Today is the last day of National Social Work month in Canada. This year, the month has coincided with Ramadan, a time of reflection and community that concluded yesterday with Eid Al-Fitr. It was inspiring and moving to see images world-wide of large crowds joining together in prayer. This is a time that is intentional in clearing communal space for spiritual, physical, mental, and social contemplation.
Our National Social Work month also has been a clearing of space, with many stories, ideas, and reflections about Social Work, society, growth and loss being shared across schools, agencies, and communities. We have used this time to celebrate who we are, renew our commitments to who we want to be, and consider the world around us and the responses it is calling for. We can leave this month in gratitude and also with a renewed commitment to transformation that crosses many levels and generations. Our context can incite us to renewed action, and our capacities can expand: how can we go further in decolonizing Social Work? How do we need to address more vigorously environmental injustice? How can land centre and anchor who we are and what we do? How can we continue and strengthen the hard work of dismantling the white supremacy, ableism, and cisheteronormativity that continues to pervade our contexts (and socialized minds)? How can we celebrate while also embracing this ongoing need to transform?
These are just a few of the important questions that have been raised across Social Work communities this month. Let us continue to find ways to commune and take action, in the name of critical growth, wellbeing, and social justice.
Yours,
Trish Van Katwyk,
on behalf of the School of Social Work, Renison University College, University of Waterloo