PACE welcomes Public Advocate to annual meeting
By Elaine Congress, DSW, Co-Chair, NYC-PACE and Pat Brownell, DSW, PACE Steering Committee
(April 1995)

NYC-PACE (the Chapter's political action arm) was pleased to welcome the Honorable Mark Green, NYC Public Advocate, as guest speaker at its 1995 Annual Meeting. PACE has been a long-time supporter of Mr. Green and endorsed him in his successful campaign for Public Advocate in 1993.

Mark Green has been at the forefront in advocating on behalf of social service and quality of life issues affecting all New Yorkers. He has also been a courageous and outspoken critic of many of the policies enacted and proposed by City Hall that have cut or could cut the budgets and services of important social service programs affecting our most vulnerable citizens.

Public Advocate Green stressed that he is working hard to shape the office as an effective force in protecting the well-being of clients served by local government agencies. As a hands-on elected official, he spoke of personally visiting the Emergency Assistance Unit to witness first-hand the suffering of homeless families attempting to gain access to critically needed shelter.

Among other issues he has spoken out against include the proposed cut-backs in day care services for the poor, the failure of our municipal hospital system to comply with state mandates for counseling rape victims, and the devastating impact proposed cuts to social service and substance abuse treatment programs at Rikers Island jail could have on people serving short prison terms. Other themes that emerged from his presentation included the dangers of drastically curtailing public assistance programs for the poor, the use of welfare reform as a punitive form of social engineering for poor women and children, and the need to be sensitive to the problems of immigrant communities in the City.

It is evident that NASW and the social work community have an advocate, supporter and friend in Mr. Green. His director of social services, Julie Levine, is a highly respected social worker and advocate, who is also active in the Chapter and the NYC-PACE Steering Committee. Mark Green's outspoken commitment to issues of concern to social workers and our clientele, as well as his use of social workers as both policy advisers and advocates on his staff, underscore our shared commonality of purpose.

After a discussion with Mr. Green, PACE Co-Chairs Elaine Congress and Carmen Ortiz-Hendricks reviewed PACE activities in 1994. Because of the state and national elections, PACE was very involved with making decisions about candidate endorsements. A partial list of political candidates whom PACE members met with included Governor Cuomo, Attorney General Candidate Karen Burstein, U. S. Congressional Representatives Carolyn Maloney, Nydia Velasquez, Major Owens, and State Assemblymember, Sheldon Silver. Although PACE was concerned about the overall national and state election outcomes the steering committee was pleased that most of our Congressional and Assembly endorsed candidates were elected.

Last Spring, PACE held its tenth annual awards reception. With over 100 social workers attending, PACE honored Michael Dowling, Commissioner of the New York State Department of Social Service and Dennis Walcott, President and CEO of the New York Urban League, for their significant contribution as social workers to social services and political activism. Nydia Velasquez, Representative to the U.S. Congress, 12th District received a special political award, while Irma Serrano, former NASW president and PACE member was honored with the PACE Lifetime Achievement Award. The eleventh awards reception will be on April 27 (see back page).

This year, PACE members sponsored a very successful fundraiser for Major Owens. PACE has repeatedly supported Congressman Owens' candidacy because of his commitment to social work issues.

The steering committee announced the following goals for the 1995 year:

1. Increase membership. As 1995 is not an election year, there will be more time to devote to recruiting and involving more social workers in PACE activities.

2. Involve more students. This year PACE has had a student member on the steering committee and would like to continue this practice. Students also participated in the annual reception and the candidate selection process.

3. Reconsider criteria for endorsing candidates. Previously NYC PACE has only endorsed candidates who are pro-choice and against the death penalty. NYC PACE is the only PACE in the country with set exclusion criteria. For the 1994 election year, the steering committee decided to follow existing criteria, while considering individual exceptions to the criteria should positions on priority issues of concern to social workers warrant it. This year PACE hopes to solicit feedback from our membership about this issue.

4. Educate social workers about becoming more politically active through articles in Currents and educational forums.

5. Begin to plan for the 1996 city elections in terms of identifying possible candidates.