News

CSWE proudly announces the recipients of the 2020 Professional Recognition Awards. Alice Gates, Betty J. Ruth, Kay Hoffman, and Rebecca Gomez represent the best of the best among social work educators, and CSWE is honored to highlight their achievements and extraordinary work. These recipients will be recognized during the 2020 Annual Program Meeting, November 11-15. 

Saundra Starks, EdD, LCSW, chair of the CSWE Board of Directors, shared her advice and challenges for the 47,000 social work program graduates entering the workforce this year. CSWE created a dedicated space for students, faculty members, social workers, allied health-care providers, and others to leave thoughts, messages, videos, and photos for the Class of 2020 in CSWE Spark. 

Since the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in late May, daily protests have taken place around the world as people express their shared grief and outrage at the growing number of unarmed African Americans who have died recently at the hands of police. These recent wounds have opened up deep societal scars because we are in the middle of two pandemics that disproportionately affect communities of color. Read more.

Darla Spence Coffey, PhD, MSW, president and CEO of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), and Saundra Starks, EdD, MSW, chair of the CSWE Board of Directors, released the following statement regarding issues of social justice that have been brought to the national forefront.
 

Forced to forego the traditional gatherings to celebrate graduation, social work graduates, educators, and programs have found ways to bring special meaning to commencement events through technology and social networks. To support those efforts, CSWE has created a dedicated space for students, faculty members, social workers, allied health-care providers, and others to leave thoughts, messages, videos, and photos for the Class of 2020. Read more.

Two weeks ago, we asked readers to take a brief survey to share with us the challenges they are facing professionally as a result of the pandemic and how they are meeting those challenges with creativity and innovation. One of the top challenges identified in the survey was how to effectively deploy technology to provide social work education and, for practitioners, social work services. Read more.

We cannot know what the Class or 2021 graduation will look like yet, but CSWE is committed to supporting faculty members, staff members, students, and programs with flexibility during this unprecedented and unsettling time so they can maintain a focus on quality education. Read more. 

In joint written testimony, CSWE and the National Association of Social Workers urged the Senate Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies for strong federal funding to support social workers and social work education in the fiscal year (FY) 2021 budget. Read more.

There is one thing about a pandemic: Everyone is affected. Although each of us has a unique experience of this public health crisis, we also share collective experiences, such as social distancing. We have been touched personally, and we have been touched professionally. We are becoming aware that life as we knew it will change. It will be different going forward. Read more.

For the past 4 weeks, ASWB, CSWE, and NASW have come together to share Social Work Responds with you. Each week, we communicate what we’ve learned from our respective memberships about social workers’ COVID-19 related issues and concerns. This week, we would like to invite you to share how COVID-19 is affecting you as a social worker. Read more.