Essential Social Workers: A Call to Heal Our Nation

by NASW President Mildred “Mit” Joyner, DPS, MSW, LCSW

     For generations, social workers have fought to ensure this nation lived up to its promise of equal rights for all people.

     Social Work Pioneer Ida B. Wells in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, at the risk of her own life, crusaded against the lynching of Black Americans and pushed for voting rights for all women. Social worker Frances Perkins, the first female cabinet member and Secretary of Labor during the depression, helped bring about labor protections that we now take for granted, including Social Security and a 40-hour work week.

     And social workers Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young, Jr., helped spearhead the 20^th century Civil Rights Movement and War on Poverty initiative.

     As we celebrate Social Work Month 2021 and this year’s theme, “Social Workers are Essential,” it is important to reaffirm our profession’s role in examining the soul of our nation and ensuring our country evolves to benefit all its residents. 

     Over the past year, we have coped with a pandemic that has killed a half million in the United States and resulted in an economic downturn that has left millions of people without jobs. And the deaths of hundreds of Black people at the hands of police and vigilantes – including Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and countless others – show that racism continues to fester in our nation, affecting all institutions.

     Our nation is politically divided, and we often disagree on what is truth and reality.  There are days it seems like we may never find common ground. But I believe, based on our profession’s history, values, and strengths, social workers will play a key role in helping our nation heal.

     During Social Work Month, I ask every social worker to:

• Use your knowledge, skills, and values to bring about transformative change in your community. We are equipped for this – our education prepares us to improve lives and social environments.
• Engage with NASW to increase our profession’s collective power. By working through NASW’s 55 chapters, social workers are creating meaningful pathways to liberation for all.
• Take the time to work on your own biases. Explore how your implicit biases may unintentionally perpetuate racism and economic inequity in your community.
• Choose not to be a silent bystander. If you see injustice, take action, speak up, or reach out. And support organizations, movements, and people that elevate the human well-being of all people.
• Engage community leaders as allies and promote community self-determination.
• Read, commit, and promote the NASW Social Work Code of Ethics in your practice, community, the nation, and our global communities.

     As President of NASW, I thank all social workers for your contributions and for all that you do to uplift our social work profession. Healing our communities is not easy work. But it is necessary work. And social workers, as members of a proud and essential profession, we have the knowledge, talent, and skills to help our nation live up to its best ideals – freedom and liberation of all.

     Happy Social Work Month!

Mildred “Mit” Joyner, DPS, MSW, BSW, LCSW, is President of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). Joyner also serves as President of the North America Region of the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), which includes Canada and the United States and is a member of IFSW’s Executive Committee. She serves on the boards of the NASW Foundation and NASW Assurance Services, Inc. Her other board service included a community bank, DNBFIRST, where she was the first female and only African American to serve in this capacity and the Chester County Food Bank.