Social Work At The Millennium

Book excerpt: For the last century, social workers have attended to those in need and sought to improve the social and economic conditions of the disadvantaged. At the dawn of a new century the country's leading social work practitioners and educators have come together in one stellar volume to assess the successes and failures of the field in its first hundred years. They lay out the road social work must take to face the challenges ahead. Along with two chapters by the editors, June Gary Hopps and Robert Morris, Social Work at the Millennium includes ten chapters from an exceptionally strong group of contributors, offering a range of interpretations of the future of social work. By looking with a critical eye at the past century and at the present day, the authors come to varying conclusions that will stir debate within the field for years to come. But all agree that social workers need a place at the policy drafting tables as well as in the human services triage rooms, and that much work needs to be done to ensure that this happens. Social Work at the Millennium presents the top voices of the social work field as they begin to craft the future of the profession, and issues a challenge to social workers, students, scholars, and policy makers to continue the discussion to shape a better future for the profession and the people it serves.