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Midwest School Social Work Council
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When the National Association of State Consultants in School Social Work held its annual meeting in 1966, concern was expressed about the lack of leadership for school social work, within both the U.S. Office of Education and the National Association of Social Workers.
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The state consultants from Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin met several times and decided to invite members of the Departments of Education in nearby states to attend the 1967 Illinois School Social Work Conference. The response was positive and the idea for an annual Midwest Conference was Proposed.
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1967. Twenty-eight staff members who were responsible for the development of Pupil Services in eight states (Iowa, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin) met in Grafton, IL.
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In January 1968 the seven State Departments of Education that had participated in the Grafton meeting were invited to join Illinois in cosponsoring the first Midwest School Social Work Conference by making a financial commitment to support the meeting.
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The first Council meeting was held on September 29, 1968. (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, and Wisconsin were all involved.) and Missouri.
In 1978 Kansas joined the Council as the ninth member state, in 1993 Ohio was added as the- tenth, and Nebraska joined the Council as the 11th state in 2005.
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In 1991 the Midwest Council began to take a nationwide focus. Following the 1991 Midwest Conference in St. Paul, the SSW 2000 Planning Committee was formed in an attempt to prioritize primary issues and concerns facing school social workers. This committee proposed its recommendations to the Midwest Council at its 1992 conference in Schaumburg, Illinois. Other national meetings took place in Seattle in January 1993 and in Edwardsville, Illinois during March 1994, culminating in the formation of the School Social Work Association of America.
For real time happenings of the Midwest Council visit:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100065021190391 “
School Social Work Association of America
On July 22, 23 & 24, 1994 in Edwardsville, Illinois 64 participants from 20 states came together to form an organization exclusively representing School Social Workers. Four task forces were established to assist with the organizational structure and Constitution and Bylaws. The fall of 1994, the first SSWAA Luncheon was held at the Midwest School Social Work Conference Milwaukee, Wisconsin and named in honor of I. Lorraine Davis for her long commitment to furthering the cause of School Social Workers. In July of 1995, SSWAA's first annual meeting was held in Minneapolis and was attended by 60 School Social Workers from 26 states as we continued strategic planning. In October of 1995, SSWAA held its first elections and Randy Fisher was elected as our first President. December of 1995, SSWAA hired its first Governmental Relations person to advocate for School Social Workers in Washington, DC. The 2nd annual meeting was then held in Washington DC. After several meetings, February 23, 1996 SSWAA leadership and the NASW School Social Work Section signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the 2 organizations acknowledging the role each play in promoting the profession of School Social Workers and outlining parameters of collaboration between the associations.
Since 1996, SSWAA has continued to hold Summer Leadership/Legislative meetings to assist with leadership development as well as provide advocacy training and opportunities to "Go to the Hill" and lobby members of Congress and their staff. September of 1996, SSWAA joined with the Kentucky Association of School Social Workers and the Midwest School Social Work Council for the first national School Social Work Conference which was held in Louisville, Kentucky. The first national conference was attended by 593 School Social Workers from 34 states. In April of 1998, SSWAA hosted its own 1st National School Social Work Conference in Austin, TX . Later that year, Randy Fisher was one of 120 invited guests to the White House for the "White House Conference on School Safety: Causes and Prevention of Youth Violence.
CLICK GRAPHIC BELOW FROM RECENT SWAA COMMUNICATION:
