Black Social Workers Research Articles

Crossroads of Care: A Black Social Worker’s Insights into the Lives of Black Men from Adolescence to Adulthood

ABSTRACT This autoethnographic study, “Crossroads of Care: A Black Social Worker’s Insights into the Lives of Black Men from Adolescence to Adulthood,” explores the intersections of race, education, and mental health throughout the life course of Black men. Drawing on varied professional and personal experiences – from providing telehealth services for college students to being a resource within a predominantly Black high school – the research illuminates systemic barriers and profound effects of marginalization and isolation. Emphasizing evidence-based social work interventions and culturally relevant care, the study underscores the importance of narrative therapy and self-disclosure in addressing Black men’s multifaceted needs. The findings contribute to discussions on racial equity in mental health and education, offering actionable recommendations for practitioners, policymakers, and educators to strengthen support systems. Advocating for a comprehensive care model, this research endeavors to empower Black men across various life milestones, enhancing well-being by addressing the complexities of race, education, and mental health.

Reflections from members of a collaborative social work practitioner–academic research team investigating the career progression experiences of black social workers

This article shares the reflections of members of a collaborative practitioner–academic research team in social work. The team investigated the career progression experiences of black social workers working in statutory social work services in South-East London. Our intention in this article is to share our experience of researching a subject that holds emotional and political resonance. We do so by offering individual perspectives from different team members on how their project involvement affected them both personally and professionally. We also discuss some of the general themes identified in our reflections. These include practitioners growing in research confidence, the need to create a safe emotional space for stories of researcher discomfort and uncertainty to be heard, the effects of undertaking research on professional social work identity, and curiosity about whether our research endeavours can change social work career progression policies and practices for black social work colleagues. We caution that a safe emotional container is required when researching personally and professionally sensitive, subjects such as racism and discrimination in social work. We hope that our article inspires social work practitioners to become involved in research activities.

The psychological impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on Black social workers

AbstractThis qualitative study investigated the psychological impact of the dual pandemics of COVID‐19 and anti‐Black violence on client‐facing social workers who identify as Black, the coping strategies they used in response to the pandemic, and the ways in which these individuals’ racial and cultural identities impacted their experiences. Such individuals are at unique risk for traumatic stress and burnout. This risk was compounded by the traumatic nature of the dual pandemics and the ways in which they forced confrontation with Yalom's existential givens of human existence: death, isolation, meaninglessness, and freedom and responsibility. Eight client‐facing social workers who identified as Black and lived in the United States were interviewed using a 19‐item semistructured protocol created by the researchers that addressed the research questions. Data were analyzed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis methodology. Five themes were constructed: (1) Changes in treatment due to COVID‐19, (2) Emotional toll due to the pandemic, (3) Experiences related to being Black, (4) Beneficial experiences, and (5) Coping with COVID‐19 and ongoing racism. Participants’ experiences demonstrated the compounded psychological risk factors they faced as social workers, Black Americans, and survivors of the pandemic, and the ways in which they confronted existential concerns. Participants demonstrated resilience by making new meanings out of their experiences and implied their successful posttraumatic growth. This study demonstrated the need for greater support of Black social workers in social work practice and policy to ease the compounded stressors they face as a result of the pandemic.

Understanding and Improving Black Social Worker and Student Experiences in England

This article explores the experiences of Black newly qualified social workers and student social workers in England. Drawing on related studies that have begun to outline the challenges faced by Global Ethnic Majority social workers in the UK, the article highlights that this is both an important and under‐researched area. The article provides a much‐needed contribution to understanding the unique experiences of Black social workers through a thematic analysis of interviews with Black social workers, providing an opportunity for social work colleagues, managers, educators, and academics to understand the challenges and obstacles that these social workers face. The research reveals a dire situation in which Black social workers are hindered by racial stereotyping, discrimination, and invisibility. Black social worker voices also highlight suggestions for best practice and guidance for the social work sector about how to improve. By centering these underrepresented voices, this article provides an opportunity to acknowledge and begin to rectify the barriers and challenges that Black social workers face.

