Guest Blog on Social Workers, by Rich & Elizabeth Lombino

This week's blog entry comes from Attorney-social work student Rich Lombino and social worker Elizabeth Lombino, a husband and wife team dedicated to ending homelessness. Rich works at the Coalition for the Homeless and Elizabeth has worked at the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation. Rich is currently pursuing his MSW at Columbia University, where Elizabeth received her MSW in 2002.

We encourage you to visit Rich and Elizabeth's blog on their Web site at: http://homelessness.change.org/

The following blog entry, dated March 8, 2010, is entitled:

In Defense of Social Workers

Since 1984, the White House has officially recognized March as Social Work Month. Each year, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) uses it to promote the profession in general and the specific vulnerable populations that we work with. The National Social Work Public Education Campaign was enacted during the last five years to help promote positive images of social workers.

And boy do we need the positive publicity. Social workers have long gotten a bum rap. We are often seen as "do-gooders" or decried as people who take children away from their families. Unfortunately, the media only seems to pay attention to our profession when a child tragically dies due to system neglect. Those stories are horrific, and they do happen, though rarely. Every profession has its unfavorable images. We're not alone in that.

There aren't many positive stories in the media about social workers. This is why Social Work Month is so important -- so we can give people a better understanding of the profession by describing the vast and dynamic work that dedicated social workers do. Much of this work is on behalf of the homeless.

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Photo credit: Rich Lombino