All Webinars

In this presentation, Dr. Michael Yellow Bird will discuss colonization, decolonization, and neurodecolonization, and their role in Indigenous Peoples' health. He will share how he uses western science to suggest what is happening to the chronically stressed, traumatized colonized mind and body of Indigenous Peoples. He discusses traditional Indigenous contemplative practices and what’s happening in the brain and body according to western science and how Indigenous contemplative practices create resilient coping in the brain and body.

Please note this webinar will take place at 10am – 11:30am CST (11am - 12:30 EST).

Social workers in health and human services settings face complex documentation decisions that can have profound consequences. Substandard documentation can harm clients and patients, and expose social workers to the risk of ethics complaints and litigation. This webinar will include a succinct overview of documentation challenges in social work. Dr. Frederic Reamer will highlight key decisions social workers make regarding the purposes, content, wording, and storage of documentation. Case examples will be included.

At the conclusion of this webinar, participants will be able to:

• Identify documentation challenges in social work
• Recognize ethical issues related to social work documentation
• Recognize risk management challenges related to social work documentation
• Apply ethical and practice standards to protect clients and social workers

The IFSW North American Regional International Conference

The Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW), the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW) are proud to present the 2023 Virtual North American Regional Conference - 

Social Work Across Borders: Canada and USA

This year's conference will focus on strengthening the social work profession across our shared border - the world's longest international border, at 8,890 km or 5524 miles. 

Canadian and US social workers will discuss various issues related to their practice. Sessions will focus on each national association's mission, challenges of working across the border, practitioners' perspectives on racism and immigration and refugee settlement, and international partnership building. 

Please note that a certificate of attendance will be emailed to all participants immediately after the conference that may be applied towards Continuing Education requirements of state licensing or provincial regulation. 

Welcome (11:00 to 11:10 am)
Joan Davis-Whelan, MSW, RSW - CASW President
Mildred C Joyner, DPS, MSW, BSW, LCSW - NASW President 
Dr. Yvonne Case - NASW President-Elect

National Update & Overview (11:10 to 11:30 am)
Fred Phelps, MSW. RSW - Executive Director, CASW
Dr. Anthony Estreet - Chief Executive Officer, NASW

United Nations Round Table (11:30 to 12:30 pm)
Dr. Michael Cronin - IFSW UN North America Representative 
Dr. Robin Mama - IFSW UN Commission

Registration Process and Challenges (12:30 to 1:00 pm)
Dr. Siu Ming Kwok - President - Canadian Council of Social Work Regulators
Sarah Butts, MSW - Director of Public Policy, NASW

Working Across Borders (1:00 to 1:30 pm) 
Stephanie Asare Nti, MSW, LCSW-C - Chair, NASW International Committee & President, NASW Maryland Chapter
Sheryl Thompson, MSW, RSW - Sheryl Thompson Counselling and Consulting
Maggie Green, MSc - Managing Director, Affinity, BMS Canada Risk Services

SW Practitioner Essentials: Racism, Immigration, and Refugees (1:30 to 2:30pm)
Bisrat Abebe. MA, LCSW, LICSW - NASW Board of Directors Director, Region I
Dr. Denise Lane Davidson - Associate Professor, Toronto Metropolitan University
Dr. Usha George - Academic Director, Toronto Metropolitan Centre for Immigration and Settlement

International Federation of Social Workers Update (2:30 to 3:00pm)
Joachim Mumba, MSW - IFSW Global President

During the global pandemic, the Government of Canada acted promptly to put in place far-reaching economic measures intended to support the safety and security of all people in Canada. These benefits demonstrated that a guaranteed livable basic income program is possible.

This webinar will overview the fundamentals of a guaranteed livable basic income program are already in place for the Government of Canada to advance in each province and territory in Canada.  This webinar will feature the perspectives of Senators advocating for and supporting a national framework for a guaranteed livable basic income through legislation. The webinar will also highlight the impact of a guaranteed livable basic income on people experiencing poverty and the deepening economic and social inequity in Canada.

It’s time to merge the levers of Canada’s social safety net into a guaranteed livable basic income program that will have all people in Canada live and die with dignity and respect.  If adopted, S-233 would move a guaranteed livable basic income from possible to a new reality for all people in Canada.

