This fall, I have returned to the classroom as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and West Chester University and, as I have done so, I’m faced with students eager to become social workers.

In part, I believe, it is because social work is one of the country’s fastest growing careers. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that “the employment of social workers is projected to grow 7 percent from 2022 to 2032 — faster than the average for all occupations.”

This means my students will be able to find a job upon graduation.

But getting a job is not the most important consideration that brings undergraduates and graduates to the social work profession.

Without fail, they all tell me some version of them wanting to help people. They want to be on the side of justice for the country’s most marginalized. It is a noble answer and that is why they are sitting in my class. I admire their optimism and sincerity.

However, it ill-serves our profession if I left the conversation at that point.

By any metric, social work is not as diverse as it needs to be. The nation’s schools of social work will confer over 19,000 undergraduate social work degrees this academic year. Almost nine out of 10 social work students who earn a BSW degree are female. Seven out of 10 are younger than 25. Almost one out of two are White. The lack of diversity means my students often have limited access to different points of view.

How then does the concept of help differ for the 5 percent of social work graduates who are 45 years or older or the 11.5 percent who are male? How will it differ from their future clients who most likely will not look like them or share their life experiences?

We as social work professors must engage the challenging conversations.

What does it really mean to help. Who deserves our help? How long should we help? How do we help? When is help harmful?

Or as James Baldwin said, “The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one’s key to the experience of others.”

The first thing they must grapple with is help exists within a political, cultural, economic, and ideological context.  In America – we are encouraged to help. We are told that it is more blessed to give than receive. Scores of articles are written about being generous towards others.

Even rarer do we have conversations about less comfortable topics such as the learned helplessness from which clients can suffer or the White Savior complex that some social workers can fall victim to.

White Saviorism comes from the same root as white supremacy – a position of superiority, however, its purpose is to rescue and not harm people of color. But a recent article in the Guardian shows how dangerous it can be.

Renee Bach, the subject of an upcoming documentary, is a United States evangelical who moved to Uganda, started a food distribution center as well as a health center. She oversaw medical treatments although she had no medical training and while she helped hundreds of children, hundreds also died from her care.

Bach said she wanted to help.

Our students must learn that help has a difficult history. Native American children who were taken from their parents and international adoptions where many children totally lost their cultural identity when they gained US citizenship are only two examples.

Syracuse Professor Dr. Danielle Smith said “[White saviorism is] essentially a form of blindness. It’s not going to allow you to perceive what is in front of you accurately. If you can’t see it accurately, then you can’t be of really profound use in solving the problem.”

If our social work graduates leave the university with a deeper understanding of what they and others mean by “help” and how that may look differently for people, it will allow the profession to develop a greater capacity to ultimately make a true difference.

Disclaimer: The National Association of Social Workers invites members to share their expertise and experiences through Member Voices. This blog was prepared by Chad Dion Lassiter in his personal capacity and does not necessarily reflect the view of the National Association of Social Workers.

About the Author

Chad Dion Lassiter is a nationally recognized expert in race relations. He has worked on race, peace, and poverty-related issues in the United States, Africa, Canada, Haiti, Israel, and Norway, and is frequently featured in the media providing commentary and solutions to racial issues.

Lassiter is executive director of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, where he has legislatively delegated authority to investigate filed complaints alleging the occurrence of unlawful discrimination in the areas of employment, housing and commercial property, education, and/or regarding public accommodations.

Crisitello was an elementary school art teacher who was terminated by her employer, a Catholic elementary school, after she became pregnant while unmarried.

The school argued that despite Cristello’s actual job duties as an art teacher, the “ministerial exception” to workplace civil rights laws under the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination applied.

Cristello did not teach religion or religious texts or counsel her students in prayer or other religious activities. In the amicus brief, NASW argued the Catholic school’s application of the ministerial exception was overbroad and would provide a roadmap for the more than 600 New Jersey schools with religious affiliations to evade workplace civil rights laws.

