Delegates from the Korea Association of Social Workers visited NASW’s national office in Washington, D.C., in December. Participants learned from NASW staff, including NASW CEO Angelo McClain, about the association’s efforts in promoting social work workplace safety, as well as other programs and policy efforts that aid the profession. Several NASW Social Work Pioneers® also joined in the meeting, where they discussed how the Pioneers program honors and promotes social workers. More than 200 students and faculty members from the Touro College Graduate School of Social Work in New York City gathered in December to discuss v...

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Attendees at a University of Michigan-Ann Arbor forum (photo right) watch a video interview of former congressman Ron Dellums during the school’s fall forum, “Developing A Social Work Response To Racism, Hate Crimes, and Police Use of Force.” NASW’s Michigan Chapter partnered with 14 schools of social work last fall to host a first-ever series of race forums./ Courtesy University of Michigan School of Social Work.   Many NASW chapters are addressing the complex issues of racism, hate crimes and police use of force in their communities. The NASW Michigan Chapter is the latest example of social workers wo...

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A comprehensive program will support the mission of NASW’s 2016 national conference — “Leading Change, Transforming Lives” — which will take place June 22-25 in Washington, D.C. Richard Loomis, manager of conference and event planning at NASW, said the lineup will feature preconference workshops, an advocacy program on Capitol Hill, plenary sessions, keynote presentations, poster presentations and more than 100 breakout sessions. More than 2,300 social workers and like-minded professionals are expected to attend the conference, he said. And attendees will have the opportunity to earn up to 25 continuing edu...

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Nothing to fear by ensuring licensing exams free of bias In the November 2015 issue, my letter to the editor discussed how our profession demonstrates institutional racism by allowing its licensing testing organization, ASWB, to evade reporting aggregate exam results by the race and immigration status of test-takers. Therefore, there is no way to examine racial bias in the ASWB exams. This is of utmost importance, as many agencies complain that diverse talented social workers have difficulty obtaining licensure. In the January 2016 issue, Sharon Sterling’s letter to the editor expressed disagreement with me, stating that I wish t...

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NASW and the NASW Texas Chapter, through the Legal Defense Fund, joined in filing an amicus brief led by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research in Whole Woman’s Health v. Cole, in the U.S. Supreme Court. The brief argues that women in Texas have some of the worst health rates in the country, in part, because of policy choices of the Texas legislature. The brief argues that the Texas legislature has repeatedly chosen to make it more difficult for its women and children — particularly its low-income women and children — to access basic, front-line health services. The brief provides a broad overview of the relat...

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Foster youth can experience greater challenges than their non-foster youth peers as they grow into adulthood. Besides the potential for mental stress, foster youth can face financial, transportation and housing insecurity that can impede a path to a postsecondary education. Fortunately, there are social workers, such as Maria Garin Jones, who specialize in supporting foster youth and giving them a fair chance on the road to continuing their education. Jones is a project manager for the Aim Higher program at Foster Care to Success, or FC2S. It is a Virginia-based nonprofit organization that provides young people with financial resourc...

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Students with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work attended the Social Work HEALS Student Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., in November. Social Work HEALS, a program implemented by NASW and the Council on Social Work Education,with funding from New York Community Trust, trains and educates students to strengthen the delivery of health care services in the U.S. Here, students pose at the NASW national office in Washington. /Photo by Paul R. Pace, NASW News Nearly 50 BSW and MSW students from across the country gathered for educational sessions on health care, leadership and advocacy activities on Capitol Hill as part ...

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For Minnesota’s disabled adults, freedom to be intimate is rare, according to an investigative series published in the Star-Tribune in Minneapolis. It noted that the physical and legal barriers of these citizens are sometimes reinforced by the widely held perception that people with disabilities are asexual or are too helpless to consent to intimacy, advocates said in the story. NASW member Nancy Fitzsimons, a professor of social work at Minnesota State University, Mankato, was quoted as saying, “We are denying people [with disabilities] a fundamental part of being human — the right to have intimacy and connectedness. W...

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Social workers are aware of the importance of building cultural awareness in order to work effectively with people from various racial and ethnic groups. However, the need has increased for social workers to dive deeper and develop cultural competence in relation to specific practice areas, including end-of-life care. Fueling this need is the fact that communities of color in the U.S. are growing quickly, and will continue to increase substantially over the coming decades. It’s estimated that by 2050, people of color will constitute nearly 40 percent of the U.S. population ages 65 and older — an increase from 20.7 percent in ...

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The beginning of a new year is for many a time of reflection and resolving to do things not accomplished in the year gone by. In this, my opening column for 2016, I too would like to take time to think aloud about lessons learned from the past year and things that I am committing to for the coming year. One of the big lessons for me in 2015, and especially as president of this vast professional and wonderful association, is to not take every issue on the table so seriously. This one is difficult, because being a professional social worker is not only a serious matter, but also a personal matter. I imagine most of you reading this can...

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