According to the last U.S. Census, more than 600,000 people hold social work degrees. Also, 320,000 professional social workers hold state licenses that safeguard the public from unqualified workers.

It has been only slightly more than thirty years since the NASW membership passed a referendum that recognized graduates of accredited baccalaureate programs as “fully professional social workers.” Since that time, more than 200,000 individuals have received BSW degrees. Currently, about 12,000 receive BSWs each year.

A major concern is whether holders of BSW degrees will continue to identify with the profession of social work throughout their careers. Previous research has shown that five years after graduation, one-third of BSWs have left the field of social work.

Neither the profession nor society can stand to lose such a valuable resource. Individuals with a BSW work primarily in agency settings providing direct services. They are frequently found in the practice areas of child welfare and aging—two areas of exceptional need. Also, they are more ethnically diverse than the MSW workforce, and they can help the profession become more culturally competent and relevant.

How can we guarantee that individuals with a BSW get and stay connected to the field of social work? How do we let the public and employers know the value that BSWs bring to the profession and to society? Although it is important that BSWs continue to self-identify as professional social workers, it is equally important that the rest of the profession and the public also identify them as professional social workers.

The Social Work Public Education Campaign is just such an opportunity.

In 2003 at CSWE, Anita Curry-Jackson, representing BPD, joined NASW and NADD on a panel to address the challenges facing the profession of social work. Issues discussed included salaries, deprofessionalization, and attrition from the field. A progress report on the national image campaign was also given along with opportunities for involvement.

Dr. Curry-Jackson talked about the issues that confronted BSW social workers and why the Public Education Campaign was so important.

The goals of the Public Education Campaign are to (a) increase awareness and respect for the social work profession, (b) educate the public on the depth and breadth of social work practice, (c) expand perceptions of who can benefit from social work services, (d) attract young people to the profession, and (e) improve employment opportunities for professional social workers. BPD endorsed these goals and the campaign, which was presented in further detail when Dr. Elizabeth (Betsy) Clark, NASW executive director, and I attended the BPD meeting in Detroit the following year.

In order to gain greater support for the social work profession, we knew that we had to demonstrate the great value we bring to the general public. We are building a widespread campaign that will resonate with the public, the media, policy makers, employers, and, most importantly, with social workers. Changing perceptions and behaviors is a complex process, and it will take time and significant funding to build awareness of our cause both internally and to the broader community.

Focus groups were conducted across the country to test concepts (words and graphics) that could represent the social work profession in a multimedia campaign. Both social workers and members of the public related best to creative concepts that positioned social workers as committed professionals who connect people in need with important resources—in multiple settings.

But what most people in the focus groups didn’t understand was how diverse the social work field is and that social workers are highly trained to do this complex work. The role of BSWs in the delivery of services was something that the public was generally not aware of.

Many people felt that they would never need the assistance of a social worker.

They believed that social workers are employed primarily in child-welfare departments where fewer than 15 percent of child-welfare agencies in the country require either a bachelor’s or master’s degree in social work. For example, in many states a person can get a degree in art history, go through an eleven-week course, and then be on the front line protecting children.

The general perception is that social work services are limited to those in dire circumstances—and few people want to think about being in these situations. Given the public’s basic understanding of social work as a “helping profession” and our desire to increase awareness about where, how, and to whom social workers provide services, we have concluded that we want to own and build upon the “helping” position. Based on what the public already believes, we wanted to further promote the fact that “Social workers have the right education, experience, and dedication to help people help themselves whenever and wherever they need it.” (NASW Web Site) 

As the campaign got started, we focused on individuals between the ages of thirty-five and fifty-four who we believed would be the most interested in learning how social workers help their families. Many of these people, especially women, in the Sandwich Generation are working to raise their own children while also taking care of elderly parents and other aging relatives. They are looking for advice, tools, and hope on a range of issues. Social workers, particularly BSW social workers, can and do provide all these things.

During the campaign, we plan to showcase the many ways Americans of all walks of life come in contact with social work services. We want to tell compelling stories about the diverse people who benefit from these services—and the professionals who are dedicated to the work. We will do this in magazine and newspaper ads, in materials sent to journalists across the country, through myriad partner organizations, on a dynamic new public website, and on radio and TV programs. We are pleased that ad campaigns are up in New York City subway stops. The ad theme is “Turn Around.” The proposed ads show many different situations [in which] a social worker’s intervention turned a situation around.  The scenarios, all of which are based on true stories, include a social worker in an elementary school, an oncology social worker in a hospital, a social worker on the front lines of disaster relief, a bilingual social worker in a senior center, a social worker working with an adoption agency, and a social worker in Iraq helping soldiers. Copies of the ads can be found at www.socialworkers.org.

More Americans need to know that social workers, and especially BSWs, are valuable resources for anyone who needs help navigating complex support systems, such as patient education, end-of-life planning, substance-abuse treatment, crisis intervention, mental-health counseling, and employee assistance, among other services. Social workers are everywhere in every community—and they’re helping all types of people every day. The www.helpstartshere.org website, a major piece of the Public Education Campaign, is now online. The site is geared toward the general public and will offer information in many subject areas in four key categories: mind and spirit, health and wellness, children and families, and aging. “We’re letting social work professionals know about it now so they can look at the site and see how the information is presented,” Gail Woods-Waller, NASW director of communications, said. “We hope that many of our most accomplished members will also volunteer to provide consumer-friendly content for the site.”

Although social workers are often featured in magazine and newspaper lifestyle and feature articles as credible subject experts, television news programs and other hard-news media frequently limit coverage of the social work profession to negative child-welfare cases. (Media audit, April 2004e story of social work)

We’ve spent years helping others; we don’t help ourselves. It’s time for us to tell our own story—the story of social work. If we don’t, who will?”  (NASW WebSite)  I would like to share the following: I have had the opportunity over the years to work with some amazing social workers, many of whom have been BSWs, people like Alicia Smalley, coordinator of field instruction at the University of Nevada-Reno. She received her BSW from Arizona State University and her MSW in 1995, and she is currently enrolled in a Ph.D. social work program at the University of Utah.  Professor Smalley had nearly twenty years of practice experience as a BSW prior to the completion of her MSW and has been extremely active in NASW, serving on the national board of directors. Smalley was the 1995–1996 Social Work Congressional Fellow, working on Capitol Hill for U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun from Illinois. She is a governor appointee to the Human Resources Block Grant Commission and is active in Nevada politics. Smalley was a school board member for more than ten years in Douglas County.

Linda Shearer is the director of social work at the Emmanuel Lutheran Home, a large elder-care facility in Montana. She is a proud BSW who has moved from primarily direct practice to administration and management. She too has been an active NASW member and has served on the national board as well as numerous committees at the local and state levels.

Finally, this summer I had the opportunity to deliver the plenary address at the Seventh Biennial Caribbean and International Social Work Educators Conference held at the University of the West Indies, MONA Campus. There I met a dynamic young woman named Tricia Pitter, who is a BSW from Kingston, Jamaica, and works in the social work department at the university hospital, working with couples and individuals as well as with individuals with AIDS and HIV. The entire social work staff is comprised of BSWs, with the exception of the director, who is an MSW.

All three of these individuals have made significant contributions to the profession as well as to the communities of which they are a part.