The New Jersey Supreme Court on August 14, 2023 issued a decision agreeing with the Catholic school and upholding the religious tenets exception to the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination. This expansion of the ministerial exception risks threatening the civil rights of thousands of New Jersey employees.

NASW advocates for effective enforcement of anti-discrimination laws and regulations that prohibit discrimination in the workplace.

Women, people of color, older workers, workers with disabilities, LGBTQ workers, immigrant workers, and those with multiple and intertwining identities, continue to face employment discrimination at alarming rates, despite decades of civil rights protections.

Any curtailing of these protections severely harms these communities. It was our hope that the court would understand that these groups would be at risk for further discrimination in the workplace through this unwarranted expansion of the ministerial exception. 

The effects of burnout on client service provision, organizational health, and individual well-being are increasingly a focus of social work research, particularly against the societal backdrop of the post-COVID-19 era. Children and their families rely on school social workers (SSWs) to meet increasingly pressing and common mental health needs. However, burnout may jeopardize not only SSWs’ well-being, but also their collective ability to serve this vulnerable population.

This article in the journal Children & Schools showcases the findings of a study on SSW burnout. This study captures SSW perspectives on burnout related to the following themes:

• SSW–administrator dynamics;
• role conflict and lack of role definition;
• presence of trauma in caseload;
• systemic challenges (including the subthemes of unrealistic workload, the desire for more interprofessional collaboration and social work–specific supervision, and limited resources); and
• the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using these perspectives as a guide, policy recommendations are made to enhance interprofessional collaboration, clarify roles and responsibilities, and safeguard SSWs as “first responders” for children’s mental health.

The author writes:

“Advocacy is a crucial aspect of the social work profession, and social workers are frequently powerful agents of change for social justice. However, social workers must find ways to fine-tune this ability to advocate not only for client needs, but also for themselves as individuals and for the profession more broadly. As advocates, SSWs must endeavor to use their collective voice to initiate policy change, ultimately advancing the profession.”

Author:

Stephanie L. Carnes, PhD, LCSW, immigrant student mental health specialist and former school social worker

NASW journals are co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press. The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. You can find out more about the journals and subscriptions at this link.

NASW members can also access journal articles through the Research Library, which can be found at this link.

Members who have questions about log-in information can contact Member Services at 800-742-4089, Monday-Friday 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m. ET, or at membership@socialworkers.org.

An article in a recent issue of the Children & Schools journal sets the stage for further discussion on the lack of quality training, education, and professional development for teachers on poverty. To address this gap, the authors propose a training model for professional development aimed at increasing empathy and understanding among K–12 educators through experiential learning tools such as the Community Action Poverty Simulation.

The authors describe the program in this way:

The Community Action Poverty Simulation requires participation of between 20 and 85 individuals who will take on roles in various family profiles living in poverty. These profiles represent families that are unemployed, disabled, elderly, are single parent households, and recipients of some form of assistance such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or Social Security Disability. It is then the responsibility of the participants to meet the basic needs of their family profile such as providing food, shelter, and clothing by attempting to problem solve based on their family profile.

Along with the family profiles being represented, volunteers are present to represent resources available to those in poverty…. These include grocery stores, food pantries, department of social services, the police, educational institutions, employers, and various other businesses and services that may be present in a community.

Once the simulation is complete there is generally a discussion that occurs based on the experiences of the participants. Following this discussion, students often complete a post-survey that allows facilitators to measure the impact of the simulation on students’ perceptions and knowledge of poverty….

The article concludes with an in-depth discussion on implications for future practice and a call to action for school social workers to bring innovative solutions to their campuses that pull from their educational background in advocacy and social justice to enhance teacher training through an interdisciplinary approach.

Article authors

• Anna Maria T. Curry, DSW, adjunct assistant professor, University of Maryland Global Campus
• Stephen Monroe Tomczak, PhD, professor, Department of Social Work, Southern Connecticut State University

NASW journals are co-published by NASW Press and Oxford University Press. The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. Learn about the journals and subscriptions.