Alternative Pathways to Social Work Licensure: A Critical Review and Social Equity Policy Analysis

ABSTRACT Purpose In August 2022, the Association of Social Work Boards released a long called for pass rate analysis that revealed significant disparities. While many states look to cease the requirement of the Bachelors, Masters, and Advanced Generalist exams in their licensure process, status quo bias leads to hesitancy to remove the requirement of the Clinical exam. Method A critical review was undertaken to identify possible alternatives to the current multiple-choice competency-based exam which yielded three assessment formats (oral exams, portfolios, and performance assessment/simulations) and two alternatives (jurisprudence exams and provisional licensure). Informed by an Afrocentric lens, we undertook a social and racial policy analysis to examine alternative pathways for licensure from the perspective of a social work board member. We centered our analysis on the impacts on (1) Black social workers, who currently have the highest pass-rate disparities; (2) social workers whose primary language is not English, and (3) social workers with disabilities who have anecdotally reported difficulty with getting testing accommodations. We rated each alternative on four social equity analysis criteria of procedural fairness, access, quality, and outcomes. These ratings were computed into an overall rating for each alternative from equitable to inequitable. Results We found jurisprudence exams and provisional licensure have the best possibility of being equitable pathways to licensure, with potential impacts on the regulation of supervision and continuing education. Conclusion Anti-racism and social justice as praxis require social work as a profession to divest from competency-based testing to eliminate racism in our own professional policies.

“Why Don’t We Learn About the Black Social Work Pioneers?” The Erasure of Black Social Workers’ Histories and Contributions—Implications for Social Work Education

ABSTRACTWhile there is mounting research on the well-known white founders of social work, documentation of Black social work pioneers and their contributions is scarce – in both social work education and the broader telling of the profession’s history. Given the systemic exclusion of Black social workers in the dominant narrative of social work history, there is a critical need to understand how social work education perpetuates and centers whiteness in the teaching of historical and contemporary social work. This article uses Critical Race Theory to interrogate the role of racism and white supremacy in maintaining the Eurocentric hegemony undergirding the pedagogical and epistemological canons of social work. Moreover, the authors call for a radical shift from social work’s white-centered discourse and curricula to an equitable praxis, centering Black social work pioneers and their contributions to the profession. Implications for decolonizing pedagogy and anti-racist practice in social work education are also discussed.

Access Amplified

This article focuses on a 1968 documentary radio series titled Seeds of Discontent and a recently established archival collection that centers on it. Created by Hartford Smith Jr., a Black social worker and professor in Detroit, and distributed by the National Educational Radio Network, Seeds of Discontent started with his concern over mass media’s coverage of riots and the social problems that caused them. Through interviews with college student activists, families living in poverty, teachers frustrated by the failings of the education system, middle-class workers, incarcerated youth, and many others, Smith used the series to explore the roots of social problems facing the United States, with frequent attention to the challenges and experiences of Black people living in Detroit, as well as possible solutions. By speaking to the people affected by social problems instead of the experts usually consulted in mass media, Smith’s ethos of access emphasizes the idea that the distance between media organizations and media professionals and the public whose circumstances and histories are being mediated is limiting, exacerbating the impact of the already-sown seeds of discontent at the core of societal structural issues. More than 50 years later, this commitment to access continued as Smith requested that the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) make his collection broadly accessible. This article outlines Smith’s approach in Seeds of Discontent and the story of the collection as a case study on the possibilities and challenges of access in contemporary archives.

Social workers' historical and contemporary understanding of the social development approach

