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On Saturday November 21st at 9:00 a.m. social workers will share their stories on using instagram to inspire virtual chat attendees to explore the power of image in promoting social work policy, advocacy, education and research. Please register on Zoom to watch live presentations, ask instagram page creators questions and learn about the power of instagram.

During the virtual chat we will hear stories from:

#socialworkersrise https://www.instagram.com/socialworkersrise/

Catherine Moore, LCSW is born and raised in Southern California, she has been a social worker since she obtained her BSW in 2009. She now has her MSW and LCSW and provides clinical therapy in a Palliative care clinic. This year she has launched her organization, Social Workers, Rise! which seeks to empower social workers through specialized knowledge and relationships for massive impact on the world. 

#reiliencyllc https://www.instagram.com/resiliencyllc/

Tiffany L. Green,MSW,LCSW
Born and raised in Chicago. Currently residing in Indiana. Tiffany have over 15 years of experience is social service and therapeutic work. Tiffany love incorporating wellness and holistic intervention in practice. Tiffany have been trained in Trauma Informed yoga and utilize that curriculum with youth a The Lake County Juvenile Justice Center. Tiffany have own practice and also provide individual and group supervision . Tiffany lecture part time at Purdue University and also work as a clinical home-based therapist with youth and families court ordered to have individual Therapy, and family therapy, or have to complete parenting or substance use assessments.

#groundedcounseling https://www.instagram.com/groundedcounseling/

Rebecca Ogle ( @groundedcounseling ) is an LCSW practicing therapy in Chicago, IL. Rebecca specializes in helping people with anxiety, codependency, and people pleasing tendencies using mindfulness-based CBT and DBT interventions, through a trauma-informed lens. Her Instagram page includes mental health information and tips, as well as anti oppressive content, and linkage to community resources. Rebecca believes that authenticity and appropriate self-disclosure about her own lived experiences is key to reducing stigma. She has been inspired by @thelivedexperiencecounsellor and @mswjake as well as many others.

#the_environmentalsocialworker https://www.instagram.com/the_environmentalsocialworker/

Gabrielle Conrad-Amlicke, B.S., LMSW is the Founder and CEO of Environmental Social Work LLC, based out of Connecticut. Gabrielle has a focused area of study in International Social Work and majored in Policy Practice Social Work at the University of Connecticut. Founded Dec. 2019

#socialworkbub https://www.instagram.com/socialworkbub/

#unionizesocialworknow https://www.instagram.com/nswalliance/

Come listen to Trisha and Joyce from @nswalliance #UnionizeSocialWorkNOW is a group working to organize the Social Work labor movement across the United States

#socialworkersbreakroom https://www.instagram.com/socialworkersbreakroom/

Thank you for your willingness to share the social work power of instagram with us

We also want to thank the organizing committee for helping promote our virtual chat:

Ani Dingamtar, Woods Homes, Calgary, Canada. Thompson Rivers University BSW Alumni

Oleksandr (Sasha) Kondrashov, Thompson Rivers University, School of Social Work and Human Service, Kamloops, Canada

Svitlana Arkhypova, Bohdan Khmelnytskij National University, School of Social Work and Social Pedagogy Cherkasy, Ukraine

Yuliia Kokoiachuk, Ukrainian Catholic University, School of Social Work, Lviv, Ukraine

Zoriana Haladzhun Departament of Journalism and Mass Communication Media Lviv Polytechnic National University

Social Policy and Advocacy Committee, CASWE-ACFTS

If you want to share your instagram creation story please contact empowersocialworker@gmail.com

See you on Zoom on November 21st, 2020 at 9:00 a.m. PT

Link for registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIudOqvpzMoGdTXe5pOgOv4bsUv1AS4FR8C

2-Year Virtual Chat: Event Agenda

9:00 a.m. -10:45 a.m. Pacific Time

1. Welcome: Land Acknowledgements (5 minutes)

• Three questions in the chat: 1) Geographic location and Indigenous land; 2) How did you hear about this event; 3) Your interest in the event, hopes to learn from this event:

2. Organizers Welcome Words (1 minute each):

• Ani Dingamtar, Woods Homes, Calgary, Canada. Thompson Rivers University BSW Alumni
• Oleksandr (Sasha) Kondrashov, Thompson Rivers University, School of Social Work and Human Service, Kamloops, Canada
• Svitlana Arkhypova, Bohdan Khmelnytskij National University, School of Social Work and Social Pedagogy Cherkasy, Ukraine
• Yuliia Kokoiachuk, Ukrainian Catholic University, School of Social Work, Lviv, Ukraine
• Zoriana Haladzhun Department of Journalism and Mass Communication Media Lviv Polytechnic National University
• Social Policy and Advocacy Committee, CASWE-ACFTS

3. Ani and Sasha introduction: #EMPRSOCIALWORK (3 minutes Ani)

• EMPRSocialWork came out of Sasha and Ani’s discussion on tools for empowerment and practice in the human service field. Instagram, connection with people, and stories of people practicing social work.

