Looking Back, Looking Ahead: 2020 and What Comes Next

Abstract

This has been quite a year! When we prepared the first issue of volume 44 in Social Work Research, we had no idea what was in store for all of us. The challenges we have faced as community members, scholars, and social workers have seemed insurmountable at times, and have called on us to marshal all our existing resources and build new skills. This year has raised new challenges, such as COVID-19, and emphasized the intransigence of racial injustice and catastrophic environmental events that are incredibly persistent in the United States and throughout the globe. Social workers are at the forefront of practice, policy, and research to address these problems. Although the problems are daunting, we do have some tools and skills to support our work in these difficult times. The social work profession relies on a set of ethical principles to guide our focus and our actions. The NASW Code of Ethics declares that our primary obligation is service, and that challenging injustice is central to our mission. We have all seen many opportunities to put these ethics into action over the past months, and our work is nowhere near done. Previous editorials in this journal, emerging scholarship, the news from around the globe, and daily life in our home communities have shown us the vast inequalities and systemic racism that persist despite our well-intentioned work. We truly have a long way to go and must confront head-on the ways we fail to embody the ethics to which we aspire.