Colonialism and apartheid influenced South African social welfare policies. After South Africa gained political freedom in 1994, democratic social welfare laws like the White Paper for Social Welfare were implemented (1997). Despite democratic social development initiatives, poverty, unemployment, and inequality marginalise most South Africans. Eurocentrism dominates social work practice and education with significant proposals for higher education decolonisation and indigenisation. Participatory action learning action research approach was used for this study (PALAR). PALAR uses critical, transformational, and democratic research methods to build a social work practice approach for African social systems in South Africa. For this research, an Afrocentric social work practice model was co-constructed for South Africa by black social workers who were purposefully and conveniently selected. The objective was to understand social workers' historical and present conceptualisations of the social development approach. Preliminary findings imply that social development does not address structural inequalities in South Africa, such as race and the land question. For example, after a decade of its adoption, the approach has not significantly addressed large-scale poverty and unemployment. Social development in practice is welfarist, disempowering, not community-based, and insensitive to African culture. Social development services are not adequately integrated. Social development in South Africa towards social welfare is a miscarriage; lacks relevance and appropriateness outside the Euro-North American axis and remains Eurocentric in all aspects. The social development approach does not represent the African values system and nor relatable to the African social systems. South African social work needs to be reimagined. Indigenous knowledge systems need to take precedence to realise relevance of social work practice approaches in South Africa. An Afrocentric turn to social work practice for South Africa's relevance is a viable answer. How to cite this article using ASWNet style Ntloko, N. A. J. (2023). Social workers' historical and contemporary understanding of the social development approach. People centred – The Journal of Development Administration (JDA), 8(2), 48. Social Work and Development Student Conference (SWDSC), 16 June 2023. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/jda.v8i2.6 Conference Abstract Social Work and Development Student Conference (SWDSC) Held on 16 June 2023, Day of the African Child (DAC) Organised by Africa Social Work and Development Network (ASWDN) Conference Organising Committee: Danzel Rademan, University of the Free State, South Africa (Chairperson); Atuhairwe Collins, Student, Master of Social Work, Makerere University, Uganda (ViceChairperson); Never Winnie James Sebit, South Sudan; Bachelor in Social Work, RCSS, India (Secretary); Tatenda Sukulao, Bachelor of Social Work, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe (Vice-Secretary); Norman T. Manyika, Student, Bachelor of Social Work, University of Zimbabwe (Committee member) and Takudzwa Banda, Bachelor of Social Work, University of Zimbabwe (Committee member). Visit journal website: https://jda.africasocialwork.net

Spitting at Jim Crow

Spitting at Jim Crow

Assessing the impact of COVID-19 and race-based trauma on the mental health of Black social work providers

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to assess the association of COVID-19 and race-based trauma on the mental health of Black social workers and to identify support systems. An explanatory sequential design was used to measure mental health, COVID-19, quality of life, race-based trauma, and support systems. The quantitative sample included 113 Black social workers. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to analyze the relationship between COVID-19 stress, race-based trauma, and quality of life with three independent variables: depression, anxiety, and stress. COVID-19 stress significantly correlated with all independent variables, while discrimination-related trauma was positively correlated with depression and anxiety. Secondary trauma (as a measure of quality of life) had a positive association with anxiety and stress. Demographic variables (age, type of degree, and whether licensed) were not significant predictors in any regression analyses. Several themes emerged from the qualitative interviews, with 85% reporting a lack of support from their White colleagues. Identified sources of support were therapy and positive relationships.

African-Centered Social Work in the 21st Century: A Content Analysis.

Endorsement of African-centered theory and practice are widespread within Black communities across the United States. The usage of African-centered frameworks is also common among many Black social workers. However, past research suggests that African-centered theory and subsequent models of practice are marginalized within social work literature and curricula. Since advocacy began for the inclusion of African-centered approaches to practice during the mid to late 1990s, there have been no strategic analyses tracing how African-centered scholarship has advanced within social work. This study sought to examine to what extent the African-centered framework is included within scholarship among prominent social work journals. A content analysis was conducted of articles in six major social work journals published between 2000 and 2019. A total of 42 articles met the criteria for inclusion. While there has been a level of change in the number of published articles of African-centered social work, findings suggest that relative to other practice modalities/models, African-centered scholarship is noticeably lacking in social work literature. The article concludes with implications to advance culturally responsive research and practice with communities of African descent.

