Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH
NASW Executive Director

We use the word “great” casually in our every day speech. Depending on how the word is expressed, it can be a synonym for “ok,” or “good,” or as a cynical substitute for disappointment or negativity. Seldom do we hear the word “great” used as its orginal definition intended– markedly superior in character.

What constitutes greatness?   It could be courage, brilliance, goodness, ability, power, or a combination of those traits.   For me, greatness is defined by the name Dorothy Irene Height who died on April 20 at age 98. Her eulogy and all of the tributes to her in the past week, have recalled a great woman, a great activist, a great leader and a great force. She was all of those things. She was also a great social worker and the recipient of NASW’s 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award in Social Work.

I had the honor of co-chairing the Intercultural Cancer Council’s Height Jury which selected individuals  to receive an award in her honor which recognized individuals with significant achievements in addressing the unequal burden of cancer borne by underrepresented individuals. I also was honored to give a social work tribute for Dr. Height when she was inducted into the Democracy Hall of Fame in 2004. As a result, I had the wonderful privilege  of meeting with Dr. Height several times over the past decade. Each time I knew I was in the presence of greatness.  The best way I can describe it is that she had a greatness of spirit and a greatness of purpose. Each time I came away  renewed and enriched.  Just being with her made me feel that I could do more, should do more. She had that effect on people.

Dr. Height wasn’t simply a part of history; she created history. She spent her career and her life working to make this world a better place. Her focus included civil rights, women’s rights and human rights. Her counsel was sought by individuals, organizations, communities and presidents. At the time of her death, she was the Board Chair of the Legislative Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and she was Emerita President of the National Council of Negro Women. She was also an ardent supporter of the social work legislation named in her honor–the Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young Social Work Reinvestment Act (H.R. 795/S. 686).

The funeral service for Dr. Height ended with the gospel song, “This Little Light of Mine (I’m Gonna Let it Shine).” May the light of Dorothy. I. Height live on, and may her beacon reach every one of us and reinforce our purpose and our profession so that we can honor and further the legacy she left us.

Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH

Today we visited The Suzanne Mubarak Regional Centre for Women’s Health and Development (SMC) in Alexandria. This is a special program of Mrs. Murbarak, the First Lady of Egypt, and it is part of the national budget. We met with the director of women’s development. Mrs. Khagida Khashana and her staff and toured the state-of-the art facilities. They have been in operation for two years.

Their posters use the tag line of”Breaking the Silence in Egypt.” Their mission statement is linked to the WHO definition: The mission of the SMC is to promote women’s health and development in Egypt and friendly neighboring countries, health being a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity, and is closely linked to women’s development. They emphasized that their definition includes “a healthy sexual and reproductive life.” Their long term goals are to combat illness, ignorance, poverty and to support women’s rights.

Their outreach and community organizing focus is reaching school teachers, social workers, and NGOs to get women referred for their services and as settings for their educational programs which also include skill building.

In addition to routine care in areas such as obesity and diabetes, cancer screenings, bone health and antismoking, they do genetic markers, Microeconomics, and productive skills for refugees.

They have a mobile clinic for breast cancer for women in rural areas, and they are just starting a breast cancer survivorship program. They are partnering with the Susan G. Koman organization from the USA and they were having their first walk at the pyramids later this week.

They told us that AIDS is not a serious problem in Egypt, nor is there much rape because of their social culture and because rape is a major crime punishable by death. However, domestic violence and genital mutilation are both problems. One of the things they try to do is to teach women that neither is a part of their religion.

They said that women in Egypt don’t talk about violence, even to each other. Thus, the tag line above about breaking the silence. They are also training doctors to detect battering, and Mrs. Murbarak has created a Women’s Council to help battered women with legal problems.

In the USA, President Obama has established the Council for Women and Girls. I was pleased to be present when he signed that important order. In Egypt, the Women Center was also established by Presidential decree. It also receives a yearly budget from the Egyptian government to cover the operating expenses. We could use a greater governmental focus on women’s health in the United States.

For more information on the Women’s Centre, see www.smcalex.org.

Social workers, domestic violence advocates, health care providers, law enforcement, survivors, and others across the nation have come together in their communities to raise public awareness about domestic violence. In October 1981, the observance of domestic violence began as a single Day of Unity. Later in October of 1987, the observance was expanded to identify October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. President Obama made the official announcement in a proclamation available at: www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-National-Domestic-Violence-Awareness-Month/

For more information about domestic violence, visit:

• www.ovw.usdoj.gov
• www.cdc.gov/Features/IntimatPartnerViolence/
• www.4woman.gov/owh
• www.acf.hhs.gov
• www.endabuse.org

Video of Arizona State Legislature Representative and Social Worker Kyrsten Sinema talking about her new book with local media.

Kyrsten Sinema serves as the Assistant Leader to the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives and represents central Phoenix in the Arizona Legislature. Now in her third term, she is the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee and the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee.

Kyrsten holds both a law degree and a Master’s degree in Social Work from Arizona State University, and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in the School of Justice and Social Inquiry at ASU. She is an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work at ASU and practices law when not in session. Kyrsten also serves as faculty for the Center for Progressive Leadership, teaching tomorrow’s community leaders about the political process.

