Social Work Matters

About the Editors
About the Contributors

Introduction
Elizabeth F. Hoffler and Elizabeth J. Clark

Administration

Chapter 1: The Business of Social Work
Elizabeth J. Clark

Chapter 2: Social Media for Social Workers: An Imperative for the Profession
Elizabeth F. Hoffler and Ebony Jackson

Chapter 3: Fundraising as Social Work Practice
Marilyn Flynn

Chapter 4: Workplace Bullying
Tracy Robinson Whitaker

Advocacy

Chapter 5: Linkages between Clinical and Policy Practice in Social Work
King Davis

Chapter 6: Reinvesting in the Profession to Secure the Future
Elizabeth F. Hoffler

Chapter 7: From the Tough Streets of East New York to Capitol Hill
Charles E. Lewis Jr.

Children and Families

Chapter 8: From a Staffing Crisis to the Building of a National Workforce Agenda for Social Work
Katharine Briar-Lawson

Chapter 9: An Advocacy Plan on Behalf of Foster Families
Susan Kosche Vallem

Chapter 10: Child Welfare: Does Social Work Matter?
Joan Levy Zlotnik

Chapter 11: Care Coordination for the Well-Being of Children
Kathy Lopes

Chapter 12: Adoption Practices and Policies Affecting Children and Families in Child Welfare: In Whose Best Interests?
Ruth G. McRoy

Communities

Chapter 13: How I Became a Community Organizer as a Casework Social Work Student: The Interrelationship between Case and Cause Advocacy
Terry Mizrahi

Chapter 14: Disaster Policy and the Human Response
Carmen D. Weisner

Chapter 15: Policy and Practice in Rural Social Work
Deirdra Robinson

Corrections and the Courts

Chapter 16: Women, Drugs, Crime, and Policy: The Unanticipated Consequences of Women’s Substance Use
Seana Golder

Chapter 17: Policy and Practices Affecting Those Involved in the Criminal Justice System
Sheryl Pimlott Kubiak and Gina Fedock

Chapter 18: Reforming Criminal Justice: From Practice to Policy
Frederic G. Reamer

Chapter 19: Social Workers as Expert Witnesses in Sexual Abuse Cases: Educating and Advocating from the Witness Stand
Anne Hoffman

Direct Practice

Chapter 20: Alcohol Abuse and Dependence: The 7 Percent Problem
Audrey L. Begun

Chapter 21: If I Go to Work, I Will Die: The Impact of Health Policy on Disability Rights
Romel Mackelprang

Chapter 22: Synergistic Opportunities: Faith-based Work, Community Collaborations, and Influencing Policy
Mayra Lopez-Humphreys

Chapter 23: Social Work with Veterans and Their Families
Anthony M. Hassan and Joseph E. Chicas

Chapter 24: Restoring Protection for Torture Survivors
S. Megan Berthold

Education and Loan Forgiveness

Chapter 25: Engaging Students in Macro Practice: A Social Project
Linda S. Moore

Chapter 26: Helping Social Workers Help Clients: Student Loan Forgiveness
Sunny Harris Rome

Chapter 27: We Can Help You (Buyer Beware): Can a Poor Student Get an Education?
James J. Kelly

Equality and Social Justice

Chapter 28: Love, Money, Death, and Taxes: Why Marriage Equality Matters
Jeane W. Anastas

Chapter 29: Inequality, Social Welfare Policy, and Social Work
Vicki Lens and Irwin Garfinkel

Chapter 30: Housing: A Basic Human Right
Adrienne Walnoha and Tracy Soska

Chapter 31: Immigration: Linking Policy to Practice
Mark Lusk

Chapter 32: Helping Low-Income Families Obtain Economic Security: The Value of Local Partnerships
Trina R. Williams Shanks

Finances

Chapter 33: Financial Social Work
Reeta Wolfsohn

Government Programs

Chapter 34: Adventures in Workfare Policy
Leon H. Ginsberg

Chapter 35: Social Workers Advocating for Social Security
Stephen H. Gorin

Health

Chapter 36: Cancer Policy Can Mean Life or Death
Elizabeth J. Clark

Chapter 37: The Relationship of Practice, Policy, and Research in Breast Cancer Disparities
Sarah Gehlert

Chapter 38: Psychosocial Issues in Life-limiting Illness: Continuity of Care
Katherine Walsh

Chapter 39: Domestic Violence, Women’s Health, and the Power of Social Work
Tricia B. Bent-Goodley

Chapter 40: End-of-Life, Palliative, and Hospice Care
Karen Bullock and Jodi Hall

Chapter 41: Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias: Complex Family Care
Lisa P. Gwyther and Jessica L. Katz

Chapter 42: Health Care Reform and the Role of Social Work
Robyn Golden and Melissa Frey

HIV/AIDS

Chapter 43: That’s What Friends Are For: 30 Years of HIV/AIDS Advocacy
Gary Bailey

Chapter 44: Managing the HIV Care System: Social Workers as Client Navigators and Policy Advocates
Evelyn P. Tomaszewski

Parity

Chapter 45: Parity for Mental Health and Substance Use Disorders
Peter J. Delany and Joseph J. Shields

Chapter 46: Policy, Practice, and Parity: Clinical Social Work Advocacy in Washington State
Laura W. Groshong

Research

Chapter 47: Social Work Research Matters
Joan Levy Zlotnik

Reading Guide
Index

Elizabeth F. Hoffler, MSW, ACSW, works in the executive office of NASW in Washington, DC, where she advises the executive director on key planning, strategic, and policy issues and assists in managing, analyzing, and implementing special projects and important issues within the office of the executive director. She is the chief speech-writer for the executive director and represents the national office at external events and meetings. She is also the executive office congressional liaison, coordinating congressional meetings and events for the executive director.

In addition, Hoffler works in NASW’s Government Relations Department as lobbyist for the Social Work Reinvestment Initiative. This workforce initiative seeks to secure federal and state investments in professional social work to enhance societal well-being. Hoffler oversees the full initiative, which includes 56 NASW chapter reinvestment plans across the country as well as state and federal legislation that affects professional social workers, including the Dorothy I. Height and Whitney M. Young, Jr. Social Work Reinvestment Act.

