Global event shows how social workers can help change the world
Published by Professional Social Work magazine, 22 June, 2022
Social work is changing globally. It is expanding from the western model of focus on the individual and responding to crisis that predominates in northern hemisphere countries to co-planning and co-building sustainable environments to support wellbeing.
There is strength in our communities that we have seen in the response of neighbours during the Covid lockdowns that generally goes unrecognised. Yet we know that sustainable change happens with the strength of grassroots action and solidarity.
In the days surrounding World Refugee Day on 20 June, BASW is highlighting some of our global challenges, like climate change and migration of displaced people.
Last week the association’s annual conference and general meeting hosted a number of workshops and presentations and from 29 June to 2 July will be part of a Global Peoples’ Summit, which anyone can join and sign up to for free or by making a small contribution.
The People’s Summit’s theme is ‘Co-building a new eco-social world: leaving no one behind’, and will be opened by UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres. He has a message for us all and how we make decisions that impact on us. The people´s global summit was initiated by 26 diverse global organisations representing hundreds of millions of people.
They represent different faiths, philosophies, rights movements, workforces, generations, traditions, and cultures. Facilitated by the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development and the International Federation of Social Workers, of which BASW is an active member, the partners have gathered with people from across the world, bridging movements for justice to create new ways to work together for sustainability and quality of life.
We know from successful practice that when people feel valued in reciprocal relationships, they can create joint ownership of positive change through new structures at all levels - individual, local, national, regional and global.
At the World Social Work Day celebrations in Geneva this year, the UN specifically recognised social workers as key partners in how change happens positively and called on us to bring our skills in co-building a world for wellbeing and sustainability.
Co-building for a Peaceful World
Alongside this global movement within BASW we also can do something locally. Building on the knowledge and information shared in last week’s conference there is a growing awareness that we can make a huge difference in the lives of people who have been displaced by violence or climate change.
We now have a wealth of knowledge from across the world where communities have co-built new communities after violence and disaster. This needs to be recognised and developed into mainstream social work policies, practice and education. Many of our basic skills are transferable and currently under-used. This is not acceptable as we know that crises and disasters have a profound effect on individuals and their communities.
Some of the issues we have already identified include:
- Peace is an active co-building process It requires safe spaces for dialogue to understand each other’s journeys. Trauma can last a long time (the person may never recover what they have lost)
- Peaceful communities value diversity, inclusion and reciprocity
- Human rights has moved on – we now focus on our responsibilities and rights with each other and our planet to co-build a new eco-social world for sustainability and wellbeing – this is the message from the UN and from the communities involved in the People’s Global Summit
As a profession, social work can develop an understanding of policies and practices which causes further distress and trauma and advocated for cultural change in our politics, services and communities