(February/March 2001)

Our President notes that Currents is the primary means for representing the profession to the public and giving voice to the membership. Given the dramatic changes in health and human services, I suggest two additional purposes: to provide a continual flow of information to members about implications of societal trends for social work practice, and sharing our practice experience with the social work education community to more effectively bridge the gap between the academic and practice communities.

I would like to speak to three interrelated occurrences that I believe produced new informational needs for social work educators and practitioners to ensure that we continue to provide high quality services to historically under served groups. Black History Month might well be a time for a renewed appraisal of our knowledge base for understanding and developing practice skills responsive to the changing needs of Black families and communities in consideration of larger societal trends and those raised here for discussion. Before discussing these, a word about social work, social welfare and the contributions of Blacks.

Much like America's "reluctant social welfare state," our profession has played an ambivalent role in responding to the needs of poor. At times we have approached with zeal, what I believe to be the central purpose of welfare -- to provide protection to those individuals whose potential for self actualization is diminished because of malfunctioning economic, social, and political systems. Yes, there have been periods when we seem to have found justification that allowed us to comfortably turn our backs on the poor and oppressed. Nonetheless, the general public continues to see social work as the profession responsible for serving those in economic and social need. Social work has been referred to as the "civilizing and humanizing profession" and at times has served as a moral barometer for our society. And if the profession has taken on the role of pointing out hypocrisies in our national life, Black social workers, particularly, have taken on the added role of holding the profession accountable for the discrepancies between what we say we stand for as a profession and what we do as a profession.

Whitney Young and Dorothy Height are but two examples of Black social workers in public positions willing to take on this role. Young, who served as Executive Secretary of the National Urban League for several years, Dean of the Atlanta University School of Social Work, and president of the National Association of Social Workers challenged social workers for their complacency during the decades of the 1950s a period when conventional wisdom was that poverty had been conquered in America...."social work was born in an atmosphere of righteous indignation,...somewhere along the line the urge to become professional has overcome this initial crusading impulse." The phrases "Lifting as we climb," and "leave no child behind" that have become calling cards for today's advocacy organizations, originated with The National Council of Negro Women, founded by Dr. Height, and others established by her contemporaries to fill the gap left by segregated mainstream social work organizations.

Changing professional interest of social workers

What are some emerging trends that present new challenges for the profession? First, are those related to the changing professional preferences of social workers. I admit to being a part of that segment of our profession that believes social work seems to have been drifting away from its historic mission of serving the poor and oppressed. This is not to minimize social work's belief in the inherent worth of every individual, and his/her right to self actualization, irrespective of any variant of human definition . But reflects my concerns about the long terms effects of this trend in consideration of interrelated influences of: government's abandonment of the safety net philosophy, our failure to attack poverty at its roots, the diminishing presence of social workers in public agencies serving clients with the most difficult problems, and the growing number of students seeking enrollment in schools of social work with little interest in working with minorities or the poor. All occurring at a time when black communities especially are coping with the effects of intractable social problems.

Throughout the history of the profession, there seems to have been a fluctuating imbalance between interests in social reform and advocacy and professionalization and specialization. The preference to pursue social work solely as a for profit private enterprise has paralleled the growth of a conservative social welfare ideology within and outside the profession. I concur with Courtney and Specht (1994), authors of Unfaithful Angels: How Social Work has Abandoned its Mission, that if continued, these trends can leave a tremendous gap in services traditionally provided by social workers. Moreover, poor, minority clients will be among those who suffer the most from the lack of availability of services.

Changing demographics of the public Assistance caseload

Second, are those related to the changing composition of the public assistance caseload. Prior to the enactment of the Welfare Reform, it was a myth that blacks comprised the largest number of Americans using public assistance programs. Today this is may no longer be myth. We know very little about the life situations of families in New York City who have left the public assistance caseload. However, we do know that those remaining and the most difficult to move from welfare to work are often jointly served by the child welfare, mental health and sometimes the criminal justice systems. In addition to low employment and job readiness skills, they are families troubled by an overlay of problems of substance abuse, family violence, child behavioral and health problems. The obvious question becomes are we creating a permanent underclass, largely comprised of blacks, that for all practical purpose has been abandoned by mainstream society and the profession as well.

Trends in social work education

As we celebrate Black History Month, we note with pride that two of the five deanships in the metropolitan area schools of social work are occupied by African Americans, Dr. Bogart Leashore, at Hunter College School of Social Work, and Dr. Peter Vaughn, at Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service. We have yet to match this level of diversity among faculty and student body. A study conducted by Columbia University School of Work reported (Mullen, et. al, 1993) a decline in decline in minority student enrollment over the last years. My informal observation is that, in addition to financial concerns, the waning interest among minorities in social work as a career may be due to other occurrences related to curriculum. For example, unlike the largest share of students seeking enrollment into schools of social work expressing a preference for micro level practice in mental health settings, many minority students express interest in social action, advocacy, community organization, and other large scale interventions, viewed as more effective for solving the problems of their communities of identification. These students may be less likely to seek enrollment in programs perceived to have accommodated to the clinical preference of peers. Moreover, retention can be a daunting challenge if they find themselves in classrooms of little diversity among the student body or faculty and in a course of study of limited interest (Mullen, et. al. 1993).

A Final Word

I raise the issue of licensure because it is very much related to issues raised in this discussion, and because it has met with some opposition from segments of the black social work community Although New York is one of the few remaining states that does not have a licensing bill, representatives of the National Association of Black Social Workers oppose licensure on the grounds that it is perceived as elitist, serves as a screen for the exclusion of large segments of the profession and the creation of a monopoly of jobs and income. They argue, that in a field where services consumers are disproportionately black and minority and with black social workers already in short supply, licensure will formalize in practice policies of institutional racism, resulting in diminished access to jobs by black professionals and consequently the availability of culturally competent services.

This is not representative of the view of all black social workers, but is a position that deserves serious consideration. If the primary purpose of licensure is to protect the welfare of clients, and in keeping with the Chapter's role of facilitating the flow of information, then it would be most appropriate to establish a mechanism for dialogue around this issue and the others that I have raised. Perhaps "special months" in the calendar can be designated to provide an opportunity to engage in an examination of our individual and collective relationship to those identified on the calendar for special attention not only because of their heritage but as enactment of our institutional responsibility.