Hoffler is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers; she has an MSW from the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Jane Addams College of Social Work and a BSW from the University of Kentucky. Her interest areas are macro social work, nonprofit administration, social work workforce issues, public policy, and political social work.

Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH, is executive director of NASW in Washington, DC. During her career, Dr. Clark has served in numerous administrative positions in social work, health care, and academia. Previously, she was executive director of the New York State chapter of NASW; chief operating officer for The March: Coming Together to Conquer Cancer, a national public awareness and grassroots organizing campaign; and director of diagnostic and therapeutic services at Albany Medical Center, Albany, NY, and associate professor of medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Albany Medical College. Dr. Clark’s other professional experience includes terms as deputy departmental chair and associate professor of health professions, Montclair State University, Monclair, NJ, where she also served as assistant to the dean of the School of Professional Studies and vice president of the faculty senate. She also developed and administered the Cancer Care Program of St. Luke’s Hospital in Bethlehem, PA.

Dr. Clark is a member of the Academy of Certified Social Workers and the National Academies of Practice. She holds a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in social work and an MPH from the University of Pittsburgh as well as a master’s degree and a doctorate in medical sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Clark is the recipient of an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Wartburg College in Waverly, IA.

Jeane W. Anastas, PhD, LMSW, is president of the board of directors of NASW. She has been a long-standing and active member of NASW and has also served as convener for the Action Network for Social Work Education and Research and a member of the NASW Workforce Research Advisory Workgroup. Previously, she served on the boards of directors of the Institute for Advancement of Social Work Research and the Society for Social Work and Research. Dr. Anastas has served as chair of the National Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues; chair of the National Committee on Women’s Issues; and a member of the National Committee on Nominations and Leadership Identification. She is active in her local NASW chapter, has served as president of the Massachusetts chapter of NASW, and was named that chapter’s Social Worker of the Year in 1995.

Dr. Anastas is a professor at the New York University Silver School of Social Work and is highly regarded in the field of social work doctoral education and research. She was named a Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Visiting Scholar for 2006–07 and received CSWE’s Greatest Recent Contribution to Social Work Education Award in 2007. In 2007, Dr. Anastas was elected to the National Academies of Practice in Health Care.

Dr. Anastas has published extensively in the areas of women’s issues, GLBT rights, mental health, and social work education, including the recently published Teaching in Social Work: Theory and Practice for Educators and the forthcoming Doctoral Education in Social Work. She received her BLS in social work from Boston University, her MSW from Boston College, and her PhD from Brandeis University.

Gary Bailey MSW, ACSW, received his BA from the Eliot Pearson School of Child Study, Tufts University, and his MSW from Boston University’s School of Social Work. Currently, he is a professor of practice at the Simmons College School of Social Work and the Simmons School of Nursing and Health Sciences. Bailey is an award-winning professor who has played top leadership roles in the social work field. He is president of the International Federation of Social Workers, representing over 700,000 thousand social workers from over 80 countries. He was president of NASW from 2003 to 2005 and was named Social Worker of the Year by both the Massachusetts chapter of NASW and the national organization in 1998. He was made a Social Work Pioneer by NASW in 2005.

Bailey is a past president of the board of directors of the AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts. In June 2010, he was selected as one of 25 people who have made a difference in Massachusetts in the fight against HIV/AIDS and whose contributions to the fight against AIDS over the last two-and-a-half decades have been invaluable.

Audrey L. Begun, PhD, MSW, received her social work and research training at the University of Michigan, taking a doctorate in social work and the social sciences (developmental psychology). From 1997 to 2008, she served on the social work faculty of the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee and as both a center scientist and administrator with the school’s Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research. In 2009, she joined the faculty of the Ohio State University College of Social Work, where she continues to conduct research concerning substance abuse and other behavioral health concerns and to educate social workers at the BSSW, MSW, and PhD levels.

She was the primary editor of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism curriculum for social work education on alcohol abuse and dependence, which is still available to social work educators online. Her recent publications include articles and book chapters concerning social work intervention to address substance abuse– related needs among women during incarceration and community reentry, sibling relationships, and a life-course context for alcohol change attempts. She is currently working with a colleague to produce a book for social workers about conducting substance abuse research.

Tricia B. Bent-Goodley, PhD, MSW, LICSW, is professor of social work at Howard University. Dr. Bent-Goodley’s research and writing have focused on developing community and faith-based interventions in the areas of domestic violence, dating violence, HIV prevention, and healthy relationship education. She is a member of the NASW Committee on Women’s Issues. Dr. Bent-Goodley received her PhD in social policy, planning and analysis from Columbia University and her master’s degree in social work from the University of Pennsylvania.

Megan Berthold, PhD, LICSW, CTS, is an assistant professor in casework at the University of Connecticut’s School of Social Work. She holds a PhD in social welfare and for the past 24 years has specialized in the cross-cultural assessment and treatment of refugees and asylum seekers from many countries who are survivors of political persecution, torture, war traumas, human trafficking, female genital cutting, and other traumas. Before coming to the University of Connecticut in 2011, Dr. Berthold worked with the Program for Torture Victims in Los Angeles for 13 years as a psychotherapist and later as the director of research and evaluation. She has worked in refugee camps in Nepal and the Philippines and on the Thai–Cambodian border. Currently, she is conducting research funded by the National Institute of Mental Health with colleagues at the RAND Corporation examining the prevalence of torture and its mental and physical health consequences among Khmer refugees in southern California. She has also conducted federally funded clinical outcomes research with torture survivors, and she co-chairs the National Consortium of Torture Treatment Programs’ data project. She has testified on numerous occasions since 1998 as an expert witness in U.S. immigration court.

Katharine Briar-Lawson, PhD, MSW, is dean and professor in the School of Social Welfare at the University at Albany, State University of New York. Among her books (coauthored) are Family-Centered Policies and Practices: International Implications and (coedited) Innovative Practices with Vulnerable Children and Families; Evaluation Research in Child Welfare; Charting the Impacts of University–Child Welfare Collaboration; Social Work Research; Social Work Practice Research; and Globalization, Social Justice and the Helping Professions. She co-chairs the Gerontological Task Force for the National Association for Deans and Directors and has served as a past president of the association. In addition, she is a co–principal investigator of the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute.

