Immediate Release
March 27, 2009

Social Workers Celebrate 97th Birthday of Civil Rights and Women’s Rights Leader

Washington, DC - U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski introduced legislation this week that will strengthen the nation’s workforce of more than half a million professional social workers.  The goal of S. 686 is to ensure access to a range of critical social work services provided in hospitals, schools, clinics, agencies, the military, and in private businesses.   The bill is named in part for Dr. Dorothy I. Height, one of the key architects of the civil rights movement and a distinguished social work pioneer.

The Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young, Jr. Social Work Reinvestment Act was introduced to address the impending shortage of trained social workers, and investigate barriers to recruiting and retaining these professionals.  The legislation calls for a Social Work Reinvestment Commission that will analyze how issues such as fair market compensation, educational debt, labor trends, social work research, workplace safety, and state-level licensure contribute to an insufficient social work labor force.

In addition, proposed demonstration programs would fund competitive grants in the areas of workplace improvements; research, education and training; and community-based programs of excellence to assess and expand best practices. The companion House bill H.R. 795 was introduced in February by U.S. Representative Edolphus “Ed” Towns.  Both Mikulski and Towns are trained social workers.

“We all came to the profession of social work to make a difference—to bring about positive social change—to better society,” says Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH, executive director of the National Association of Social Workers. “Through this important legislation, we want to ensure that the next generation of social work students—those who are inspired by the legacies of Dorothy Height, Barbara Mikulski, Whitney Young and Ed Towns—can pursue their dreams while serving their communities.”

About Dr. Dorothy Height
Dr. Dorothy Height, President Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW), began her career as a caseworker in the New York City welfare department, and held leadership positions with the YWCA and Delta Sigma Theta, Inc. In 1957, she was named president of NCNW, a position she held until 1997. During her storied career she encouraged presidents to desegregate schools, to support African American families, and to appoint women of all races to positions in government.  At the 1963 March on Washington, she was the only woman seated on the dais. Height has received numerous awards and achievements for her contributions, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.  Other noted women leaders, such as Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Alexis M. Herman, and Hillary Clinton, consider Dr. Height a mentor.  She is currently, at age 97, the Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the largest civil rights organization.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in Washington, DC, is the largest membership organization of professional social workers with 150,000 members. It promotes, develops, and protects the practice of social work and social workers. NASW also seeks to enhance the well being of individuals, families, and communities through its advocacy.

Contact:
Gail Woods Waller
202-336-8236
gwaller@naswdc.org

Elizabeth Franklin
(202) 408-8600 ext. 537
efranklin@naswdc.org

“Social workers are responsible for social security,” I often heard.  In NASW’s focus on social work reinvestment, we have invoked the name of Frances Perkins, the first woman to serve in a Presidential cabinet and as United States Secretary of Labor.  She was one of the longest-serving cabinet officers in history.  As we are facing current economic challenges, Frances Perkins’ name continues to rise.   One night, I happened to catch author Adam Cohen on a TV show, talking about the five most influential people during the first 100 days of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration.  Two of them were social workers, Frances Perkins and Harry Hopkins.  As I read Cohen’s book, Nothing to Fear, I found a new hero – Frances Perkins.  Close to finishing Cohen’s book, I stumbled upon a new biography of Perkins, The Woman Behind the New Deal:  The Life of Frances Perkins, FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience by Kirstin Downey.  On Monday, I heard Ms. Downey speak at an event hosted by the Library of Congress.

Frances Perkins was an early social worker.  Born in 1880, she worked at Hull House with Jane Addams in the early 1900s.  After college, she continued to move in and out of social work volunteer positions and employment, but it was witnessing the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire in New York City in 1911, that galvanized her lifelong commitment to improving the lives of all people, especially in the area of working conditions.  She used social work skills of finding the “strengths” in people.  She formed unconventional alliances to accomplish her means, bringing people together who did not always agree with each other.  Social justice was a guiding principle for her.

The Library of Congress presentation was recorded for C-Span’s Book TV and will be shown on April 11, 12, and 13.  See http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=10325&SectionName=History. The presentation will also be available on the Library of Congress website http://www.loc.gov/loc/cfbook/ .  So many of the programs of our social safety net that we take for granted are the result of the efforts of our sister social worker, Frances Perkins.  She shows us how valuable our skills are for our clients, their families, their communities, the nation and the world.

On March 12th, TIME Magazine included a feature on efforts to keep homeless children in one school despite moves around the city. NASW member and school social worker Cheryl Flugaur-Leavitt, SSW is featured in the article.

Keeping Homeless Kids in School
By Kathleen Kingsbury / Minneapolis
Thursday, Mar. 12, 2009

“When a second-grader at Longfellow Elementary School couldn’t stay awake during reading time, his teacher gently asked him why. “He told her that the rats and roaches were keeping him up,” says one of the school’s social workers, Cheryl Flugaur-Levitt. “We discovered he’d been sleeping on a relative’s floor, and he was scared to death about things crawling on him at night.” So she went to work on getting him at least a mattress to sleep on until his family could find a more permanent home.”

On behalf of the North American Region of the International Federation of Social Workers, NASW wishes you a happy World Social Work Day 2009.

This video was created on behalf of the North American Region of IFSW of which Dr. Jim Kelly, NASW President, is president.

• Letter from the President of IFSW
  
• IFSW World Social Work Day Web Site
• WSWD 2009 Poster

March 11, 2009 - NASW and IASWR executive directors Betsy Clark and Joan Zlotnik stood behind Dr. Dorothy I. Height (blue hat, bottom center) at a White House event where President Obama signed an executive order establishing a White House Council on Women and Girls. The Council will be chaired by Valerie Jarrett and staffed by Tina Tchen. The President signed autographs as he left the room.

