NASW National Conference Inspires Hope in an Uncertain Future

By Paul R. Pace

Conference attendees from 37 states participated in Capitol Hill visits while in Washington, D.C., for the NASW national conference in June. They took part in 186 meetings with their congressional representatives.

More than 2,000 social workers gathered in person and online for the NASW national conference in Washington, D.C., in June.

“I cannot think of a more important time for us to come together,” NASW CEO Anthony Estreet, PhD, MBA, LCSW-C, told attendees during the opening ceremony.

“This is a challenging time for us as individuals, as communities, and for our profession,” he said. “We are witnessing attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion, growing threats to the communities that we serve, increasing workforce shortages, rising mental health needs, and the growing demand on social workers across every field of practice.”

He noted the conference theme, “Beyond the Breaking Point: Connection through Purpose and Power,” was chosen for good reason. “I believe that this theme resonates because every social worker understands what it feels like to reach the breaking point,” Estreet said. “We have seen it in the people we serve. We have experienced it in our organizations. Many of us have felt it personally.”

But social work has never been defined by that breaking point, he said. “It has always been defined by what comes next. The decision to keep showing up, the decision to keep believing. The decision to keep fighting for justice, dignity and humanity, even when the path forward is uncertain.”

Before social work became a profession, it was a promise: A promise that somebody would stand where society was breaking and refuse to look away, he said.

“That promise lived in the work of Jane Addams and Ida B. Wells, who understood that helping people required not only changing the conditions in which they live, but also exposing and naming the harsh realities of these systems,” Estreet said. “It lived in Mary Richmond, who helped transform compassion into a discipline. It lived in Whitney M. Young Jr., who challenged social workers to leave the comfort of neutrality and become architects of social change.”

“And it lives today in every social worker who refuses to accept that suffering is simply the cost of living,” he continued. “That is why I still believe in you. I remain hopeful for a better world because you have always understood something that the world often forgets: The personal is almost always political.”

History has never been transformed by comfortable people, Estreet said, adding that the NASW Code of Ethics calls social workers to service, to seek social justice, to recognize the dignity and worth of people, to have integrity.

Keynote speaker Dr. Michael Eric Dyson urged conference attendees to remain hopeful while also advocating for social workers and their clients

Estreet welcomed keynote speaker Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, a Vanderbilt University distinguished professor, author, Baptist minister, and media commentator whose work explores race, religion, politics, and Black culture. Dyson noted that while it appears American democracy is being challenged daily, hope for the future must remain.

“Because hope says that even when it looks darkest, and it looks impossible, that there will be a way,” he said. “Now, I can’t articulate an exact design for how that will look, but I do know it will come. I do know that our people in America who are Black have saved democracy in so many ways.”

“And you, as social workers, have to speak up and say, what this president is doing is wrong, it is racist, it is sexist, it is misogynistic, it is xenophobic, and he is not the true representation of American society,” Dyson told the audience.

It is really about how do we, as social workers, collectively advocate, he stressed.

“When we look at advocacy, it’s doing what you can do at that time,” Dyson said. “It may not be everybody can come down here to D.C., to Capitol Hill, to protest, but it could be calling your congress person, it could be writing a letter, it could be sending an email.”

We all have an inherent responsibility to engage in this advocacy, this argument, to protect not only our profession, but also the clients that we serve, he said.

Capitol Hill Visits

In addition to gaining inspiration from keynote speakers, about 160 conference attendees from 37 states participated in Capitol Hill visits. They took part in 186 meetings with their congressional representatives, urging support of the following bills:

• The Mental Health Access and Provider Support Act (S. 4202/H.R. 8081). It updates reimbursement for clinical social workers and other behavioral health providers to better align compensation with their clinical role by increasing the Medicare reimbursement rate from 75% to 85% of the clinical psychology rate.
• Expanding Seniors Access to Mental Health Services Act (S. 1797/H.R. 3808)
• The Loan Equity for Advanced Professionals Act (H.R. 6574)
• Professional Student Degree Act (H.R. 6718)
• Professional Degree Access Restoration Act (S. 4039/H.R. 6677)
• Hot Foods Act of 2025 (S. 1202/H.R. 2512)

Maya Wiley

Civil rights activist and attorney Maya Wiley, left, joins NASW CEO Anthony Estreet on the main stage of the 2026 NASW national conference in Washington, D.C.

Maya Wiley, civil rights attorney, policy leader, and activist, challenged social workers to see themselves not just as responders to broken systems, but as architects for better ones. In her keynote address, Wiley invited social workers to reconnect and work together.

“We need coalition,” she said. “We need team. We need to be connected across our differences and our disagreements.”

She said no one is more qualified than social workers working as community-based experts who can provide stories about what is happening in communities.

In addition to keynote presentations, plenary sessions and award honors, the conference provided more than 50 timely breakout sessions addressing topics ranging from artificial intelligence, to self-care, to strengthening democracy, to social media and more.

Learn more at socialworkers.org/2026-Conference.