The January 2023 issue of the journal Children & Schools focuses on the specific topic of university-assisted community schools. Here are some of the contents:

Editorial: University-Assisted Community Schools

Community schools are place-based engagement strategies, where multiple organizations and their resources are mobilized around youth, with a focus on academics, social supports, services, and opportunities that lead to improved student learning and well-being, stronger families, and healthier communities. Moreover, community schools are an economically viable way to reduce the negative impact of poverty on children’s ability to thrive. In this new special issue, editors and authors narrow the focus to university-assisted community schools (UACS), a model in which institutions of higher education play an intentional role in community schools by connecting needed resources to school districts, community organizations, and community leaders to democratically engage and mobilize resources around youth.

University–School Partnerships: Successes and Challenges in Designing and Implementing Strategies to Promote Racial Equity

This article outlines the results of a multisite case study with students, teachers, and administrators across two racially and ethnically diverse middle schools in the Pacific Northwest. Using a multisite case study approach (N = 2), authors explored practice challenges and successes in four phases of the research–practice partnership: (1) building the partnership, (2) designing the study, (3) data analysis, and (4) translating the data into action for racial justice.

Canyons Community Schools: Universities and Colleges as Key Partners

Community schools respond to a variety of risk factors that impede student learning and development. School and community leaders in Canyons School District (CSD) have created community schools across one highly impacted feeder pattern to strengthen academic learning efforts, school climate and youth development opportunities, parent and family engagement efforts, health and social services, and community partnerships.

Building a University–School–Community Partnership to Improve Adolescent Well-Being

A university–school–community approach to adolescent well-being may offer innovative strategies to improve and enhance the well-being of adolescents from communities that are underserved. A university–school–community partnership was established to implement innovative health and well-being programming for Indiana youth at a charter school.

University-Assisted Community Schools as Partners in Neighborhood Revitalization Efforts

Urban policymakers, city officials, and community residents utilize neighborhood revitalization initiatives to establish safe and empowered neighborhoods. In 2016, leaders in Columbus, Ohio, launched a neighborhood revitalization effort designed to improve safety, access to opportunities, and economic development in the historically underserved Linden neighborhood. A priority focus involved strengthening Linden schools through the development of two university-assisted community schools (UACS).

Telemental Health for Rural University-Assisted Community Schools

This article presents an innovative telemental health practice model that implements solution-focused brief therapy with social work interns in rural university-assisted community schools (UACS). Implications for policies supporting telemental health in rural UACS, social work education, and evaluation are presented.

Applying an Ecological Systems Framework: How a Historically Black University, a Predominately White Institution, and a Public School System Created a Collaborative Undergraduate Research Experience

Using an ecological systems framework to explore the bidirectional relationships between individual student experiences, peer interactions, university–community connections, and collaboration with a local public school district, this article identifies how an interinstitutional student-engaged research partnership between a historically Black university, a predominately White institution, and a local school district models the power of a diverse and equitable collaboration with each subsystem positively contributing to the realization of social work values and ethics.

Early in their careers, social workers learn the concepts of burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious traumatization. But how does self-care play out in real-life scenarios, when new social workers might not get the best supervision or insight into how to handle the stressors that come with the job of being a social worker?

Simply put, school social workers and other school administrators are constantly trying to identify aggression that may lead to violence. While both aggression and violence are concerning and need to be addressed, it is the aggression that results in violence that is particularly concerning. Aggression per se may never lead to violence, but a precipitant of violence will always include aggression.

Data

According to U.S. News and World Report, an estimated 14 mass shootings have killed a total of 169 people since the 1999 massacre at Columbine High School in Colorado. School violence extends across all states. There are no “safer” states. Almost anyone can recall the terrible school shootings in the past ten years: Sandy Hook (CT), Parkland (FL), and Auburn (IL). There have been 27 school shootings so far in 2022 — the last one in Uvalde, Texas, according to NPR. Preparedness, vigilance, and training are the pre-op to the surgery that is school violence. Post-care is in desperate need.

