Millions of dollars in federal contracts are awarded year. Most Social Workers never apply.

Every year, federal agencies are awarding millions and millions of dollars in contracts to independent consultants for the exact same work that social workers are doing every day. So we're talking about program evaluation, community outreach, mental health services, workforce training and development and more, things like that. Now, social workers are trained in every single one of those categories, everyone. And here's what these contracts are actually looking for. They're looking for people who can walk into a community, build real trust, assess what's actually needed and then turn that into a plan that actually works. But most of us social workers never apply because we don't think about ourselves as consultants. We think about ourselves as employees. And a lot of us don't even know that these contracts exist. And even if you did, most of us would never even have considered that we could actually be qualified for them. But once you start to realize that not only are you qualified, you're actually one of the best candidates, that's when everything starts to shift. Now, the only difference between the social worker who is doing that work inside the building and the consultant that's getting paid to advise on that same work from outside, is that one of them decided to see themselves as a consultant. Because the expertise is the same. The decision to package it is what sets you apart.