Karen Bullock, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor in the Department of Social Work at North Carolina State University. She holds a clinical appointment at the Institute of Living at Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT, and serves on a number of community and professional boards. Dr. Bullock earned a BSW degree from North Carolina State University, an MSW from Columbia University, and a PhD from Boston University. She is a John A. Hartford Faculty Scholar and a member of the Social Work Hospice and Palliative Care Network board of directors and the NASW Mental Health Section Committee. She has published and presented nationally and internationally on health care disparities and end-of-life care issues with older adults.

Joseph E. Chicas, MSW, is a macro-level social worker, working with various agencies to improve organizational performance, develop programs, improve service delivery, and increase funding capacity. He recently worked for Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA), enhancing the federal casework program to meet the urgent needs of service members and their families. Currently, Chicas serves as a project specialist for the University of Southern California Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families. He works with a senior research team to implement the Reintegration Partnership Project, an 18-month research and training effort to help National Guard soldiers transition from combat to civilian and family life. Chicas earned his bachelor’s degree from University of California, Los Angeles, and his MSW from University of Southern California.

King Davis, PhD, is director of the Institute for Urban Policy Research and Analysis at the University of Texas at Austin (UTA). He served as the executive director of UTA’s Hogg Foundation for Mental Health Services, Research, Policy and Education from 2003 to 2009. Since 2000, he has held the Robert Lee Sutherland Chair in Mental Health and Social Policy in the School of Social Work at UTA. He was a professor of public mental health policy and planning at the Virginia Commonwealth University from 1984 to 2000. As the Galt Scholar, he held full professorships at each of Virginia’s three medical schools from 1985 to 1988. He was awarded a PhD from the Florence G. Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University in 1971.

Dr. Davis is a former commissioner (1990–1994) of the Virginia Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation, and Substance Abuse Services. At UTA, he teaches courses in mental health policy, planning, and theory. He is conducting a study of the policies that led to the development of the Central Lunatic Asylum for Colored Insane, the first mental institution for Africans in the United States. He is coauthor of The Color of Social Policy, and his most recent articles were published in American Psychologist, the Journal of Social Policy, and the International Journal of Social Policy.

Peter J. Delany, PhD, LCSW-C, Rear Admiral Lower Half in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, is currently director of the Center for Behavioral for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality at the Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration, Rockville, MD, and is the strategic lead for the data, outcomes, and quality initiative. He is also an adjunct professor of social work at the Catholic University of America.

Gina Fedock, MSW, is a doctoral student in social work at Michigan State University. Her clinical and research interests focus on interventions for the health and mental health needs of marginalized women, particularly those who are incarcerated.

Marilyn Flynn, PhD, MSW, was first appointed dean of the University of Southern California School (USC) of Social Work in 1997 and was reappointed in 2011. Under her leadership, the school significantly expanded its Hamovitch Center for Science in the Human Services and recruited a nationally recognized faculty to conduct clinical and intervention studies in health, mental health, aging, and child maltreatment. She established new graduate academic centers in San Diego and at the Skirball Cultural Center in West Los Angeles and then, in 2010, launched a full Web-based MSW degree program through the USC School of Social Work’s new Virtual Academic Center. The school now graduates nearly 40 percent of all social workers in California and, with the Virtual Academic Center, has become the first truly national program in the profession. In addition, under Dr. Flynn’s leadership, the school has received three congressionally directed appropriations to establish the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military families, focusing on the mental health needs of service members and their families.

Melissa Frey, MA, LCSW, is a community- and hospital-based social worker with interests in mental health, geriatrics, trauma, minority health disparities, and couples therapy. As a social worker, Frey has worked in various settings, including inpatient and outpatient behavioral health, community mental health, and public health centers. She currently works at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago as program coordinator of the BRIGHTEN Heart program in the Department of Preventive Medicine. Frey was selected to participate in the national Practice Change Fellowship Program, a grant-based leadership development program. As a fellow, she works as the developer, coordinator, and researcher on the UNIDOS (United in Identifying and Developing Our Strengths) program, which provides trauma treatment for Spanishspeaking older adults. Frey received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, during which time she spent a year studying at the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain. Her master’s degree is from the University of Chicago School of Social Administration, where she was awarded the Jane Mullenbach Moore Scholarship. She completed a postgraduate fellowship in evidence-based psychotherapy at Rush University Medical Center.

Irwin Garfinkel, PhD, is the Mitchell I. Ginsberg Professor of Contemporary Urban Problems at the Columbia University School of Social Work, co-founding director of the Columbia Population Research Center, and the co–principal investigator of the Fragile Families Study. He has authored over 200 scientific articles and 16 books and edited volumes on poverty, income transfer policy, program evaluation, single-parent families, and child support. His most recent book (with Lee Rainwater and Timothy Smeeding) is Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader?

Sarah Gehlert, PhD, is the E. Desmond Lee Professor of Racial and Ethnic Diversity at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work and professor in the Department of Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis. Until 2009, she was the Helen Ross Professor at the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. At Washington University, she is the co-leader of the Prevention and Control Program of the Siteman Cancer Center, co-director of the Transdisciplinary Center on Energetics and Cancer, and training program director for the Program for the Elimination of Cancer Disparities. Dr. Gehlert serves on the executive committee of Washington University’s Institute for Clinical and Translational Science and co-chairs the Center for Community-Engaged Research. She is a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Human Genome Research Institute. She chaired the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Summer Institute on Community-Based Participatory Research in 2007 and 2009 and serves as a chartered member of NIH’s Community-Level Health Promotion Study Section. She is a member of the Oncology Social Work Peer Review Committee at the American Cancer Society, a past president of the Society for Social Work and Research, and a fellow in the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.

Leon H. Ginsberg, PhD, teaches social work at Appalachian State University, where he has served as interim chair of the Department of Social Work. He was formerly distinguished professor and dean at the College of Social Work, University of South Carolina; dean of the School of Social Work, West Virginia University; and West Virginia’s Commissioner of Human Services. He was also formerly a board member and national secretary of NASW. He is the editor of the journal Administration in Social Work.