Hallmark will debut “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” on Sunday April 19 at 9/8c. Based on the true story of a social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children during the German occupation of Poland, the movie examines how she risked her own life to save thousands of others. As a Catholic social worker, Sendler gained access to the Warsaw ghetto and was angry at the conditions and treatment she was witnessing. Hallmark documents that “at great personal risk she devised extraordinary schemes to sneak children by Nazi guards, bringing them out in ambulances, suitcases, and even wheelbarrows.”

Sendler created an underground network of helpers, mostly women, who were willing to risk death and imprisonment to save the lives of innocent children. She was eventually caught by the Gestapo and imprisoned for three months, but didn’t release any information about her secret life. Irena Sendler never sought recognition but was a hero and this film documents her passionate, dangerous, and unknown path to dramatically alter the course of many lives during the Holocaust.

NASW commends the Hallmark channel for providing an insightful and educational look into a social worker who few know about today, but who deserves recognition.

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.”

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.

Betsy Clark
Executive Director
National Association of Social Workers

January 29, 2009

On the evening of January 28, I was completing some work at my office in DC when I received a phone call from the White House inquiring if I would like to join President Obama the next morning as he signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law. The request was unexpected but welcome, as NASW had been an advocate for the important legislation educating members and asking them to support it at all possible opportunities. The bill was named after a woman who did not learn about the discrepancy in pay between her and her male co-workers until the end of her 19-year career at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. Lilly Ledbetter was denied redress by a 2007 Supreme Court decision. The court said that a person must file a discrimination claim within 180 days of a company’s initial decision to pay a worker less than another person doing the same job. Under this new law, which amends the 1964 Civil Rights Act, each new discriminatory paycheck would extent the statute of limitations for an additional 180 days.

The next morning I woke up hours early to get ready for my third trip to the White House over the past three administrations. However, this was the first trip that I’ve taken to witness a bill being signed into law. I arrived a bit after 8:30am for my instructed 9:00am entrance. I was joined by many of my colleagues in the women’s rights community including Kim Gandy, President of the National Organization for Women and Ellie Smeal, President of the Feminist Majority. I also spoke with prominent members of the civil rights community including Hilary Shelton who directs the Washington Bureau of the NAACP and Dr. Dorothy I. Height, President Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women. After a cold hour of waiting, we were granted entrance, cleared by the Secret Service, and filed into the White House. Surprisingly, we were given some freedom to stroll about. I enjoyed seeing the First Ladies room with beautiful portraits of the historic women of past administrations. Finally, we were led into the room where the President would be signing the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law.

I was lucky enough to find a front row seat in front of the small desk where the President would sign the bill. As I sat waiting for President Obama, I twittered the experience took a few pictures with my blackberry, spoke with a few members of Congress who were filtering in, and observed the new power players including Secretary of State Clinton, Vice-President Biden, and First Lady Michelle Obama. I was also pleased to speak with Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile, and was surprised to see that I was in the company of several members of Congress who were very eager to speak with her and even took a picture or two.

I was also very fortunate to speak with civil rights legend and famous social worker, Dr. Dorothy I. Height, President Emerita of the National Council of Negro Women. NASW is honored to name the Social Work Reinvestment Act after Dr. Height and fellow civil rights legend Whitney Young. Dr. Height looked stunning, as usual, in her beautiful purple suit and matching hat, and we discussed the reintroduction of the Social Work Reinvestment Act in the next few days and the historic experience of President Obama signing this bill. Having worked for over 50 years on these issues, this event had to have been a milestone in her life. (more…)

NASW Executive Director Betsy Clark was honored to receive an invitation to the White House on Thursday January 29, 2009 to witness President Obama sign his first piece of legislation into law, the Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act. This historic legislation reverses the Supreme Court decision that limited women and other workers’ ability to sue for wage discrimination. The success of the bill indicates that Congress is ready to move towards the ideal of fairness in pay for women across America. Dr. Clark is joined by other women’s advocacy groups, members of Congress, and high-profile strategists that all worked to make this bill a reality.

Follow Betsy Clark’s live posts from the event on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/nasw

Click here to view NASW’s Press Release
http://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/2009/012709.asp

The National Association of Social Workers was outraged to hear Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, one of the nation’s vice-presidential candidates, malign in a live international broadcast the work of community organizers.

The social work profession takes great pride in its community organizing roots and lauds the contributions of its members, and other professionals, who commit their careers to helping residents of different communities organize their resources and take social action to improve life for themselves and their families. Small town reformers and urban community organizers have much in common.

The concepts of community organizing, community building and community development undergird the premise of American democracy. As a result of these efforts, institutions and officials often deliver more effective economic growth strategies, as well as mental health, health, and family services for people of all ages.

Community organizing is also the foundation of most successful political campaigns. Meeting fellow Americans in their communities and working with them to find solutions to problems that limit their potential is valuable and necessary work—with significant responsibilities.

The profession of social work was founded on the legacy of outstanding women leaders such as Nobel Laureate Jane Addams, who practiced community organizing in the Settlement Houses she created for the poor and working class immigrants of Chicago. The profession also counts Civil Rights icons such as Dr. Dorothy I. Height among its luminaries. It is fitting that both women are considered two of the most influential people in American history, and are inspirations for many of our country’s finest leaders.

During this election year, NASW encourages both parties to stay focused on issues of substance to the American people. We hope that instead of denigrating the lives and work of huge segments of the population, candidates will demonstrate how their plans for the country will protect and elevate the quality of life for all Americans.