Social Workers Want Economic Security for All Americans

WASHINGTON—On May 2, 2002, six Members of the Senate Finance Committee unveiled a tri-partisan proposal for welfare reauthorization. The proposal is incrementally better than those approved this week by the House Ways and Means and Education and Workforce Committees, but still falls short of what is needed to help families escape poverty and succeed in the workplace.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and social workers around the country believe that parents struggling to support their families need greater access to education and training and more support for overcoming serious barriers to employment such as mental health problems, substance abuse, and domestic violence.

Overall, NASW believes that the most promising strategies for improving public welfare lie well beyond the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. NASW President, Terry Mizrahi, PhD, says, “We, as a country, need to value all people and develop universal systems of support for meeting basic needs—food and housing, health care, and fair wages—for families who can’t support themselves adequately.”

“We must invest in strategies for helping people not only reach, but climb the ladder of opportunity. The current “work first” mentality is not always the best way to secure a family's future.

NASW believes improvements to the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) should be focused in three key areas:

• Reducing the number of families living in poverty
• Improving assistance to recipients with multiple barriers to self-sufficiency
• Creating a more qualified, stable and professional welfare workforce

Media outlets: For more information on welfare reauthorization or to interview an expert, please contact NASW Public Affairs at 202-336-8228 or email lcurry@naswdc.org.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), in Washington, DC, is the largest membership organization of professional social workers with 153,000 members. It promotes, develops and protects the practice of social work and social workers. NASW also seeks to enhance the well being of individuals, families and communities through its work and through its advocacy.