Robyn Golden, MA, LCSW, serves as the director of older adult programs at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, where she also holds academic appointments in the Departments of Preventive Medicine and Health Systems Management. She is responsible for the expansion of services and oversees the health and aging, mental health, and transitional care programs. Golden has worked in the field of aging for more than 25 years. She has been actively involved in service provision, program development, education, research, and public policy aimed at developing innovative initiatives and systems integration to improve the health and well-being of older adults and their families. In 2003–04, Golden was the John Heinz Senate Fellow, based in the office of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) in Washington, DC. Prior to this, she worked at the Council for Jewish Elderly for 18 years, serving for much of that time as their director of clinical service. She is past chair of the American Society on Aging and is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America. She co-chairs the National Coalition on Care Coordination, housed at the New York Academy of Medicine. Golden has a master’s degree from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and a bachelor’s degree from Miami University. She and her coauthor Melissa Frey acknowledge Gayle Shier, with gratitude, for assistance in editing their chapter.

Seana Golder, PhD, MSW, received her BA from the University of Maryland, her MSW from Louisiana State University, and her PhD in social welfare from the University of Washington. Dr. Golder’s clinical practice experience has included work with adult women and men in the criminal justice system, substance abuse treatment, and addressing high-risk behaviors among adolescent and young adult women. She joined the faculty of the University of Louisville’s Kent School of Social Work in 2003, where she is currently an associate professor, teaching primarily in the area of practice. Her research focuses on women’s engagement in high-risk behaviors (substance abuse, law-breaking, risky sexual behavior), with a particular emphasis on understanding the intersection of victimization, substance abuse, and psychological distress, especially among women in the criminal justice system.

Stephen H. Gorin, PhD, received his doctorate in social welfare policy from the Heller School, Brandeis University. He is professor in the Social Work Department at Plymouth State University in Plymouth, NH, and executive director of the New Hampshire chapter of NASW. He is currently serving his second term as editor-inchief of the journal Health & Social Work. He served as a delegate to the 1995 and 2005 White House Conferences on Aging and the 1998 White House Conference on Social Security. He was elected to membership in the National Academy of Social Insurance and been appointed to the standing editorial board of Oxford Bibliographies Online: Social Work. He is also serving a second term as a member of the New Hampshire State Committee on Aging.

Laura W. Groshong, MSW, received her master’s in social work in 1974 from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago. She also has advanced training in adult psychotherapy from the Seattle Psychoanalytic Institute, receiving her certificate in 1979. Groshong has been in private practice with individuals, couples, and families for 35 years. Since 1996, she has also worked as a registered lobbyist in Washington state for eight mental health groups, passing several bills promoting access to mental health treatment. Since 2006, she has served as the director of government relations for the Clinical Social Work Association, a national organization that advocates on behalf of clinical social workers.

Groshong was inducted into the National Social Work Academy of Practice in November 2004 for her clinical, legislative, and organizational work. She has also written several articles on legislative activity and coauthored social work licensure laws in 10 states. Groshong is the author of Clinical Social Work Regulation and Practice: An Overview, which compared clinical social work licensure laws and scopes of practice across all states and jurisdictions in the United States. She spoke to the Council on Social Work Education as an invited presenter at their national conference in Portland, Oregon, in October 2010.

Lisa P. Gwyther, MSW, LCSW, is a social worker with 40 years of experience in aging and Alzheimer’s services. She is an associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center, director of the Duke Aging Center Family Support Program, and education director of the Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Duke University Medical Center. In 1999, Duke’s Family Support Program was named the Agency of the Year by NASW’s North Carolina chapter. Gwyther was the 2008 president of the Gerontological Society of America. She received her graduate training in social work at Case Western Reserve University. She has published over 130 articles, book chapters, and books on Alzheimer’s care and family caregiving research. She served on the U.S. federal advisory panel on Alzheimer’s disease for nine years and, during that time, provided expert testimony for several congressional hearings on Alzheimer’s disease. In June 1998, Gwyther was recognized in the 20th anniversary issue of Contemporary Long-Term Care as one of 20 people who made a difference in U.S. long-term care in those two decades. She has received two major North Carolina awards for leadership in aging services. In 1993, as the first recipient of the John Heinz Congressional Fellowship in Aging and Health, she spent six months on the health staff of U.S. Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell.Jodi Hall, EdD, MSW, is a clinical assistant professor and director of field education in the Department of Social Work at North Carolina State University. She earned an EdD from North Carolina State University and an MSW from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her direct practice experience includes abuse investigations and treatment and public health social work. Dr. Hall was also the staff development manager for a large county human services agency and administered a partnership program between large county government agencies. Her primary research focus is education and access for ethnic minorities and disadvantaged groups. She has written and presented on issues of health and social justice in relation to improving access to services and opportunities.

Anthony M. Hassan, EdD, LCSW, is director of the Center for Innovation and Research on Veterans and Military Families at the University of Southern California. Dr. Hassan is a retired Air Force officer who brings 25 years of experience in military social work and leadership development to this project. He was chief executive officer of the MacDill Air Force Base community mental health center, which was ranked first out of 10 community mental health centers in its region for productivity and “best clinic.” Dr. Hassan served during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004 on the first-ever Air Force combat stress control and prevention team embedded with an Army unit. His unique combination of experiences contributes greatly to his success as a leader, educator, researcher, and clinician, which has been recognized with over $17 million in grant funding in 2009–10.

Anne Hoffman, LCSW-C, serves as a supervisor for Montgomery County, MD, Child Welfare Services and is in her 17th year with the department. Her tenure has included four years as a sexual abuse investigator; 10 years as the sexual abuse investigation unit supervisor; and her current position as supervisor of several in-home services programs, in accordance with Maryland’s family-centered practice policy initiatives. Hoffman also serves as the agency liaison with the Department of Juvenile Services, Emergency Services, Homeless Services, and the Maryland State’s Attorney’s Office to facilitate interagency collaboration and seamless service delivery.

