Each Wednesday during March, University students, faculty, staff and visitors can visit a social work informational booth in Mallinckrodt Student Center. In addition, the Campus Bookstore will highlight publications from GWB, and an exhibit on careers in social work will be displayed on the first floor of Goldfarb Hall.

Representatives from the National Association of Social Workers will visit the University March 21 to discuss social work career opportunities.

Social Work Month will culminate with a breakfast and educational program in Brown Hall March 26.

As National Association of Social Work Executive Director Josephine Nieves said in 1998, social work has "100 years of solid accomplishment helping individuals, families and communities, and working for systemic changes to achieve social, political and economic justice." Today, social workers are employed in a wide variety of settings, from mental health centers and hospitals to corporate employee services and policy analysis offices.

The profession of social work has made a difference in countless numbers of lives.

Every day, professionals in the field, regardless of their specialization, work to promote the values of social justice, self-determination and the worth of every human being, while embracing diversity.

Social work began in the Charity Organized Societies (COS) and the settlement house movements in the late 19th century. During this time, due to increasing population, industrialization, urbanization and immigration, there were an increasing number of social problems.

These movements focused on understanding and curing poverty and family disorganization, assisting the poor, helping immigrants become established in a new community, using scientific principles to develop investigation and treatment procedures, and using friendly visitors to get to know families and help them solve their problems.

Some of the benefits Americans enjoy today resulted from efforts of early social workers like Jane Addams, Mary Richmond, Dorothea Dix and Mary McLeod Bethune. Unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid all came about as a result of efforts by pioneers in social work.

Another accomplishment of the profession is the humane treatment of people with mental illness and developmental disabilities.