What is a friend?

Little did Mark Zuckerburg, the founder of Facebook, realize that he would reinvent the definition of a word. For years, "friend" has successfully existed as a noun in the English language and thanks to Mark, the word friend can go "both ways" from Noun to Verb. ie. "I will friend you on Facebook".

So what is a friend? The definition appears to shift in today's popular culture. Am I really friends with the obscure people with whom I went to high school and never talked to even then. Now, number years later, could we really be friends?

When you have a true friend, it is obvious. We have all received the chain emails with the eloquently crafted prose about what a friend is and what they mean to you (and if you don't forward this email to 10 friends in 1 hour you will have bad luck for the next year).

What I am thinking about now is a "friend" who really is more of an acquaintance. I am thinking of someone whom I didn't know well. He is now retiring and moving to another state and I am feeling an unexpected feeling of loss despite the fact that I have not seen him in several years. Periodically we have email exchanges over business, but there was comfort knowing he was here, in AZ. As he prepares for a wonderful adventure in another state, I am left wondering if there is another layer of the word "friend". Is there a spiritual level of the word friend where you may not know much about the person, yet you resonate and feel at peace knowing they are there. They are a mentor, guide and a comfort in the most distant way. Clearly, this friend which is more of an acquaintance is at least as deserving of the word friend as many I correspond with on Facebook. Au Revoir Louis, my "friend". You've made a difference in ways you will never know.

The Work of Social Work Congress 2010

In 2005, NASW along with other social work organizations convened the first ever social work congress. Out of this Congress, came 10 imperatives for the profession of social work. Since 2005, great strides have been made regarding these imperatives. The 2010 Congress was charged with coming up with 10 additional imperatives that focus inward on the profession of social work. These imperatives are to guide us as a profession to help advance the profession so that we can continue to do the great work that we do with clients.

Last week, 360 social workers gathered in Washington DC for another Social Work Congress. The congress was organized by 4 co-convening organizations including NASW, BPD (Baccalaureate Program Directors), NADD (National Association of Deans and Directors) and CSWE (Council on Social Work Education). Members representing these and many other social work organizations were present for the Congress. Attendees ranged in age from 22 to 85 with a key constituent being the “30 under 30”. The congress hosted 30 new emerging under the age of 30 to attend to represent the new professionals coming into the profession.

The actual work of the Congress was facilitated by a group of highly skilled, professional facilitators. During the first day of the Congress, the attendees were divided into four groups on “Technology”, “Business of Social Work”, “Leadership Development”, and Common Objectives”. On the second day, the attendees were broken into groups concerning “Influence”, “Retention”, “Recruitment”, and “Education”. The individual groups were facilitated by 1 professional facilitator, 1 graphic recorder and 1 content expert. I was fortunate to be chosen as a content expert in the area of technology and I have to say that the process was fascinating to watch. Each group came up with 3 imperatives for their group that were presented to the entire Congress. In the final session of the Congress, a vote was taken to determine the top 10 imperatives for the profession. The imperatives from the 2010 SW Congress are:

• Integrate technologies that serve social work practice and education in an ethical, practical, and responsible manner.
• Infuse models of sustainable business and management practice in social work education and practice.
• Integrate leadership training in social work curricula at all levels.
• Strengthen collaboration across social work organizations, their leaders, and their members for shared advocacy goals.
• Build a data-driven business case that demonstrates the distinctive expertise and the impact and value of social work to industry, policy makers, and the general public.
• Strengthen the ability of national social work organizations to identify and clearly articulate, with a unified voice, issues of importance to the profession.
• Ensure the sustainability of the profession through a strong mentoring program, career ladder and succession program.
• Increase the number of grants, scholarships, and debt forgiveness mechanisms for social work students and graduates.
• Clarify and articulate the unique skills, scope of practice, and “value added” of social work students to prospective students.
• Empirically demonstrate to prospective recruits the value of the social work profession in both social and economic terms.
  

From the Participant’s Perspective: SW Congress 2010

I am writing this article on the plane on my way home from one of the most exhausting NASW meetings that I have ever attended. Having been to numerous leadership meetings and delegate assemblies over the past 11 years, this distinction is not given lightly. We worked from morning to evening with hardly a moment to spare. One funny observation was the tendency for a certain group of people to migrate up from the basement meeting rooms at every break for a “breath of air” (or cell phone service). Certain providers didn’t work in the basement and it became obvious who was with a certain cell phone provider as they would rise to the surface for that elusive signal and download emails, check text messages and make phone calls before diving below again.

Despite the exhaustion and the hard work of this past week, it was truly a memorable experience. The welcome reception featured a sneak preview to a new video entitled “Finding Uncle Whitney”. This video is being produced by Bonnie Boswell, the niece of Whitney M. Young. The video will be available soon with a companion study guide curriculum that can be used in the classroom. Whitney M. Young worked alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dr. Dorothy I. Height during the civil rights movement. He also stood beside American presidents, Johnson, Kennedy and Nixon as a valued advisor on civil rights. He was also the first African American president of the National Association of Social Workers. For more information about the Whitney M. Young project, go to www.whitneyyoungproject.com.

The Congress began on an ambivalent note as we all celebrated the life of Dr. Dorothy I. Height with the Lifetime Achievement Award presentation. Sadly, Dr. Height passed away at the age of 98, two days before the award presentation. Dr. Height was a key figure in the civil rights movement standing beside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Whitney M. Young.

From one great woman to another, we were fortunate to hear a keynote address by Kirsten Downey, author of the book about Frances Perkins, “The Woman Behind the New Deal”. Listening to Kirsten Downey discuss the fabulous woman and the difference that she has made in the lives of all Americans was a powerful experience. Frances Perkins was the first woman cabinet member serving under FDR as the Secretary of Labor. We have her to thank for the 40 hour work week, child labor laws, social security, and the right for workers to organize. If you have not had a chance to, I urge you to read the book and learn more about this extraordinary woman and social worker who helped change a whole nation.

One of the highlights of my attendance from a personal standpoint was my role as content leader in one of the break-out sessions. I was chosen as a content expert in the area of technology and assisted the facilitator. Once the breakout session ended I joined all of the other facilitators in a room to pull together and synthesize the imperatives and to make sure that there were no overlapping imperatives. It was a joy to watch the process from the inside having been a participant of the process from the outside in 2005.

You can read about the process and results in an article in the NASW-AZ newsletter. In closing, I want to say that it was an honor to attend this important meeting and have a role in the shaping of these important imperatives that will lead us into the next decade.