeness without sameness — building solidarity that does not erase difference.

  • 10. Social Work Beyond the Profession

    The work of liberation is not confined to degrees or licenses. It lives wherever people practice care, courage, and consciousness.

FAQs

  • While critical and radical social work focus on analyzing and challenging oppressive systems, Revolutionary Social Work begins with the self. It asks practitioners to examine how they live, relate, and show up—to grow through accountability, kinship, and consciousness. It’s not just about critique; it’s about living differently.

  • No. It’s not a technique or intervention. Revolutionary Social Work is a way of being rooted in reflection, relationality, and responsibility. It shapes how we listen, speak, care, and move through the world—not just what we do in professional roles.

  • Yes. Revolutionary Social Work is not confined to classrooms or licenses. Anyone committed to inner work, relational accountability, and social healing can live this path—in families, communities, movements, or institutions. It’s about how we live, not what credentials we hold.

  • Revolutionary Social Work is values-based, not competency-based. It resists reducing practice to technical skills or institutional checklists. Instead, it calls us to root our work in values like humility, kinship, and political clarity—centering people, not performance.

  • No. Revolutionary Social Work is strictly non-partisan and independent of political parties, professional associations, and institutional agendas. Our accountability is to each other, to place, and to the work of becoming more fully human—not to systems that reward compliance.