Tribute to Robert M. Sunley: 1917–2008
Righting Wrongs: Advocacy Principles, Methods and Practice, by Robert M. Sunley

Tribute to Robert M. Sunley: 1917–2008
Righting Wrongs: Advocacy Principles, Methods and Practice, by Robert M. Sunley

When I was a graduate student in Community Organizing and Social Planning, I came across an article in Social Casework titled, “Family Advocacy: From Case to Cause.” So clearly written, it became my ready reference when I began working in the northwest Indiana area at a family serving agency. Later, when I moved to Atlanta, I learned that my new employer, now known as Families First, had been using Sunley's model for advocacy. Today, nearly 40 years later, Sunley's article continues to provide the framework for the advocacy and legislative lobbying that Families First does. Such is the enduring nature of Sunley's work. So it was with eager anticipation that I began reading Sunley's Righting Wrongs: Advocacy Principles, Methods and Practice. I am pleased to say that I have not been disappointed. This book, published posthumously, caps Sunley's lifelong scholarly contributions to the field of social work. He came to social work after attending Oberlin College and the experimental Black Mountain College. He completed his bachelor's degree from The New School for Social Research in New York City. His MSW was earned at Adelphi University.

Robert M. Sunley, Hempstead, NY, late 1980's.

Sunley begins by laying out a variety of advocacy definitions and types of approaches. Then he goes on to discuss how problems, causes, and solutions are defined by circumstances. He warns, gives historical perspective, and poses alternatives to single organization advocacy such as coalitions, networks, and collaborations. From this groundwork, Sunley analyzes motives for participants in advocacy efforts and the recruitment and retention of participants. He addresses issues of training objectives, methods, structure, and the therapeutic benefits of engagement in advocacy.

Four chapters are devoted to case advocacy. He explores methods of recognizing needs, information gathering, planning interventions, and special issues related to advocacy in managed care and in case management. Lastly, Sunley describes what he calls “cause advocacy” with its community organizing focus. He identifies agency-related issues to be faced prior to initiating cause advocacy, among which are the following: agency capability, issue compatibility with the agency's mission and goals, potential for participation, empowerment enhancement, appeal to interest and enthusiasm, potential for strengthening the advocacy commitment of the agency, and risk factors for the agency.

A provocative chapter is called “Foe into Friend?” and is subtitled, “Making target organization into client.” In this chapter, Sunley asks, “Can the target of advocacy be viewed as a resistive (hard-to-reach, unmotivated, hostile) client?” (p. 267). He then describes casework principles that might be applied in the context of advocacy work. Another chapter describes specific interventions (“Tools for Change”). Perhaps because the field of outcomes measurement has made such strides in recent years, his chapter on outcomes seems weak. In fact, it is only seven pages long and fails to really address outcome measurement as practiced today in the more sophisticated agencies. There is an extensive bibliography for readers who want to delve further into the topic.

As a social worker, Sunley was a tireless champion of inclusion of advocacy into the day-to-day operation of “traditional” social service agencies. For many years, he served as the associate executive director of the Family Service Association of Nassau County in metropolitan New York. Because of this, he has a particular interest in the use of advocacy within family serving agencies. He notes the historical changing landscape of advocacy as a formalized agency function in family service agencies, which peaked in 1982 at 56% of the member agencies in Family Service America (now the Alliance for Children and Families). By 1990, the percentage had fallen to 25%. In 1997, the Council for Accreditation (COA), which accredits family and children's agencies, included advocacy as one of the services it accredits, allowing for a variety of agency approaches to engaging in advocacy.

A sense of the breadth of Sunley's interests can be obtained by knowing that in his freshman year at Oberlin he declared a triple major, something unheard of at that time. After reading an article on experimental Black Mountain College, he visited Black Mountain for a week and decided to enroll. The college infused the arts throughout the curriculum. At Black Mountain College, Sunley was a student leader and a member of the Board of Fellows at a pivotal moment in the college's history when one of the college founders resigned amid conflict about the college. Leaving Black Mountain, he moved to New York City, working various jobs. He returned to Chicago to work for his father and later served in the U.S. Army. After World War II, he returned to New York City where he and another former Black Mountain College student formed a small press that produced low-cost portfolios of art reproductions for museums and bookstores.

After earning his MSW, Sunley's early writings were historical in nature and dealt with child rearing in the early 19^th century, and parent education programs in the USA. He wrote a chapter on early 19^th century literature on child-rearing in anthropologist Margaret Mead's Childhood in Contemporary Cultures. His Parent Child Home Program, designed to increase the IQ of impoverished 2–3 year olds was implemented statewide in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina and in many other locales.

Later writings touched on a wide range of topics in social casework treatment, advocacy, and social group work. From 1966 on, he published or presented a paper almost once every year: 27 times over the following 35 years. Topics ranged from helping children in schools to family financial counseling, advocacy methods, home-sharing among the elderly, and even sexual response after hysterectomy. He authored four books including this one under review. In addition, he taught at several schools of social work, and conducted training programs, and consulted with many organizations. He had a long affiliation with and commitment to the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration (ACOSA), as befits the thinker and innovator that he was. His lifelong love of art is evidenced by the fact that, after retirement, he had two exhibitions of his photography, and also was the Web editor for the Black Mountain College Project, which is designed to document and archive the unique educational history of the College as a community (http://www.bmcproject.org/). He passed away in 2008 at 90 years of age.

I only met Robert Sunley once, in 1978. All I knew about him was that he had written the article I referred to so often, “Family Advocacy: From Case to Cause.” After reading Righting Wrongs, I wish that I had actually known him and had learned even more from him. His contributions to social work are timeless and timely. Practitioners and educators involved in community organizing, social planning, social policy, and direct-service advocacy will benefit from reading this book, which promises to become a classic in our field.