The session will look at some of the causes and implications of ageism.  It will include how our thoughts, feelings and actions contribute to the problem, along with consideration of individual and collective responsibility to implement solutions.

This event will take place at 6pm CST or 7pm EST. Convert to your time zone by clicking here.

Join us in celebrating the launch of the Saskatchewan Association of Black Social Workers (SABSW)! SABSW will support the growth and development of Black social workers in Saskatchewan by providing social connections, networking opportunities, peer support, mentorship, and professional development opportunities. 

Registered participants will have the chance to win one of three copies of the book Africentric Social Work, Edited by Delores V.  Mullings, Jennifer Clarke, Wanda Thomas Bernard, David Este and Sulaimon Giwa.

Featuring keynote address by The Honorable Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard: 

Bringing Africentric Social Work from Margins to Center: Challenges and Opportunities

With remarks and congratulations from:

• Dr. Cindy Blackstock
• Welley Balogun
• Abuna Nathaniel Deng
• Basi Kgobisa
• Carol LaFayette-Boyd
• Mayor Charlie Clark
• Anthony Olusola (Truly Alive Youth and Family Foundation Inc)
• Police Chief Troy Cooper
• Fred Phelps  (CASW)
• Rachelle Sweeting (NSABSW) 
• Kehinde Ariyo-Ekpudu (ABSW)
• Brenda Schock (SASW)
• Dr. Marvin Ankrah

This event will overview the impact of the pandemic on increasing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) and how a national strategy is needed to support local service delivery in meeting the needs of children and families affected by IPV.

This event features Rina Arseneault, whose life has been devoted to advancing gender equality and pushing for legislative change to better support women affected by intimate partner violence. It also brings together the unique social work perspectives of Senator Nancy Hartling and Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard, in their work as Parliamentarians, in support of legislation, specifically Senate Public Bill S-249 - An Act respecting the development of a national strategy for the prevention of intimate partner violence.

Tune in to this panel to learn from three powerful women who each, in their remarkable careers, have fought and continue to fight, for equitable access to IPV service across Canada – rural, remote and urban – with emphasis on the disproportionate experience of communities marginalized by the equitable access to health, social and economic opportunities in Canada.

In North America, psychiatry has, historically, been a tool of domination – used to justify and enforce settler-colonialism, slavery, and other systems and practices based on racist, classist, ableist, homophobic, and transphobic logic. 

In this webinar, we examine this history as a means to understand the present – discovering that while psychiatric/mental health knowledge and practice has certainly evolved, it serves a continuous function of aiding and abetting an oppressive status quo. 

Indeed, if oppression requires discipline and control, then what better instrument than a body of knowledge/practice tasked with defining and enforcing the ‘normal’?   

The CASW Code of Ethics (2005) says, “Ethical behaviour comes from a social worker’s individual commitment to engage in ethical practice. Both the spirit and the letter of this Code of Ethics will guide social workers as they act in good faith and with a genuine desire to make sound judgements.”  

Workplace stress can challenge Social Workers’ mental health and therefore affect their ability to maintain a meaningful and effective professional practice.   

This webinar uses the principles of a Cognitive Behavior Therapy to provide Social Workers with a framework to examine their own professional practice, to be able to identify their unique needs to enhance or improve professional effectiveness and then to formulate an action plan to address those needs to maintain a lasting and meaningful professional practice for years to come.

The 2023 theme for Black History Month is: “Ours to tell”. This theme opens the opportunity to celebrate, learn and honour Black social workers that have made indelible impacts on the profession.

This celebration event will honour the work and lives of Dr. David Este and Dr. Akua Benjamin both of whom have positively impacted the lives of social work students, their communities and Canada as a whole.

The event will bring together Black social workers that were inspired and mentored by these two Black social work icons in Canada.

Join this event to learn. Join to be inspired. Join to honour and celebrate the stories that are ours to tell.

Co-hosting: Kehinde Ekpudu & Wanda Thomas Bernard

Honouring: Dr. David Este & Dr. Akua Benjamin  

Mentees: Sharon McLeod & Dr. Linda Kongnetiman

This event is co-sponsored by the Alberta Association of Black Social Workers (AABSW), the Nova Scotia Association of Black Social Workers (NSABSW), and the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW).