Social Work Month 2015

CSWE celebrates Social Work Month 2015, along with other organizations in the support of the Social Work Paves the Way for Change theme.

Check this page throughout March for celebration updates and follow CSWE on Twitter for useful information relevant to social work education! Since March is also Women's History Month, we'll also be tweeting about important contributions that women have made throughout social work history.

1. Albany State University (Albany, GA) will hold its second biannual International Social Work Conference on April 1, 2015.
2. Arkansas State University (Jonesboro, AK) will host its annual conference on March 11, 2015.
3. Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr, PA) will be contributing to the preventive and restorative efforts in place to combat the effects of the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone. It will be having a drive for supplies and monetary donations for those affected by the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone, many of whom have been orphaned. On March 17th on the graduate campus donations from the drive will be assembled into care packages. Student leaders from the Association of Black Social Workers and the Graduate Student Association will work collaboratively to plan and lead this effort.
4. Fresno State University (Fresno, CA) will be hosting its second "Legacy Dinner" on March 20, 2015, to celebrate Social Work Month, its Social Work Heroes, and alumni. All alumni have been invited to join in celebrating the heritage that the department has created over the past 5 decades and continues to develop in classrooms today.
5. Loma Linda University (Loma Linda, CA) hosted a "Meet and Greet" for Mrs. Anita Mackey, MSW, who is 101 years old and invited Loma Linda University Medical Center social workers, field instructors, and students for lunch. 
6. Long Island University Brooklyn (Brooklyn, NY) will be celebrating social workers and the community it serves with a Social Work Community Day on March 30, 2015.
7. Members of the Marist College community (Poughkeepsie, NY) will be wearing a commemorative pin all semester to honor and educate the campus about the profession of social work. On March 25, the Social Work Association will be hosting a "Panel Night," highlighting local social work practitioners and their areas of expertise.
8. Mary Baldwin College (Staunton, VA) 
   • March 9 – The school will hold a Professional Development workshop
   • March 16 – The school will offer free HIV Testing 
   • March 24 – The school will host a social work movie night 
   • March 28 – The school will participate in a March for Meals 1 mile walk   
9. Midwestern State University (Wichita Falls, TX)  
   • March 3 – Announce events to SGA
   • March 3 (Tuesday) – Advocacy Day Participation in Austin
   • March 5 – Kickoff –Inauguration in Shawnee Theater. Dr. James Johnston, dean of Health Sciences & Human Services, will welcome attendees, and the president of NASW Red River Branch and others will be invited to speak. Dr. Satya Ayinagadda, chair of the social work department, will present the purpose of the Social Work Month. After the inauguration baked goods will be given away along with facts and statistics about social problems and the need for social work intervention.
   • March 6 – Community Education Rally – A march downtown will be organized with signs that represent social problems/community issues (using banners and signs for public education).
   • March 6–8 – Adopt a Block – Individuals will serve the East Side of the community by cleaning, painting, landscaping, or performing a requested task.
   • March 9 – High School Education – School representatives will be going to all of the high schools in Wichita Falls to present an antibullying campaign and speak about the social work profession during lunch hour.
   • March 12 – Informational Booth at Sikes Mall – The school will be providing facts and statistics to the community by stationing an informative booth at Sikes Mall. Flyers and candy will be distributed to educate the public about social issues and the social work profession.
   • March 24 – Symposium
10. Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago, IL) will host a Social Work Day on March 27.
11. Northern Kentucky University (Highland Heights, KY) engaged in a month long secret social worker event. Faculty and staff in the social work program drew names and then participated by engaging in secret acts of kindness for their drawn recipient. What each secret social worker would offer to their recipient was up to him/her. The acts of kindness included sending inspiring quotes, words of encouragement, and small gifts.
12. Saint Leo University (Saint Leo, FL) will celebrate Social Work Month on March 13, 2015, with the all-day conference: "Evidence Based Practice: Trauma Informed Care." The mayor will give a proclamation declaring this date as Saint Leo University Social Work Day. The keynote, "Seeing Individuals Through a Trauma Lens," will be live-streamed and given by Judge Lynn Tepper, circuit judge of the 6th Judicial Circuit.
13. San Diego University (San Diego, CA) will be holding an all-school conference on March 9, 2015. The theme of the conference is social justice. Speakers will be describing their work as social workers and the intertwining of social justice in their practice at the local, national, and international levels.
14. Smith College (Northampton, MA) developed a two-minute video by Smith College School for Social Work faculty member, Dr. Hannah Karpman, discussing aspects of her work at the school in relation to this year's Social Work Month theme ("Social work paves the way for change").
15. University at Albany (Albany, NY)
    • The school will hold its Second Annual Capital District Symposium,"Adverse Childhood Experiences, Trauma and Response," on March 27, 2015.
    • The Gathering—a social justice advocacy group for social work students, faculty members, and staff—will focus on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, asexual, and pansexual community, and will host two guest speakers to discuss the issues facing this community.
16. University at Buffalo (Buffalo, NY)    
    • March 2 – Global to Local Luncheon: "Behind the Veil: The Lived Experiences of Women in the Arab Gulf"
    • March 25 – International Film Festival: "Which Way Home" (Film Screening)  
17. University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) and the Central Florida Region of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) will have a joint celebration with awards being given by NASW and by the school for outstanding performance of field educators on March 19, 2015.
18. University of Denver (Denver, CO) will be partnering with Metropolitan State University, NASW–Colorado Chapter, the Colorado Society for Clinical Social Work, and Newman University to honor social workers from each organization with awards. There will also be a professional development workshop on suicide prevention prior to the reception.
19. University of Georgia (Athens, GA)   
    • Throughout the month, faculty, alumni and students shared their thoughts on the meaning of social work and how it “paves the way for change” via the School’s Facebook page
    • March 8 – Students and faculty traveled to Selma, Alabama, to mark the 50th anniversary of the civil rights event known today as "Bloody Sunday," and afterwards incorporated the experience into classroom learning
    • March 24 – Students from the International Social Work Student Association will host an evening of speakers and entertainment devoted to international aspects of social work.
    • March 27: School alumnus Lemuel LaRoche will speak on campus at the annual TEDxUGA conference about Chess & Community, the nonprofit organization he founded that promotes the success of at-risk youth in Athens, Georgia and the surrounding areas
20. University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (Champaign,IL)
    • Queering the Curriculum: LGBTQ Inclusivity in Campus Sexual Assault Prevention, March 5, 2015 – the presentation will highlight recent changes to the long-standing, peer-led, First Year Campus Acquaintance Rape Education (FYCARE) program at the UIUC to move beyond a discussion of male perpetrators and female survivors, recognize the multitude of survivor identities, and create safety for LGBTQ students.
    • Career Fair: Making a Positive Impression Workshop, March 11, 2015 – professionals from the Career Center will speak to students about preparing for career and job fairs.
    • Professional Development Series: Licensure 101, March 12, 2015 – the presentation will focus on the importance of social work licensure (LSW and LCSW) and the process for obtaining licensure. 
    • Social Work in the Spotlight: Self-Care in the Field of Social Work Panel, March 19, 2015 – a panel of social work alumni and current students will discuss ways to practice self-care while in the field of social work.
21. University of Montevallo (Montevallo, AL)
    • March 10 – the Hallie Farmer Lecture Committee presents an evening with Lilly Ledbetter. For 10 years, Ledbetter fought to close the gap between women’s and men’s wages, sparring with the Supreme Court and lobbying Capitol Hill in a historic discrimination case against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. Ledbetter won a jury verdict of more than $3 million after filing a gender pay discrimination suit in federal court, but the U.S. Supreme Court later overturned the lower court’s ruling. Despite her defeat, Ledbetter continued her fight until the Supreme Court decision was nullified when President Obama, on January 29, 2009, signed into law the first new law of his administration: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
    • March 19 – In recognition of Social Work Month, the university will host its Annual Social Work Day. It will present students with scholarships and initiate new members into the Phi Alpha National Honor Society. It will also be presenting a year-long project titled "90 Years of Progress and Innovation: An Archival History of Social Work Education at UM."
22. University of North Carolina Wilmington (Wilmington, NC)
    • Human services agencies in the region are displaying artwork by clients in the halls of McNeill Hall for the month of March.
    • Social Workers as Superheroes: Regan Springs (BSW ‘15), double major in art and social work, has gone to field classes and had students draw themselves as social worker superheroes with one superpower; those drawings will be included in the SSW art exhibit, some to include headshots and quotes from student artists.
    • March 4 – “Transformation and Self Care” Regan Springs will lead a transformation self-care art workshop for students.
    • March 18 – “Reel to real ethics” Workshop. Michael Kahn, LPC, offers a workshop that explores ethical dilemmas in a creative manner: through the use of film. Participants will watch entertaining and provocative film clips during the workshop. They will then consider clinical examples, followed by lively discussions about the insights and reactions raised and decision making informed by ethical codes.
    • March 23 – Gary Bailey, MSW, ACSW, professor of practice at Simmons University and former president of the International Federation of Social Workers, will speak about the role of health and human services professionals in working for human rights.
    • March 30 – “Taking the Pulse of Poverty”: UNCW’s Fourth Annual Poverty Conference. Coordinated by the Departments of Sociology and Criminology and Public and International Affairs and, for the first year, the School of Social Work, the conference will organize a panel of speakers to discuss the realities of poverty in North Carolina and the Cape Fear region 
23. University of Oklahoma (Norman, OK) will hold a professional development day on March 12, 2015.
24. University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA)
    • The Wellness Committee has put together a campaign that celebrates Social Work history. They have incorporated ongoing Wellness opportunities, such as the Wellness website. The committee also added fun new components just for Social Work Month like weekly Wellness motivation videos produced by Edge Fitness.
    • Organize a Virtual RoadTrip to Wellness. They sent snail-mail all faculty working outside of Los Angeles a RoadTrip info packet that included a Happy Social Work Month greeting and RoadTrip welcome letter from our Virtual Academic Center Director Dr June Wiley. Included in the mailing was a custom made Wellness scroll pen as a "souvenir of the trip"! 
25. Valdosta State University (Valdosta, GA) will celebrate Social Work Day on March 13, 2015. The event will begin with Mayor John Gayle presenting a proclamation declaring March 13 Social Work Day in Valdosta, Georgia. Dr. Gary Bailey, an internationally renowned expert on human rights and social justice, will conduct the workshop “Human Rights and Social Justice: The Soul of Social Work.”
26. Virginia State University (Petersburg, VA) has teamed up with NASW to recognize, honor, and celebrate social work alumni who have been essential agents in paving the way for social change since 1971.
27. Washington Adventist University (Takoma Park, MD)
    • March 16 – Denise Defoe, LGSW was a featured speaker. The theme was "The "H" word; honest dialogue about hospice care." 
    • March 17 – Attended the Inaugural Social Work Day on Capitol Hill  
    • March 25 – the Social Work Club sponsored a campus wide stress relief event called the "No Stress Zone". Of the six "zone out" stations, the massage chair, soothing scents and sounds, karaoke & African Dance were the most popular stations.
    • March 25 – "Shout Out". The students distributed handbills to the student body to educate them on the amazing works of social work.
    • March 26–27 – students signed up to volunteer for the NASW DC Metro Chapter Conference.