Abstract P3-17-02: Knowledge is power: Designing an educational program to support black breast cancer patients

Abstract Background. Black women diagnosed with breast cancer are 40 percent more likely to die than their Caucasian peers. They are often diagnosed with higher staged cancers, when treatments are more toxic and costly (Centers for Disease Control, 2018). In addition, Black women have worse stage-specific survival than white women (American Cancer Society, Cancer Facts and Figures for African Americans 2019-2021). Lack of medical knowledge and social isolation are contributing factors to health care disparities. To address these factors, in fall 2019 a member of the board of directors of Living Beyond Breast Cancer approached LBBC to design an educational program for Black patients newly diagnosed with early-stage and metastatic breast cancer. The overarching program goal was to address health care disparities for Black people. The program aimed to increase knowledge about breast cancer and about the implicit and explicit bias Black patients encounter in health care settings, and to provide tools to address it. The program also prepared patients to be informed partners in their health care and connected them to existing resources and to other Black patients for peer support. Methods. LBBC convened an advisory board of ten Black community leaders with expertise in oncology, health care disparities, social and practical support, and advocacy. Most had a personal history of breast cancer. A consultant with expertise in program development and health disparities was hired to oversee the project. The advisory board met monthly to develop content, format, outreach, and speaker recommendations. Initial plans were to deliver the program as a one-day symposium attached to LBBC’s fall conference. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the advisory board decided to offer the program virtually using a combination of live sessions supplemented with video content. Learnings were intended to prepare participants to more effectively communicate with health care professionals and empower them with practical steps to access appropriate care. An evaluation was designed, and participants received an email prompting them to offer feedback after each session. Results. The program was delivered from September through October 2020. Speakers were Black oncologists, social workers, researchers, and advocates. The first session was an on-demand video offering guidance to recently diagnosed Black breast cancer patients. Three live sessions were delivered weekly on the topics of identifying barriers to accessing care, early-stage breast cancer treatment, and metastatic breast cancer treatment. The last two sessions focused on self-care and advocacy, with the final session delivered at LBBC’s virtual fall conference. LBBC registered 436 people from 36 states and Washington, DC, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Participants ranged from age 27 to 83 and lived in urban, suburban, and rural areas. In all, 307 registrants identified as Black, and 40 reported a breast cancer diagnosis in the last six months. Of participants who completed program evaluations, 75 percent reported an increase in knowledge of breast cancer, 77 percent reported increased understanding of treatment, 82 percent reported increased confidence to have conversations with loved ones or health care providers, and 85 percent said they learned strategies to address implicit and explicit bias. An informal assessment of open-field responses demonstrated that attendees valued the programmatic focus on their unique needs as Black breast cancer patients. Conclusions. An educational program led and designed by Black health care professionals and patients can be successfully delivered in a combination live and virtual content format to improve knowledge, communication skills, and feelings of self-efficacy for Black people with breast cancer. Citation Format: Jamil Rivers, Tiah Tomlin, Arin Ahlum Hanson, Catherine Ormerod, Janine E Guglielmino. Knowledge is power: Designing an educational program to support black breast cancer patients [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2021 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2021 Dec 7-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2022;82(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P3-17-02.

Black Social Workers Matter: Using Parallel Narratives to Discuss Social Work History

ABSTRACT This article presents parallel narratives as a pedagogical strategy to increase awareness, facilitate critical reflection, and dialog about the role of Black social work pioneers in the development of the social work profession. Using this approach, history is reconstructed and presented in ways that decenter Whiteness and avoid marginalizing people of color. The Black settlement house movement that occurred simultaneous with Jane Addams’s Hull House, the work of Lugenia Burns Hope alongside Mary Richmond, and the work of W. E. B. Du Bois and Bertha Reynolds, are parallel narratives discussed. This article intentionally shares the history of the social work profession with multiple narratives, and in addition emphasizes that doing so is a step toward the realization that Black Social Workers Matter.

Kneading, Needing, and Eating Black Bodies

Social workers have been on the frontlines alongside marginalized communities since the profession’s emergence. This stance continues with supporting the Black Lives Matter Movement and centering the structural inequities that the COVID-19 pandemic highlights. A narrative that centers the history of social work’s concern for Black citizenship in the profession’s formation is neglected in the literature. This historical review traces the genesis of the profession’s work to expand access to the entitlements of citizenship among Black communities. Thematic analysis of secondary sources is used to investigate the formation of the profession and its work to ensure access to resources among Blacks communities. Study findings identify that the profession emerged from the bonds between the Abolitionist Movement and the Women’s Suffrage Movement, then moved away from working with Black people during the Settlement Movement and did not return to addressing the needs of these communities until the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement. Black social workers answered the call to support Black and non-Black communities in the absence of the profession’s national organization’s presence. Social work needs, kneads, and eats Black bodies by being in complicity with systems of oppression. The history of social work and its concern and lack of concern for Black citizenship is a pedagogical innovation that addresses the historical amnesia that White domination fosters. The findings of this analysis call social workers to task to disrupt White dominant epistemologies of ignorance by incorporating this historical context into their social work pedagogy.