Hoffman is a member of the State Council on Child Abuse and Neglect and the Children’s Justice Act Committee. She has appeared as an expert witness in various jurisdictions around the state of Maryland and has collaborated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office at the federal level. She is one of the founding faculty members of the Finding Words/Child First initiative in Maryland, an intense, five-day training course directed at social workers, law enforcement personnel, prosecutors, victim/witness coordinators, and other professionals involved in child abuse investigations. She is also an adjunct professor at Hood College. Hoffman conducts trainings on a variety of child welfare issues throughout the state and is currently involved in crafting a training for Maryland’s Juvenile Court judges to be presented in May at the annual CANDO Conference.

Ebony Jackson is the digital media and online community manager at the NASW national office, where she manages a social networking presence of over 50,000 engaged social workers and students connecting via social media channels. An avid blogger and early social media proponent, she has over 10 years of Web development and content management experience, with a focus on usability and functional design. She received her BA in communications from Howard University.

Jessica L. Katz graduated from Penn State University in 2009 with a BA in psychology and minors in gerontology and human development and family studies. While at Penn State, Katz completed a research assistantship with Steven Zarit, an internationally recognized clinical investigator in dementia caregiver assessment and services. Katz is currently in her final year in the MSW program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is working toward a certificate in aging and is a fellow in the Hartford Partnership Practicum for Aging Education program, with a field placement at the Duke Family Support Program. She is scheduled to receive her MSW in May 2012 and anticipates state licensure in clinical social work and a career working with older adults with memory impairment and their family caregivers.

James J. Kelly, PhD, MSSW, is the president of Menlo College, Atherton, CA, and the immediate past president of NASW. For 27 years prior to joining Menlo, he worked as a professor of social work, provost, associate vice president, dean, and director in the California State University system. His areas of expertise include social work, continuing, international, and business education; gerontology; program development; and higher education administration. Dr. Kelly earned his PhD from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University, his MSSW from the University of Tennessee, and his BS from Edinboro University in Pennsylvania. He is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.

Susan Kosche Vallem, EdD, LISW, is a professor in the Social Work Department at Wartburg College, Waverly, IA, and currently serves as field education director. She has been active in legislative advocacy at the state and federal levels, advocating particularly for families and children, social work education, the Social Work Reinvestment Act, and health care policy. She currently serves as convener of the ANSWER Coalition, member of the Baccalaureate Program Directors Nominations and Advocacy and Outreach Committees, and chair of the Waverly Health Center board of trustees. Along with teaching undergraduate social work, Dr. Kosche Vallem serves as a disaster mental health worker for the American Red Cross and the state of Iowa.

Sheryl Pimlott Kubiak, PhD, is associate professor and director of doctoral education at the School of Social Work, Michigan State University. Her research interests include the intersections between criminal justice, mental health, and substance abuse, with a primary focus on women in jails and prison who have experienced traumatic events, particularly interpersonal violence.

Vicki Lens, PhD, JD, MSW, is currently associate professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work. Her primary research interest is in exploring the intersection of law, social work, and social policy, with a focus on welfare reform and administrative justice in public welfare bureaucracies. She is also interested in advocacy and the policy-making process and has published several articles drawing on linguistics and other disciplines to teach social work practitioners how to frame issues in the public arena.

Charles E. Lewis Jr., PhD, MSW, is the deputy chief of staff and communications director for Congressman Edolphus Towns (D-NY). He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Baltimore School of Social Work. Dr. Lewis completed his BA in psychology at the College of New Rochelle, his MSW in clinical counseling at Clark Atlanta University, and his PhD in social policy analysis at Columbia University. He is the former president and a current member of the board of the Mental Health Association of the District of New York.

Kathy Lopes, MSW, is a licensed independent clinical social worker with many years of experience dedicated to the health and care of youths and families. She received her MSW from Simmons College School of Social Work and her BA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She is a clinical supervisor and manager at the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. Her social work experience includes case management, clinical, and managerial roles, with training in cognitive– behavioral, trauma-focused cognitive–behavioral, and child-centered play therapies. Her involvement in a nationally publicized case, United States v. Banita Jacks, inspired her work in advocacy and policy reform within the field. She is also a part-time instructor at Simmons College, teaching graduate courses on social policy and political action. She received the Justice for Victims of Crime award from the U.S. Department of Justice in 2010 and the Simmons College Recent Graduate Award in 2008. She is an active member of the Simmons College School of Social Work Alumni Board.

Mayra Lopez-Humphreys, PhD, MSW, is an assistant professor and field coordinator of the undergraduate social work department at Nyack College. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in diversity, social welfare policy and field practice, and her research interests include critical multiculturalism and restorative practices. She has coauthored a number of peer-reviewed scholarly articles, including “The Social Construction of Client Participation: The Evolution and Transformation of the Role of Service Recipients in Child Welfare and Mental Disabilities.” Dr. Lopez- Humphreys has over 10 years of practice/organizational leadership experience in both youth development and community organizing and has designed a number of assetbased programs that focus on fostering and integrating both communities’ and participants’ social, spiritual, and cultural capital. In 2002, she received the Children’s Aid Society Excellence Award for her leadership in program innovations and partnerships with immigrant families. In the Harlem community in New York City, she is currently involved in the development of and research on a local food cooperative that offers affordable, healthy, locally grown meals and facilitating the social benefits of preparing and sharing group meals.

Mark Lusk, EdD, LMSW, ACSW, is professor of social work at the University of Texas at El Paso. He has spent much of his career working in Latin America on social development. Dr. Lusk is currently carrying out a program of research on trauma among Mexican refugees. He volunteers with civil rights and immigration advocacy organizations on the border.

Romel Mackelprang, DSW, MSW, LICSW, has been a social work educator for 30 years. He is the director of the Eastern Washington University Center for Disability Studies and Universal Access. For decades, he has been active in disability rights advocacy; he currently chairs the Washington State Independent Living Council, and he is the principal investigator in a study of the long-term impact of donated wheelchairs in several sub-Saharan African countries.

