Unification, Crafting Imperatives, and Defining a Profession

Abstract

Over the past seven-plus years there have been three professionwide initiatives undertaken to strengthen, define, or better position the profession internally and externally. There have been and continue to be substantial exchanges regarding these initiatives. In 2007, the first initiative started to take shape. Organizations and associations organized a meeting of the profession titled Social Work: Future of the Profession. This meeting became known as the Wingspread Initiative. The Wingspread Initiative included the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), the Association of Social Work Boards, the National Association of Deans and Directors of Schools of Social Work (NADD), the Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work (GADE), the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors (BPD), the Society for Social Work and Research, the Institute for the Advancement of Social Work Research (IASWR), and the St. Louis Group for Excellence in Social Work Research and Education. These organizations are members of the Leadership Roundtable for the profession. The primary rationale for the Wingspread Initiative was to discuss the possibility of unification of the profes sion. The meeting concluded by approving the following statement: The leaders of 10 professional social work orga