Richard Bermack is a writer and a documentary photographer. His work is about how value in life comes from helping other people. He has specialized in works about child welfare, welfare reform, adult protective services, drug addiction, homelessness, mental health, health care reform, and other social issues. He is the author of The Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, published by Heyday Press, March 2005. Past projects include The Heroes of Social Work, an exhibit about how social workers make a difference in the lives of children and families; Protecting Children, Restoring Families, It Takes Time; and Housing of Last Resort: The Liberty and the Baldwin.

He is available for individual or group projects, day or long-term assignments. He can be reached at richard@rb68.com. To view resume.

About The Front Lines of Social Change: Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

An ode to political activism, an antidote to cynicism

"The only thing that gives any purpose to life is to move humankind along to a better world, the struggle to eliminate homelessness, hunger, disease, and most of all, to eliminate the greatest insanity, war. That is the 'good fight.'" Milt Wolff, Commander of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade, quoted in The Front Lines of Social Change

"Here are men and women in their 70s and 80s looking as if they're ready to take on the world...." Rick DelVecchio, San Francisco Chronicle, February 25, 2005

Past Projects

From 1995 to 2003 Richard Bermack produced The Dragon and the Dragon website for Service Employees International Union Local 535. Bermack's writing, photography and design won numerous awards, including the International Labor Communications Association AFL-CIO's Max Steinbock award for the humanitarian spirit of labor journalism.

Taking on the troubled child welfare system. Richard Bermack worked with a coalition of child welfare groups and legislators to produce the award-winning report, Protecting Children, Restoring Families, It Takes Time and the Social Worker Meltdown series. He then produced The Heroes of Social Work: Making a Difference for Children and Families, a traveling photography exhibit that promotes the positive potential of children's sevices and social work.