Ruth G. McRoy, PhD, MSW, became, in September 2009, the first holder of the Donahue and DiFelice Endowed Professorship at Boston College Graduate School of Social Work. Before joining the Boston College faculty, Dr. McRoy was a member of the University of Texas at Austin (UTA) School of Social Work faculty for 25 years and held the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professorship. She received her BA and MSW degrees from the University of Kansas and her PhD from UTA. As part of the federally funded AdoptUSKids project, Dr. McRoy and her research team at UTA recently completed two nationwide studies on barriers to adoption and factors associated with successful special-needs adoptions. Currently, she is leading a team conducting a five-year evaluation of AdoptUSKids. Dr. McRoy has served as president and board member of the North American Council on Adoptable Children and is a senior research fellow and member of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute Board. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, and nine books, including Transracial and Interracial Adoptees: The Adolescent Years (with Louis A. Zurcher Jr.), Special Needs Adoptions: Practice Issues, and Openness in Adoption: Family Connections (with Harold D. Grotevant).

Terry Mizrahi, PhD, MSW, is professor at the Silberman School of Social Work, Hunter College, City University of New York, where she chairs the Community Organization, Planning and Development (COP & D) practice method and teaches both COP & D and social and health policy. She is also director of the Education Center for Community Organizing. Dr. Mizrahi was co-editor-in-chief of the 20th edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work. She is the author of five books and monographs and 70 articles, book chapters, reviews, and manuals. Among her publications are Women, Organizing and Diversity: Struggling with the Issues (coauthor); Getting Rid of Patients: Contradiction in the Socialization of Physicians; Community Organization and Social Administration (coeditor and author); and Strategic Partnerships: Building Successful Coalitions and Collaborations (coauthor).

Her areas of research, training, and consultation include professional socialization, coalition building, community organizing practice, and health policy. Dr. Mizrahi is continuing a longitudinal study of 26 physicians that began in 1980, and she and colleagues are also examining the role of professional background in interdisciplinary community health collaborations; she is also engaged in a cross-country study with Israel of the role of gender and organizing—the perspectives of male and female community organizers.

Dr. Mizrahi served as the national president of NASW from 2001 to 2003. She is a founder of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration’s (ACOSA) Journal of Community Practice. Among her many awards are the Hunter Presidential Award for Excellence in Applied Research (2008) and Hunter’s Community Leadership Award (1992). She also won the Lifetime Career Achievement Award from ACOSA in 2004. She completed a Fulbright fellowship in Israel in 2006 and continues to train and consult there with various academic and professional leaders.

Linda S. Moore, PhD, ACSW, LMSW-AP, is professor of social work at Texas Christian University (TCU). Her MSW is from Virginia Commonwealth University, and her PhD is from Texas Woman’s University. She has published on the impact of social work education on student values and attitudes, gatekeeping, community practice, using the Myers–Briggs Type Inventory in social work education, social workers’ contributions to the emergence of the NAACP, and the legacy of Whitney M. Young Jr. Dr. Moore has been president of the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD), NASW’s Texas chapter, and the Texas Association of Social Work Deans and Directors and chair of the Nominating Committee of the Council on Social Work Education, the Nominations Committee of BPD, and NASW’s National Committee on Nominations and Leadership Identification. She is a certified accreditation site team chair and was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Baccalaureate Social Work. Dr. Moore received the TCU College of Health and Human Sciences Distinguished Research Award and the TCU Deans’ Teaching Award twice and was nominated for the Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Teaching on three occasions. She is a member of Phi Kappa Phi honor society, Alpha Delta Mu and Phi Alpha (social work honor societies), Alpha Kappa Delta (the international sociology honor society), and Golden Key International Honor Society.

Frederic G. Reamer, PhD, is a professor in the graduate program of the School of Social Work, Rhode Island College, where he has been on the faculty since 1983. His research and teaching have addressed a wide range of human service issues, including mental health, health care, criminal justice, and professional ethics. Reamer received his PhD from the University of Chicago in 1978 and has served as a social worker in correctional and mental health settings. He has served as director of the National Juvenile Justice Assessment Center of the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; senior policy advisor to the governor of Rhode Island; and commissioner of the Rhode Island Housing and Mortgage Finance Corporation. Since 1992, he has served on the State of Rhode Island Parole Board. He was also editor-in-chief of the Journal of Social Work Education and associate editor of the 20th edition of the Encyclopedia of Social Work. Reamer is the author of many books and articles. He chaired the national task force that wrote the current NASW Code of Ethics.

Deirdra Robinson, MSW, graduated from the University of Kentucky, completing her BSW in 1993 and her MSW in 1994. She grew up in a rural town in eastern Kentucky, and her passion for promoting social justice led her to work in community development. In 1999, she accepted an appointment with the University of Kentucky College of Social Work as clinical faculty member and administrative coordinator of the southeast Kentucky MSW program. In 2010, she accepted an instructor position at Morehead State University in the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Criminology. Her research and community development work focuses on health disparities and rural health issues. She is currently the president-elect of the NASW Kentucky chapter. Robinson is a member of the National Health Service Corps, the Kentucky Fairness Alliance, and NASW. She has presented research at local, state, and national conferences and mentors student trainees. She is also working on her PhD dissertation.

Sunny Harris Rome, JD, MSW, is an associate professor in the Department of Social Work, George Mason University. She earned her MSW from the University of Michigan and her JD from Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to joining the George Mason faculty, she worked as a litigating attorney in the General Counsel’s Office of the U.S. Department of Education and as a senior lobbyist for NASW’s national office. She teaches courses on social policy, legislative advocacy, social work and the law, and community practice. Her research interests include child welfare policy, immigration, and political action. She is a faculty fellow with the Cochrane Collaboration College for Policy, under whose auspices she is completing a project on the mental health status of immigrant children and youths. She is the author of the textbook Social Work and Law: Judicial Policy and Forensic Practice, which is currently in press.

Trina R. Williams Shanks, PhD, MSW, is currently associate professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work. She completed her PhD in social work at Washington University in St. Louis and is a faculty associate with its Center for Social Development. She earned a master’s degree in comparative social research from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Her research interests include assetbuilding policy and practice across the life course, the impact of poverty and wealth on child well-being, and community and economic development in urban areas. She has several active research projects, including serving as co-investigator for the SEED Impact Assessment study, which has established a quasi-experimental research design to test the impact of offering 529 college education plans to Head Start families; an NICHD-funded study to conduct secondary data analysis examining how the financial situation of households influences child outcomes from early childhood into adulthood; and an evaluation, which she is overseeing, for Detroit’s Summer Youth Employment Program. As of May 2010, Dr. Shanks was appointed by Governor Jennifer M. Granholm to serve on Michigan’s Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity.