Centering unacknowledged histories: revisiting NABSW demands to repeal ASFA

ABSTRACT The Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 has now been actively implemented in the United States for 24 years and remains largely unchanged from its initial conception. Initial critiques of ASFA included questions around the ethics of its requirements and the efficiency of its proposed goals. Subsequent to the original adoption of ASFA into legislation, the National Association of Black Social Workers published a statement calling for its repeal due to the dire consequences experienced by Black communities. Although Black scholars and organizers continue to fight for the end of family separation, the call to repeal ASFA has garnered little attention from policymakers and child welfare researchers. This brief commentary reacquaints scholars with discussions around ASFA, highlighting the implications for Black communities and reiterating the importance of centering Black voices given recent calls for anti-racist practice, pedagogy, and research.

Black social workers: Identity, racism, invisibility/hypervisibility at work

Summary This article provides a reflexive account of qualitative research with Black female social workers in the North of England. It uses ‘Africanist Sista-hood in Britain’ as the theoretical framework guiding the research. The data are gathered from six semi-structured interviews and two focus groups. Data were analysed via thematic analysis. Participant data are used to discuss issues of identity, race and racism as they contribute to positions of visibility, invisibility and hypervisibility within the social work spaces discussed. The article challenges Western forms of knowledge production as the dominant discourse in social work research, practice, education and training and links this to wider issues of power, privilege and suppression of marginalised voices. Findings The findings section reveals examples of racism, marginality, invisibility and hypervisibility as part of the lived experiences of Black female social workers in the study. It includes discussions of ‘collective strategic projection’ as a consequence of the development of the ‘race taboo’ often present in these work environments. Applications The article calls for social work educators, practitioners and the wider academic field to do more to centralise anti-racist approaches in an attempt to challenge racism in social work.

COVID-19 Reflection: From the Diary of A Black Social Worker

COVID-19 entered the world in March of 2020 like a roaring lion. Fast forward to December 2020 and this virus does not intend to go out like a lamb. I’m an oncology social worker at an outpatient i...

Mental health and historical trauma among social workers working with victims of violent crime in South Africa

ABSTRACT The social work profession has become critical in assisting victims of violent crime at social service agencies in South Africa. Social workers have been spearheading efforts to help trauma victims at the expense of their mental health. For Black South African social workers, the mental burden of working with victim collides with historical trauma to create new ways of experiencing mental health challenges. The study aimed to explore the experiences of social workers working with victims of violent crime at select social service agencies in Johannesburg. The study was qualitative in nature and a case study design was used. Data was collected using in-depth interviews. The researchers used purposive sampling and data was analyzed using thematic analysis. Results from the study showed that Black South African social workers working in the field of violent crime face challenges such as prolonged sadness, emotional exhaustion and vicarious trauma. All these psychological problems are amplified by the fact that social workers in South Africa work under strenuous conditions. This increases the impact of psychological problems on social workers. Therefore, this paper argues that when the psychological effects of working with victims of violent crime, intersect with historical trauma, it produces unique ways of experiencing trauma for Black South African social workers. This study has strong implications for research about the health and wellbeing of social work practitioners working with trauma victims. The study exposes the need to prioritize the wellbeing of social workers especially those working in contexts with a traumatic past.