School Social Work Toolbox

A beginning approach is to check in with students throughout the day. Knowing when and how to have a heart-to-heart conversation with a teenager is as much art as it is science. A school social worker in Illinois tells NPR that she checks in with her students by monitoring, validating, and providing a safe space for children to express their fears.  She uses a “feeling chart” so children can identify their emotions. Identification of an emotion is a good method to dial down its intensity.

Group therapy is another way for students to engage with other peers to connect on an emotional level. The group, not the individual, is often the agent of change. This dynamic can be helpful for children who may feel isolated and reluctant to share their feelings. A school social worker may be apt to start a support group after a tragic event. These skills help school social workers provide a safe, inclusive space where students can process feelings of depression, anxiety, and grief with their peers.

Self-Care for School Social Workers

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) developed a 2021 amendment to the NASW Code of Ethics to address self-care for social workers.

It states that “professional self-care is paramount for competent and ethical social work practice. Professional demands, challenging workplace climates, and exposure to trauma warrant that social workers maintain personal and professional health, safety, and integrity. Social work organizations, agencies, and educational institutions are encouraged to promote organizational policies, practices, and materials to support social workers’ self-care.”

In other words, part of being a culturally competent social worker means implementing self-care routines. NASW offers a number of publications, podcasts, and articles to help social workers engage in self-care activities.

Self-care can include making time for reflection, staying connected with friends, setting boundaries with work, and engaging in personally satisfying volunteer work. School social workers should engage with their peers, take breaks from work, and get outside in nature.

Just as school social workers recommend talking through feelings with their students, they must do the same with colleagues, peers, loved ones, and families. According to Forbes, studies show taking a vacation increases mindfulness, improves heart health, reduces stress, boosts brain power, and improves sleep.

Does this mean school social workers are at an elevated risk for mental health issues? Not necessarily. At the same time, violence, bullying, and grief can sap a school social worker’s emotional reserve. School social workers quite literally need time for self-care to perform their job well. Keeping this in mind, we should heed our own advice: reflect, process, and engage in dialogue. Working towards an atmosphere of healing includes the health of the healer. School social workers are needed. Let’s keep them mentally fit.

Marisa Markowitz, LMSW, CASAC-T, studies the relationship between technology and its adverse effects on mental health, particularly for vulnerable populations.

Daniel Pollack, MSW, JD, is a professor at Yeshiva University’s School of Social Work in New York City.

Social workers can learn how to incorporate safety and connection when working with children and youth who may be experiencing difficulties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Kashera Guy Robinson, LCSW, and Uraina L. Scott, LCSW, school social workers in the Atlanta area, present the NASW Special Practice Sections webinar, How social workers can help students learn to thrive and heal in the midst of an international public health crisis, available at the Social Work Online CE Institute.

It’s important to use regular check-ins with assigned students, Robinson stresses. “For my high schoolers, we have issues with kids not coming into school,” she says. “What we have seen since the pandemic are students having even more issues with absenteeism.”

But there are techniques to address this. You can have students check in with you at an assigned time and location, for example. Since most students love technology, putting a QR code on your door allows students to stop by and scan the code. The code can be programmed for the social worker to be alerted that a student has checked in or needs to see you.

Having a safe place to meet and identifying supportive adults is also important for students, Robinson points out. Social workers can help students find supportive adults in the school, such as teachers, counselors, and other school social workers.

Read the full story in the NASW Social Work Advocates magazine here.

Restorative justice (RJ) is both a philosophy and a set of practices meant to repair harm and maintain connection in the face of wrongdoing. While RJ is becoming increasingly popular among K–12 educators and in schools, emphasis is typically on its social justice applications, including its use as an alternative to zero-tolerance discipline policies and its role in dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline.

However, RJ can also be understood as a trauma-informed mental health intervention allowing perpetrators, who have frequently been victims of past trauma, to regain a sense of voice and control, and to maintain social connection within their community. Social workers in school settings are in a prime position to explore and advocate for its increased use with vulnerable youth populations.