Joseph J. Shields, PhD, is an associate professor at the National Catholic School of Social Service, Catholic University of America, Washington, DC. He also has a joint appointment with the Center for Behavioral Health, Statistics and Quality, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Rockville, MD, where he serves as a senior research scientist.

Tracy Soska, LSW, is assistant professor, chair of the Community Organization and Social Administration Program, and director of continuing education at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Social Work. He also co-directs the university’s Community Outreach Partnership Center and, in 2000, received the university chancellor’s Faculty Public Service award. In addition to serving as immediate past chair of the Association for Community Organization and Social Administration, he serves as an editor of the Journal of Community Practice. Prior to joining the Pittsburgh faculty in 1993, Soska was a nonprofit executive for over 15 years, leading such initiatives as the Westinghouse Valley Human Services Center and the Mon Valley Providers Council during the era of Pittsburgh’s industrial decline, the Urban League of Pittsburgh’s Youth Employment System and Ex-Offender Programs, and the Pittsburgh Neighborhood Alliance and its citywide crime prevention program.

Evelyn P. Tomaszewski, MSW, is a senior policy associate in NASW’s Human Rights and International Affairs Division. She is responsible for implementation of the NASW HIV/AIDS Spectrum Project, which addresses a range of health and behavioral health issues, with a focus on HIV/AIDS and co-occurring chronic illnesses. She promotes the NASW Global HIV/AIDS Initiative through collaboration with domestic and international groups and agencies, having implemented capacity and training needs assessments addressing the social work workforce, volunteers, and health and mental health care providers in sub-Saharan Africa. She staffs the NASW National Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Issues and previously staffed the International Committee. She has expertise in policy analysis and implementation addressing gender equity, violence prevention and early intervention, the connection of trauma and risk for HIV/AIDS, and public health approaches to community health. Tomaszewski has over two decades of social work experience as a counselor, community organizer, educator/trainer, and administrator. She holds a BSW and an MSW from West Virginia University and a graduate certificate in procurement and contracts management and a certificate in leadership development from the University of Virginia.

Adrienne Walnoha, MSW, is the chief executive officer of Community Human Services (CHS), Pittsburgh, a private community benefit organization that operates the Lawn Street Community Center and social service programming for youths and families, primary and behavioral health care, and supported community housing. Under Walnoha’s leadership, CHS has expanded its housing assistance programs to include atypical shelter, housing first, eviction prevention, and rapid rehousing programs, which previously had not been available in Allegheny County, PA. CHS also acts as the housing crisis provider for Allegheny County Department of Human Services. Walnoha serves as an advisor on the Allegheny County Homeless Advisory Board and the Emergency Food and Shelter Program Board. She is also a therapist and licensed social worker and part of the adjunct faculty at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work.

Katherine Walsh, PhD, MSW, is a professor of social work in the MSW program at Westfield State University and maintains a private practice in Northampton, MA. She is a past board member and past president of the Association of Oncology Social Workers, author of the text book Grief and Loss: Theories and Skills for the Helping Professions (2nd ed.), coauthor of the C-Penn award–winning Cancer Survival Toolbox, and author of more than 30 book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles. She has led social work exchanges to Cambodia, China, and Hungary and has won numerous professional awards, such as the Trish Greene Award from the American Cancer Society.

Carmen D. Weisner, LCSW, ACSW, graduated from the Louisiana State University School of Social Work in 1974. She retired from public service in 2004. Before her retirement, she was appointed by Governor Mike Foster to be the assistant secretary for the Louisiana Department of Social Service’s Office of Community Services, and, under her leadership, the agency became the third public statewide system to achieve accreditation by the Council on Accreditation (COA). On her retirement from public service, Weisner was hired by the Louisiana chapter of NASW as its executive director; it was during her first year in that position that Louisiana was hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She was a keynote speaker at the 2005 COA Public Agency Roundtable and the 2006 Child Welfare League of America Conference. In 2010, she was named the NASW executive director of the year.

Tracy Robinson Whitaker, DSW, ACSW, is director of NASW’s Center for Workforce Studies and Social Work Practice. She directed the 2004 national benchmark study of licensed social workers and was the lead author of five reports that emanated from that study. She also led the first compensation and benefits study of the social work profession in 2009 and has conducted multiple studies of the NASW membership. Dr. Whitaker is the lead author of Workforce Trends Affecting the Profession 2009 and The Results Are In: What Social Workers Say About Social Work, both published by the NASW Press.

Dr. Whitaker’s career has included work with individuals, organizations, and community systems. She has served as the executive director of a transitional center for homeless women; as a court monitor overseeing the deinstitutionalization of St. Elizabeths Hospital, Washington, DC; and as the deputy director of a federally funded national resource center addressing the behavioral health needs of women across the life cycle. Dr. Whitaker received a BA in political science and an MSW and a DSW from Howard University. She also holds certification from NASW’s Academy of Certified Social Workers.

Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW, is founder of the Center for Financial Social Work (http:// www.financialsocialwork.com) and a nationally known motivational speaker. She is a certified social worker, author, and expert on money from a psychosocial perspective. Wolfsohn’s work began in 1997 with a focus on “femonomics—the gender of money,” based on the feminization-of-poverty approach. Over time, it grew less gender specific, and in 2003 she renamed her approach “financial social work” and founded the Center for Financial Social Work, which has since certified hundreds of men and women across the United States and around the world in financial social work. Wolfsohn gives keynote speeches and trainings at national and state conferences and has taught at numerous universities and colleges.

Joan Levy Zlotnik, PhD, ACSW, is the director of the NASW Social Work Policy Institute and previously served as the executive director of the Institute for Social Work Research. She is nationally recognized for her leadership work on building university–agency collaborations, addressing policy and practice issues related to the enhancement of the child welfare and aging workforces, and developing strategies for building and sustaining social work research infrastructure and capacity. For more than two decades, she has worked in national social work organizations, successfully garnering federal and foundation funds to enhance the delivery of social work services.