For Immediate Release

Washington, DC -To help social workers meet the unique needs of the aging population, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) will host its first annual practice conference in Las Vegas on March 15-16, 2009. The conference—titled “The Aging Boom: Is Your Clinical Practice Ready?”—will prepare social work private practitioners to better serve this growing demographic.  NASW partnered with the American Society on Aging and National Council on Aging (ASA/NCOA) Aging in America Conference to host the event for approximately 400 professional social workers from across the country.

Sandra A. Lopez, LCSW, ACSW, DCSW, clinical associate professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work will serve as keynote speaker. Her speech, “Key Challenges in the Aging Boom: Honoring Diversity in Older Adults,” will address practical approaches for clinical social workers to meet the growing needs of diverse seniors.  Ms. Lopez is a widely recognized presenter, trainer and consultant, with 28 years of social work experience. She regularly trains social workers and other professionals on suicide, grief and bereavement, cultural diversity, social work supervision, ethics, compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress.

“The United States population over the age of 65 is growing and reflects greater diversity far beyond race and ethnicity,” says Ms. Lopez. “Honoring diversity in older adults is crucial for social workers across settings to ensure that the needs of their clients are properly understood and supported.” (more…)

NASW strongly encourages members who work in health care settings to take the opportunity to comment on care transitions measures which are being considered for use in transitions of care during discharges of patients from inpatient settings and Emergency Departments.  The American Medical Association/Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (AMA/PCPI) has released for public comment a Care Transitions Performance Measurement Set. The measures were developed by a Care Transitions Work Group convened by the ABIM Foundation, the American College of Physicians, the Society of Hospital Medicine and the AMA/PCPI.  NASW is a member of the Care Transitions Work Group.

The care transition measures are an initial set of measures to address specific topics within the broader area of care coordination. They are based on evidence-based practice and address known gaps in care. The AMA/PCPI plans to address additional areas within care coordination in the future.

The draft measures with corresponding response forms are available for online comment at the following Web site: www.physicianconsortium.org. Click on the “Public Comments” link.  The public comment period for the care transitions measures  will close on March 16, 2009, at 5:00 pm Central Time.

We were recently invited to a conference call with the Department of Education, where we discussed the President’s 2010 budget for their department. We were part of a small group asked to participate and were able to learn, firsthand, about the Administration’s plan to:

• Make Pell grant funding mandatory. The maximum for the 2010-11 academic year would be $5,550.
• Restructure and expand the Federal Perkins Loan Program to provide $6 billion in loans every year, from the current $1 billion level. Colleges and universities participating would increase from 1,800 to 4,400. The Department is looking for input on ways to revise the current formula.
• Create a $2.5 billion federal-state-local partnership to improve retention and graduation rates, particularly for low-income college students. This will include funds for a rigorous research component. Funds are for first degrees after high school, which could be an Associates’ degree or Bachelor’s degree.
• Restructure the Federal Family Education Loans, because “it is not working well’ and make all new loans through the direct lending program (Direct Loans).

New Web Site Highlights “50 Ways to Use Your Social Work Degree”

Washington DC—The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has kicked off its annual Social Work Month celebration with an outreach effort aimed at educating prospective and returning college students about the great purpose and countless possibilities of the social work profession.

To improve public awareness and understanding of social work careers, NASW has developed an interactive microsite at 50ways.helpstartshere.org. The site showcases more than 50 different ways that social workers are using their degrees from the nation’s 600 schools and programs of social work to make life better for individuals, families and communities.

Through individual profiles of social workers employed everywhere from schools, hospitals, and private businesses to government and non-profit agencies, foundations and the U.S. Congress, the site explores what experiences and interests led each person to the profession.

“People who are looking for a career with meaning, action, diversity, satisfaction, and an abundance of options are often drawn to social work,” says Elizabeth Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH, executive director of NASW. “Social workers are highly trained professionals who care about people, who want to make things better, who want to relieve suffering, who want their work to make a difference.”

The 2009 Social Work Month theme—Social Work: Purpose and Possibility—highlights the special characteristics of those who choose social work as a profession, and underscores the goals of their work. Social workers are purpose-driven, compassionate individuals who work in collaboration with other disciplines to help the most vulnerable in our society overcome obstacles and reach their full potential.

“Having a social work degree helps me be part of the largest profession of mental health care providers. It helped me found the Baltimore Psychotherapy Institute. It helped me achieve faculty appointments at Johns Hopkins, Smith and University of Maryland in order to pass [my knowledge] on,” says Dan Buccino, clinical supervisor at the John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center Community Psychiatric program and a social worker profiled on the site.

“I love knowing that my work has a positive impact on the lives of others. I also love the flexibility of the profession. As the mother of three children, I’ve appreciated the control I have over my schedule and have chosen to work part-time,” notes Judith Matz, Director of the Chicago Center for Overcoming Overeating, Inc., also profiled on the site.

“There is so much that I love about this profession. It is so inspiring to see people heal and find joy despite great adversity. I love collaborating with, inspiring, empowering and motivating clients, students, and co-workers to make positive changes,” says Heidi Horsley, executive director and co-founder of the Open to Hope Foundation in New York, when asked what she likes most about being a social worker.

For more information about the recruitment campaign or to learn more about the many ways social workers help, visit http://50ways.helpstartshere.org.

About the National Association of Social Workers
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in Washington, D.C., is the largest membership organization of professional social workers in the world with nearly 150,000 members in 56 chapters throughout the United States and its territories.  It promotes, develops, and protects the practice of social work and social workers.  NASW also seeks to enhance the well-being of individuals, families, and communities through its advocacy.