Social Work and Abolishing the Family Regulation System
Join Joyce McMillan, MJ (Maleeka Jihad), Halimah Washington and Michelle Grier for a discussion about social work and abolishing the family regulation system. Social work, historically and today, has been deeply embedded in systems of carceral control. With social work's legacy of ties to policing and oppressive family regulation through the child welfare system, the social work community is actively imagining and working towards a social work rooted in abolition, turning to traditions of resistance that also characterize its history. This webinar is a third in a series on Abolitionist Social Work organized by the Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work (NAAASW) in partnership with Haymarket Books, challenging carceral social work through the development and practice of an abolitionist social work. The Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work (NAAASW) is a group of social workers from different parts of the U.S. building a year-long initiative to support abolitionist work in the field of social work. The initiative includes ongoing political education, research, knowledge generation around carceral and abolition social work, developing an online hub of abolitionist social work resources, and broader organizing and advocacy efforts to build abolitionist ideas and practices into social work.
Social Work, Abolition, and Palestine
Join Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, PhD, Suhad Tabahi, PhD, and Stéphanie Wahab, PhD for an abolitionist discussion concerning the criminalization of Palestinians, dead and alive, in Palestine. Drs. Shalhoub-Kevorkian and Tabahi will offer a critical analysis of the current political moment, exposing the ways settler colonial criminalization operates to uproot, dispossess, dismember, and further oppress Palestinians. They will also address the ethical concerns and moral imperatives for disrupting settler colonial violence enacted through criminalization, alongside the need to center Palestinian voices, epistemics, and practices within Palestinian liberation and solidarity work. Why Palestine matters and the intersectional struggle for justice and human rights will also be addressed.
Social Work, Racial Capitalism and the Struggle for Abolition
Join the Network to Advance Abolition in Social Work in collaboration with Haymarket Books for a conversation about the intersections and entanglements of social work and racial capitalism, and how they can shape struggles for abolition. This will be the first in a two part series geared towards the social work community deepening our understanding and praxis in struggling against racial capitalism and for care, interdepence, and collective safety and wellbeing. This first event will explore racial capitalism and its hold on social work and other caring professions, and how this analysis can shape our struggles and movements.
Abolitionist Social Work: Possibilities, Paradox and Praxis
As demands to defund the police often look to social work as an alternative, panelists Tanisha "Wakumi" Douglas, Mimi Kim, Kirk "Jae" James and Cameron Rasmussen discuss the cautions of and possibilities for abolitionist social work. Social work, historically and today, has been deeply embedded in systems of carceral control. With social work's legacy of ties to policing and oppressive family regulation through the child welfare system, the social work community is actively imagining and working towards a social work rooted in abolition, turning to traditions of resistance that also characterize its history. This conversation, organized by the Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work (NAASW) in partnership with Haymarket Books will look at challenging carceral social work through the development and practice of an abolitionist social work. The Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work (NAASW) is a group of social workers from different parts of the US, building a year-long initiative to support abolitionist work in the field of social work. The initiative includes ongoing political education, research / knowledge generation around carceral and abolition social work, developing an online hub of abolitionist social work resources, and broader organizing and advocacy efforts to build abolitionist ideas and practices into social work.
Getting to the Root: Unpacking and Dismantling the Family Policing System
The so-called Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), does not prevent and it does not treat. Instead, it targets our most vulnerable neighbors, particularly those living in poverty and especially Black, Latinx, and Indigenous families. Through policies like mandated reporting, social workers, medical professionals, and other community helpers are made agents of the surveillance state and part of the machinery of family policing, regulation, separation, and destruction. Join NAASW and Haymarket for a panel discussion that will explain the harms of CAPTA and discuss what can be done about it.
Is Social Work Obsolete?
Taking inspiration from Angela Davis' "Are Prisons Obsolete?", Is Social Work Obsolete? will explore the historical and contemporary harms of the social work profession and ask whether it is capable of transformation, or if it is irreparable and in fact obsolete. This conversation will also explore the need to build systems of care rooted self-determination, liberation and collective wellbeing.
Abolitionist Social Work in Unsettling Times
Join editors and contributors of Abolish Social Work (As We Know It) and Abolition and Social Work for a discussion about the intersections of abolitionist politics and principles and social work.
Harm Reduction, Abolition and Social Work
Harm reduction is a critical movement tool used for generations to create change, build long-term relationships, and support healing while working to reduce harm in our community. Shira Hassan, a long-time harm reduction and transformative justice practitioner, shares her own experiences with harm reduction as a young person in the sex trade to her recent adventures as an instructor of one of social work's most sought after courses (University of Chicago and University of Washington, Seattle). This instructional and participatory session will provide an overview of harm reduction principles, values and practice - and how it intersects with transformative justice work within a social work context. There is no justice that leaves out people in the sex trade & street economy, drug users and street based young people. Shira offers her reflections, cautions and thoughts about the possibilities for the future of harm reduction as an abolitionist strategy. Sheila Vakharia, Deputy Director of the Department of Research and Academic Engagement for the Drug Policy Alliance, will introduce the webinar and moderate an interactive audience discussion at the close of the evening. Social work, historically and today, has been deeply embedded in systems of carceral control. With social work's legacy of ties to policing and oppressive family regulation through the child welfare system, the social work community is actively imagining and working towards a social work rooted in abolition, turning to traditions of resistance that also characterize its history. This webinar is a 2nd in a series on Abolitionist Social Work organized by the Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work (NAAASW) in partnership with Haymarket Book, challenging carceral social work through the development and practice of an abolitionist social work.