There and Back Again: A Commentary on Social Welfare Policy in the Wake of 2020

There and Back Again: A Commentary on Social Welfare Policy in the Wake of 2020

Black History in Atlantic Canada: A Bibliography

Black History in Atlantic Canada: A Bibliography Suzanne Morton (bio) and Donald Wright (bio) By definition, a bibliography is a work in progress and this bibliography is no exception. Casting a wide net, it also reflects the arbitrary borders between history and its sister disciplines and the equally arbitrary distinction between published and unpublished. We know that there will be important items missing, we thank our generous colleagues who pointed us to entries that we had missed, and we acknowledge that our bibliography builds on previously published bibliographies. On that note, see George Elliott Clarke, Odysseys Home: Mapping African-Canadian Literature (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2002) and Flora Blizzard Francis, A Black Canadian Bibliography (Ottawa: Pan-African Publications, 2000). Yet what follows testifies to the remarkable volume of work that has been done on Black history in Atlantic Canada. And we very much hope that it fosters more research. There is research to be done on cases of 18th-century domestic enslaved labour in Newfoundland and the use of West Indian enslaved labour in the banks’ fishery. We also need to know a great deal more about the 19th century throughout the entire region. Finally, we hope that oral historians will record the memories and lives of Black people in the region who struggled to find a measure of political and economic equality across the second half of the 20th century because if this bibliography records Black history, it also reveals Black presence. Books Abucar, Mohamed. Struggle for Development: The Black Communities of North and East Preston and Cherry Brook, Nova Scotia, 1784–1987. Dartmouth, NS: McCurdy Printing, 1988. African Canadian Caucus. Justice Reform and the Black Community of Nova Scotia: The Case of Donald Marshall, Jr. Halifax: African-Canadian Caucus of Nova Scotia, 1992. Africville Genealogical Society. The Spirit of Africville. With contributions by Donald Clairmont, Stephen Kimber, Bridgal Pachai, and Charles Saunders. Halifax: Formac Press, 1992. Africville Genealogy Society, Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, and National Film Board of Canada (Atlantic Centre). Africville: A Spirit That Lives On. Halifax: Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, 1989. Bauld, Florence L. Bear River: Untapped Roots, Moving Upwards. Halifax: Russell K. Grosse, 1997. Beaton Institute of Cape Breton Studies. Inventory of Ethnic Resources in Nova Scotia: Blacks. Sydney, NS: Beaton Institute of Cape Breton Studies, 1984. Bernard, Wanda Thomas. Fighting for Change: Black Social Workers in Nova Scotia. East Lawrencetown, NS: Pottersfield Press, 2006. Best, Carrie. That Lonesome Road: The Autobiography of Carrie M. Best. New Glasgow, NS: Clarion Publishing, 1977. Bishop, Henry, and Frank Stanley Boyd. A Black Community Album Before 1930: Exhibited at the Art Gallery, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, 8 April-8 May 1983 with the Exhibition “The Past in Focus.” Halifax and Dartmouth: Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery and Black Cultural Centre, 1983. Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia. Juba’lee: A Celebration of Black Culture in Nova Scotia. Over 300 Years of History. Halifax: Society for Protection and Preservation of Black Culture in Nova Scotia, 2000. ———. Nova Scotia Black Professional Boxers: Past and Present. Dartmouth, NS: Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, 1989. ———. Three Nova Scotia Black Churches: African Orthodox [by] Joyce Ruck, African Methodist Episcopal [by] Edward Matwawana, Disney Chapel/Rose of Sharon Assembly [by] Carolyn Smith (A Collection of Historical Essays). Cherry Brook, NS: Black Cultural Centre for Nova Scotia, 1990. Browne, Joan. South-Western Nova Scotia Black Communities. Halifax: Dalhousie University Institute of Public Affairs, 1978. Burrows, E.H. Captain Owen of the African Survey: The Hydrographic Surveys of Admiral W.F.W. Owen on the Coast of Africa and the Great Lakes of Canada, His Fight Against the African Slave Trade, His Life in Campobello Island, New Brunswick, 1774–1857. Rotterdam: A.A. Balkerna, 1979. Campbell, Mavis Christine. Back to Africa: George Ross and the Maroons from Nova Scotia to Sierra Leone. Trenton, NS: Africa World Press, 1993. ———. Nova Scotia and the Fighting Maroons: A Documentary History. Studies in Third World Societies, Publication No. 41. Williamsburg, VA: College of William and Mary Department of Anthropology, 1990. Caplan, Ron, ed. Pearleen Oliver: Canada’s Black Crusader for Civil Rights. Wreck Cove, NS: Breton...