In April, the second Congress of Social Work will be held in Washington, D.C. Convened and supported by 12 social work organizations, this invitation-only meeting will bring together 400 leaders in the social work profession. At the first congress in 2005, the participants focused on determining imperatives for addressing social issues and for setting goals for the profession in relation to health and mental health care, aging and child welfare. These imperatives can be reviewed at 2010 Social Work World Congress. This year’s congress, however, will have a different focus. It will look at issues facing the social work profession itself...

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  Social workers from Tanzania visited NASW’s national office in Washington recently. During their visit, they heard from NASW division managers who discussed how the association’s board of directors, governance and chapters operate. The guests also heard details about the NASW Foundation, the association’s Center for Workforce Studies and other endeavors.

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March is National Professional Social Work Month, and using this year's theme of ''Social Workers Inspire Community Action'' as a springboard, NASW is planning to showcase 100 ''community action heroes'': social workers who have inspired community-wide change. In addition to its internal efforts, NASW is asking individuals to nominate social workers who have created a program or led a campaign to meet an important human service need in their community. Specifically, NASW wants to know what the nominee did to organize people, resources and allies to improve the lives of individuals in their community...

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NASW’s Social Workers Speak! Website has made a big splash. Social Workers Speak! And how! Since launching in November, approximately 20,000 people have visited Social Workers Speak, the NASW Website — some call it a blog — where social workers and others are encouraged to discuss the way social workers and social issues are portrayed in the media. That's a lot of intrigue for such a new presence on the Internet, according to Greg Wright, the NASW senior public relations specialist who manages the Web site. What's more, Wright says people from around the globe are checking out the site's content, not just Internet surfe...

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Robert Mittman will facilitate the 2010 Social Work Congress in April. Social work leaders from across the country will gather April 21-23 to reaffirm, revisit and reimagine the profession at the 2010 Social Work Congress. Co-conveners of the congress are NASW, the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors, the Council on Social Work Education and the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work. The Clinical Social Work Association and the Society for Social Work and Research are also supporters, and NASW Assurance Services Inc. is the presenting sponsor for the invitation-only event, which will ...

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William Meezan, a professor of social work at The Ohio State University, is the new chair of the NASW Press Publications Committee. William Meezan, a professor of social work at The Ohio State University, is the new chair of the NASW Press Publications Committee. NASW Press Publisher Cheryl Y. Bradley said she is looking forward to working with Meezan, who served as dean of the College of Social Work at Ohio State from 2005 to 2009. "We are delighted to have Dr. Meezan join our NASW Press volunteer leadership," Bradley said. "We are eager to utilize his knowledge in the field of social work within the business side of publishing." Mee...

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NASW has collaborated with the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship to produce the latest Cancer Survivor Toolbox module for people with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The Cancer Survival Toolbox is a free, self-learning audio program that helps people understand and develop skills to address the challenges of their illness. NASW continues to work with NCCS to develop the award-winning toolbox and its subsequent modules that address different types of cancer. The latest component explains that there are two major types of lymphoma: Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin. Each has several different subtypes. While both are cancers of the lymphatic or immune s...

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Proud to Practice I am offended by NASW President James Kelly's November column statement that "social work educators are the backbone of the social work profession." I had a visceral response to reading it — the statement took away my breath and punched me in the gut. For a sharing profession, this appears self-aggrandizement. Why would the social work profession ever choose among its members that one category is better than another, and create divisions rather than bridges? I did not choose to be a social worker because of a social work educator. I chose the social work profession long before I ever had a social work teacher. I chos...

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U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., rallies the crowd at a November gathering to protest an amendment to the health care reform bill that would limit abortion coverage. At NASW News deadline, House and Senate Democratic leadership were negotiating a compromise health care reform bill that includes certain provisions of the Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young Jr. Social Work Reinvestment Act, or SWRA. As 2009 came to a close, Democrats in both houses of Congress mustered just enough votes to pass health care reform legislation: 220-215 in the House (one Republican, Rep. Ahn "Joseph" Cao, R-La., voted in favor of the bill) and 60-39 in the ...

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“I am a social worker and I view this [health care reform] bill from a social work perspective,” Rep. Ed Towns told the forum. Students spent a day on Capitol Hill learning the ins and outs of public policy from social workers involved with the political process. NASW cosponsored the Sixth Biennial Social Work Policy Practice Forum in late October, which featured keynote speaker U.S. Rep. Edolphus "Ed" Towns, D-N.Y., who is among nine social workers currently serving in Congress. Towns told the students that their social work training is an excellent stepping point to a public office career. "I would recommend you get involv...

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