The good we secure for ourselves is precarious and uncertain until it is secured for all of us and incorporated into our common life.

– Jane Addams

This book is titled Social Work Matters for a variety of reasons. Social work matters because the profession is absolutely necessary for a healthy society. The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and help meet the basic needs of all people, with particular attention to those who are vulnerable, oppressed, and living in poverty. As we continue to deal with the consequences of a devastating economic recession, the looming fear of instability, and a government that is no longer able to meet the needs or fulfill the promises made to millions of people at risk of falling through the cracks, the social work profession continues to pick up the pieces of a broken system and determine how to make that system whole again.

To this end, social justice is the fuel that drives social workers and is what sets social work apart from other professions. Social justice is defined as “an ideal condition in which all members of a society have the same basic rights, protections, opportunities, obligations, and social benefits. . . . Social justice entails advocacy to confront discrimination, oppression, and institutional inequities” (Barker, 2003, pp. 404-405).

Social workers work with individuals, families, communities, and systems and can be found in almost every corner of our lives, including schools, prisons, hospitals, mental health clinics, addiction recovery centers, skilled nursing facilities, hospices, private practice, and state and federal government, to name but a few. They form the front line and make up the threads of society’s social safety net. Social workers are first responders to natural disasters, are officers in the military, and are members of the U.S. Congress. They own their own businesses and work in and run foundations, nonprofits, and corporate organizations and companies throughout the country.

The profession of social work has existed for over a century, since its founding in settlement houses like Jane Addams’ Hull House in Chicago. Social workers – like Frances Perkins, Harry Hopkins, Dorothy I. Height, and Whitney M. Young Jr. – have been key architects on groundbreaking social initiatives like civil rights legislation, Social Security, unemployment insurance, and Medicaid and Medicare and provide the majority of mental health services throughout the country. Social workers assist people when they face emotional, difficult, and seemingly insurmountable obstacles. These social work matters are the issues that our nation struggles with and are challenges that we must overcome. They include poverty, inequality, insecurity, fear, violence, trauma, loss, and pain. Our world would be radically different without the contributions of social workers.

The idea for this book emerged, in part, from recognition of the breadth and depth of social work services just described. We created the book with two goals in mind. First, we wanted to portray what social workers accomplish in different fields on a daily basis. The work of social workers can seem overwhelming in the variety of positions they hold, the tasks that they accomplish, and the intensity and gravity of the work that they do. The profession is often misunderstood and undervalued. This does a disservice to the profession as well as to clients and society as a whole.

Second, this publication seeks to link the traditional, direct practice side of social work with the critical policy and advocacy components of the profession. The book explores the transition from micro-level service, working directly to improve the lives of individuals, to the macro-level work of altering our social systems and institutions through broad social action and advocacy.

Social workers have advocated for social justice and promoted equality since the founding of the profession. In the Encyclopedia of Social Work, Schneider, Lester, and Ochieng (2008) stated that “the term advocacy was first evidenced in the [1917] Proceedings of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections” (p. 61). Furthermore, “social work advocates fought for basic human rights and social justice for oppressed, vulnerable, and displaced populations” (Schneider et al., 2008, p. 61). The Social Work Dictionary defines advocacy as “the act of directly representing or defending others. . . . championing the rights of individuals and communities through direct intervention and empowerment” (p. 11).

Advocacy is the cornerstone on which social work is built. It is so important that it is framed in three sections of the NASW (2008) Code of Ethics. Advocacy for individuals, communities, and systems is not just a suggested activity for social workers – it is a requisite. Social workers are ethically obligated to “engage in social and political action that seeks to ensure that all people have equal access to the resources . . . they require to meet their basic human needs and to develop fully” (NASW, 2008, p. 27). The Code of Ethics further notes that “social workers should be aware of the impact of the political arena on practice and should advocate for changes in policy and legislation to improve social conditions” (NASW, 2008, p. 27). Without advocacy, there would be no social work profession (Clark, 2009). Social workers acquire resources for clients, organize communities for causes, and coordinate grassroots advocacy campaigns.

In this book, we explore the direct connection of practice to policy and the ethical obligation of social workers to understand and foster the relationship between the two. Each of the contributors provides a personal narrative that was, or could have been, influenced by the application of a particular policy or piece of legislation. They provide analyses of broad implications and describe the importance of advocacy at organizational, local, state, or federal levels to the achievement of maximum client opportunity and benefit. In short, they illustrate the intricacies of the linkage of practice and policy.

Although the majority of social workers practice directly with clients, determining how to achieve successful outcomes on an individual basis, their understanding of the challenges facing their clients puts them in an excellent position to advocate for broader social change. Social workers with practice experience make excellent advocates because they understand clearly the challenges facing their clients, including clients’ presenting problems, holistic environmental factors, and client strengths that can be drawn on so as to help them.

At this time of incredible demand for social work services, combined with ever-diminishing resources, the professional role of advocate is more critical than ever before. The chapters of this book illustrate what social workers do each day to improve the lives of others and the macro-level action that can be taken to help systems better serve those for whom they were created. We hope this book increases public understanding of the value of social work services, and we hope that it inspires all helping professionals to recognize the potential they have to create positive change.

Social worker Dorothy I. Height (1990) once said, “We hold in our hands the power to shape, not only our own, but the nation’s future” (p. 75). Height’s social work colleague and fellow civil rights advocate Whitney M. Young Jr. said during his tenure as NASW president,

There is a lot to tell the public. The important thing now is that we can begin saying something as persistently as we can. The media and the government, regardless of their reasons, cannot continue to disregard the findings of current research and the knowledge of thousands of social workers who know as much or more as the so called experts on the social problems draining the spirit and resources of this nation. (Young, 1971, p. 7)

We wholeheartedly believe that social work is not just “value added,” but is necessary to ensure that our country continues to provide opportunity, ensure equity, and help millions of individuals as they seek to fulfill their potential, whether that means battling addiction, escaping poverty, caring for loved ones, accessing education, or overcoming a variety of life’s obstacles. As you read these narratives, you will understand that social workers are the professionals to help them do just that.