2010 Social Work Congress—Washington, DC

This past week, NASW IL Chapter President Dennis Crowell and I, along with eleven other participants from Illinois, participated in the 2010 Social Work Congress, which brought together 350 leaders in the social work profession to create a plan to develop the next generation of social workers and address issues that challenge the fast-growing social work profession. The Illinois participants (in addition to Dennis and myself) included Adriana Gonzalez, LCSW, CADC, president of Latino Social Work Behavioral Health and Consulting Services, Inc.; Alicia McLaughlin, assistant professor and BSW/MSW Director of Field Education, Chasity Wells-Armstrong, MSW, CADC, Constituent Services Director for Congresswoman Debbie Halvorson and Calumet District Chair on the NASW IL Chapter Board of Directors; Richard Jones, PhD, MSW, president and CEO of Metropolitan Family Services and Chairman of the NASW Assurance Services Board of Trustees; Colleen Jones, LCSW, executive vice president and COO of Metropolitan Family Services; Diana Stroud, LCSW, ACSW, DCSW, assistant dean for Advancement and Alumni Affairs at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and treasurer of the NASW Board of Directors; Joe Monahan, MSW, ACSW, JD, of Monahan & Cohen law firm and Region IX (Illinois & Iowa) Representative on the NASW Board of Directors; Robyn Golden, LCSW, ACSW, DCSW, director of Older Adults Programs at Rush University Medical Center; Wynne Korr, PhD, dean and professor in the School of Social Work at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Yan Searcy, PhD, associate professor in the Departments of Social Work and Sociology at Chicago State University; and finally, Elizabeth Gould, MSW, LCSW, director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Supportive Services Program National Resource Center to States at the Alzheimer’s Association. But more on that in a bit…

Several of the Illinois attendees spent the Wednesday before the event on visits to members of the Illinois Congressional delegation. We personally met with Representative Debbie Halvorson and Representative Danny Davis and met with the staff of Representatives Debbie Halvorson (D-11, Crete), Tim Johnson (R-15, Sidney), Jan Schakowsky (D-9, Evanston), Danny Davis (D-7, Chicago), and Aaron Schock (R-18, Peoria), as well as a staff member in Senator Richard Durbin’s office. Our visits coincided with the sad news of the death of civil rights movement pioneer Dorothy Height.

We generally discussed three major topics in our meetings on Capitol Hill:

1. The various titles in the new healthcare legislation and the role of the social work profession;
2. The Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young, Jr. Social Work Reinvestment Act (H.R. 795, S. 686); and
3. The crisis of the Illinois state budget and its impact on the human services network.

 

However challenging the times are currently, going to Washington and meeting with democratically elected people has a way of restoring faith in the system. The Capitol was mobbed. When we took a break for lunch in the Longworth office building, I looked over the entire cafeteria and saw a cross section of America—middle and high school groups on their Washington trips, young staffers from congressional offices, and advocates from every group imaginable.

The actual Social Work Congress took place on April 22–23, 2010. There were many highlights. The work produced by the participants is summarized on the Social Work Congress homepage. Interspersed in the schedule between working on the imperatives were several general sessions. Kirstin Downey, author of the The Woman Behind the New Deal: The Life of Frances Perkins: FDR’s Secretary of Labor and His Moral Conscience (2009), was particularly interesting. Perkins was a social worker and political activist who served as Secretary of Labor under President Roosevelt for twelve years. She also chaired the Committee on Economic Security which developed and drafted the legislation that became the Social Security Act in 1935. Downey is staff writer for the Washington Post and shared in the Pulitzer Prize awarded to the Washington Post staff for coverage of the campus slayings at Virginia Tech.

Following the Social Work Congress, Dennis and I participated in the association’s Annual Leadership Meeting (ALM) which brings together chapter presidents and executive directors from the around the country. It provided a good opportunity to share successes and discuss challenges facing the profession in states around the nation.