NASW celebrated the news that the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2014 includes funding to continue and expand the Leadership Training in Social Work program.
For more than 40 years, the Maternal and Child Health Bureau provided grants to train social work leaders. In 2012, grantees learned that the MCHB was not planning to continue to fund several discipline-specific grants, including social work.
NASW, the grantees and the Council on Social Work Education met MCHB and Health Resources & Services Administration leadership to urge continuation of the grants.
They also sought the help of U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., who is a social worker. Mikulski sent a letter to HRSA Administrator Mary K. Wakefield, stressing the importance of maintaining the training grants.
Wakefield responded with the good news that the department would maintain the MCHB program by incorporating it into the Bureau of Health Professions program.
The program was not only saved in the 2014 budget agreement, its funding was also expanded by $1 million.
From the April 2104 NASW News.
