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To Make a Difference
Campaign Gears up
for 2002 Budget Battle

To Make A Difference Campaign

Social Work Exhibit
to Be Launched March 2002

SEIU Local 535 intern, University of California Berkeley student Christine Lou (left), gets input about the exhibit and campaign from one of her instructors, doctoral student Sonia Rashid. The exhibit was test marketed at the UC School of Social Welfare.

by Richard Bermack

December 2001

To Make a Difference: The Heroes of Social Work and Those They Help, produced by Dragon editor and photographer Richard Bermack, is about the power of social work. It features photographs and text about clients and workers. It is about social work, transformation, and change. The exhibit is half completed and is in the test marketing phase. The final exhibit will be launched in Sacramento, in March 2002, to coincide with the state budget hearings and social worker week, and then copies of the exhibit will tour the state.

A pilot of the exhibit was displayed at the Latino Social Work convention in Anaheim by the National Association of Social Workers and at the University of California Berkeley School of Social Welfare with the help of Local 535 intern and UC undergraduate student Christine Lou. Lou encouraged students to fill out evaluation forms and asked them about their reaction to the exhibit. “Students were very responsive. In talking to undergraduates I found that a lot of students are interested in social work but don’t know what it is about. And even those who know what it is still need an introduction. Seeing the photos of workers and clients helps make social work real for them and gives them a sense of what a wonderful occupation it is,” she reported.
The Dragon interviewed several students about the exhibit and why they were drawn to social work.

Elizabeth Willis, first year MSW

Elizabeth Willis, first year MSW student in community mental health: “I was drawn to social work after doing volunteer work on a suicide prevention hotline. I really connected with it because I’m interested in people who are on the margins. I’ve been there myself when I was growing up. We struggled as a family and were on and off welfare.” She particularly liked seeing the photos of mental health workers working with homeless people and Vietnam vets. “It is good to see unions doing this type of work,” she concluded.

Claudia Florez

Claudia Florez: “I’m undecided [about her career] but thinking about social work. I’m interested in helping children who have had childhood experiences because I had a rough childhood. I like the idea of helping society in any way possible, and that is one of the emphases of social work.”

Sonia Rashid, doctoral student: “I think the exhibit is fantastic. Showing clients who have received services from social workers is very moving and powerful. It gives a reality to the work, a face to the story, which is really important. People who don’t know a lot about social work can get a lot out of an exhibit like this, and people who are majoring in social work can get a lot seeing the different opportunities that are out there to help people, as well. That is the exciting thing about the field. You can work with people on a micro level as well as a macro level. You can do it all.” Rashid has an MSW and is interested in the area of at-risk adolescence. She decided to get a doctoral degree and become a professor. “I’m really passionate about the teaching process and social work,” she says. “It takes so much in terms of training and supervision of people. It is such an intense and intimate field that I think good social workers need good passionate teachers.”