Through review of relevant literature and use of a composite case example, an article in the a recent issue of the journal Children & Schools:

• outlines the harmful impacts of punitive and exclusionary discipline;
• describes the potential benefit of schools utilizing RJ as a mental health intervention; and
• recommends further research to understand RJ’s effect on self-efficacy, self-regulation, and healthy attachment.

School social workers are in an ideal position to advocate for the use of RJ, particularly for those students who have mental health challenges, and to help implement restorative practices in schools. Although existing research is limited, there is potential for RJ to prevent further negative mental health outcomes for students who may already have experienced trauma and/or have documented emotional or learning disabilities.

***

Article author:

• Dayna Sedillo-Hamann, LMSW, adjunct lecturer, Silver School of Social Work, New York University

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The journal Social Work is a benefit of NASW membership. It is available online or, at a member’s request, in print. Children & Schools, Health & Social Work and Social Work Research are available by subscription at a discounted rate for NASW members, either online or in print. You can find out more about the journals and subscriptions at this link.

The case is a class action on behalf of public school students in South Carolina and the Carolina Youth Action Project, and it challenges South Carolina’s “disturbing schools” and “disorderly conduct” laws as being unconstitutionally vague.

These vague, punitive, and intensely subjective laws have been vehicles for channeling students — disproportionately Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students and students with disabilities — into the criminal system.

Earlier in the case, the plaintiffs won in the district court when the court concluded that South Carolina’s “disorderly conduct” law is unconstitutionally vague as applied in schools (by that point in the case, the “disturbing schools” law had already been repealed as applied to students by the state legislature).  The court enjoined enforcement of the “disorderly conduct” law against all South Carolina students and granted expungement relief. Defendants are now appealing this decision.

In our amicus brief, we highlighted the discriminatory impact of vague school discipline laws and school policing, particularly on Black students and including Black girls, who make up the core of their plaintiffs.  The organizational plaintiff is the Carolina Youth Action Project (formerly “Girls Rock Charleston”), and the lead plaintiff was Niya Kenny. Niya Kenny is the student who filmed the video of a school safety officer flipping a fellow student over in her desk and dragging her in her chair across the classroom. That student was then arrested for speaking out against the officer’s misconduct.

Our brief also discusses the ways in which these harms caused by interactions with law enforcement are exacerbated for other students of color, students with disabilities, LGBTQ students, and students at the intersection of these identities.

The amicus brief can be found in NASW’s Legal Defense Fund amicus brief database.

The National Women’s Law Center published a blog post about the brief: Stop Criminalizing Childhood: NWLC Files Amicus Brief Supporting Students in South Carolina

The obstacles and stresses that children with developmental disabilities and their families face can become overwhelming. The need to navigate a complex services landscape, get help from school officials, deal with social isolation and manage financial strains, among other challenges, often create daunting pressure for parents seeking the right support for children who learn or think differently.

“It’s really hard when you’re neurodiverse to live in a neurotypical world that isn’t set up for you, when people don’t understand your needs and there’s a constant need to advocate for yourself,” said Karen Zilberstein, a psychotherapist, author and NASW member based in Northampton, Mass.

“Sometimes the stress of coordinating with the systems and the responses they’re getting from the systems is what puts families over the edge,” she said. “The stresses can cascade and mount.

I know families where it’s affecting their mental and physical health.” The strains sometimes cause caregivers to lose sleep, she said, noting that studies have found higher rates of anxiety and depression among parents of special needs children.

While there may be no one, simple solution for the problems that neurodiverse youths and their families experience, social workers can play an important role in advocating for them and easing their difficulties—individually and as a profession. NASW has made it a priority to champion people with disabilities, including in its book of public policy statements, “Social Work Speaks,” that the organization “supports and is willing to take action with people who have disabilities in advocating for their rights to participate fully and equitably in society.”

Before exploring how social workers can help neurodiverse children and their families, it’s important to understand their unique struggles. Neither the problems nor the solutions come in one size for all, as these clients face their own specific circumstances and each state provides different resources and systems for obtaining support.

NASW members can read the full story here after logging in.