Dear CSSW Community,
Yesterday, I welcomed our new class of advanced standing students to our wonderful community. I was able to speak with them, in person, about the rigorous and exciting journey they are about to embark on here at Columbia School of Social Work; it was a reminder for me that the students we educate today will support the communities who are the most marginalized tomorrow.
In preparation for yesterday, I was able to do some deep reflection on what it looks like to move forward this academic year – to think critically on what we, as a community, may need to move forward. The impact that world events have had on college campuses, including here at Columbia, has forever changed us. The pain of this past year has been palpable, accompanied by a deep need for repair. Yet, one of the beautiful things about the Social Work profession is that social workers are trained to go towards pain, not run away from it, and we do this through an established code of ethics promoted by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).
The preamble to the NASW’s Code of Ethics lists six core values: service, social justice, dignity and worth of a person, importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence – noting that these are the “ideals to which all social workers should aspire.” They serve as guideposts for the work we do, in the hope that this shared language gives us the ability to provide care for individuals and communities in ways that recognize their full humanity. The core value that speaks to me in this moment, and that I will center this year, is the importance of human relationships, further described as:
Social Workers understand that relationships between and among people are an important vehicle for change. Social Workers engage people as partners in the helping process. Social workers seek to strengthen relationships among people in a purposeful effort to promote, restore, maintain, and enhance the well-being of individuals, families, social groups, organizations, and communities.
I am centering this principle with the hope that it can serve as an entry-point to uphold the rest of the social work values and principles. In recognizing the importance of human relationships, how do we execute on our mission of service, social justice, dignity and worth of a person, integrity, and competence? What does it look like to center relationships when we disagree, when we are wronged, when we have wronged? How will we find ways to restore and repair those relationships when needed? My other hope is that we will all make it our collective responsibility to nurture and take care of this community we have chosen.
The primary mission of social work, as you well know, is to maximize human well-being and ensure that everyone can reach their full potential. Social workers do this by centering individuals and communities, and the relationships among and with the members of those communities. Let us model for ourselves what we aim to do in other spaces, by honoring the relationships we have with one another, that will require us to be accountable for how we show up and engage with our full selves.
May this summer be relaxing and restorative as we take advantage of the slower pace.
In community,
Melissa