4. Introduce Topic: Strengthening Social Work Practice, Policy, Advocacy, Research and Education: The Power of Expression in Instagram (2 minutes Sasha)

5. Speakers: Five-minute presentation (30 – 45 minutes)

• #Socialworkersrise
• #Resiliencyllc
• #Groundedcounseling
• #The_environmentalsocialworker
• #Socialworkbub
• #Nswalliance
• #socialworkersbreakroom

6. Questions for the speakers Sasha will moderate? (15 minutes)

7. Discussion Questions: Chat with Zoom participants (15 minutes): How can we support each other going forward? How can we keep in contact by supporting and empowering one another? What type of events can we do together? Who and how can you get engaged in social work social media?

8. Next steps: (5 minutes)  Action plan from the discussion. Possibility for bi-yearly group events similar to this event: SWDE Conference online: https://www.ollusa.edu/worden-school/swde/index.html   CASWE-ACFTS Conference: https://conference.caswe-acfts.ca/ VoicesSocialWork Project https://krasun.ca/voices-social-work/

9. Concluding Messages: Chat. 5 minutes. Thank you to organizers and speakers and another event in (six months?) More information to come.

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Twenty-four times on the planet Earth, depending on your time zone, humanity is reminded about the 11^th hour, 11^th minute, 11^th day of the 11^th month to commemorate Remembrance Day. In pandemic times, commemoration happens virtually to protect the most vulnerable and minimize the spread of a new war global community is facing in 2020: COVID-19 Public Health Emergency.

Every human being on this planet is now affected by the pandemic in one way or another. The First and Second World War and the history of other wars, pandemics, and global human tragedies help us seek hope. When human beings work together, hope can be found. Wars end, pandemic disappears, wounds from human disasters heals, and the least each can do is to remember.

We need to get reminders as history can repeat itself. Today, many people, in addition to the global pandemic, are still fighting to protect their land, families, neighbours, and communities. Others leave their homes to find asylum/refuge in new places internally and outside of their home countries. Simultaneously, some people directly or indirectly supporting warfare by continuously colonizing human spaces worldwide, those who see the war as an opportunity to test new weapons, create more fear and insecurity on this planet and benefit financially from other human’s tragedies.

Let’s remember all those who fought for freedoms and protected others while often sacrificing their own lives. Here are some facts about global tragedies:

United Nations estimates that in the Second World War, 40 million civilians and 20 million soldiers died. The poppies in the table represent countries that lost the most people during the Second World War world ( Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, 2015)

Maclean’s remind us that the First World War was the deadliest conflict in Canadian history (~66000 deaths) followed by the Second World War (`47000) deaths. Spanish Flu took 50,000,000 lives (CDC data). More than 10 000 people died in Canada from COVID 19, while worldwide, the estimate is now 1.2 million deaths based on November 11 Google Data

Maclean’s also shared that about 60 per cent of the First World War records include the serviceman or woman’s age at death. “The youngest recorded age at death was 15, with 22 records of Canadians killed at that age. The oldest was 75, with just one record of a Canadian killed at that age. However, most Canadians killed were under 32, with a median age at death of 25” (para 4). 70% of COVID deaths in Canada are from the age group of 80+ (Government of Canada data). Many of those who died from COVID-19 had a personal experience growing up during the Second World War. Lest we forget and keep finding hope as we process the above facts.

Wearing a poppy is one of many ways to recognize Remembrance Day in Canada. Poppy is a symbol to remember those who have lost their lives in conflicts worldwide and represent individual’s and families’ contributions and the emergency services to stop warfare. The First World War ended on November 11, 1918, when Germany and the Allies signed the armistice at Compiègne, France.

There are many ways how one remembers. Here is some of them

1. Share: read poems or other creative writing about remembrance and share them with others

2. Care: listen to stories from war veterans and attend a Remembrance Day ceremony in your community

3. Love: Plant poppies, a tree or an entire garden of remembrance or find your unique way to remember.

While the reasons for conflict are numerous, there is one certainty—that the only way to build peace in this world is to care, love, and share our unique gifts. The connection among people can help us to make peace. Let’s safely keep building relationships, find ways to share resources, love, and care for one another.

Take a minute of silence and remember those who protect our land from war and work tirelessly to reduce human tragedies and loss of lives. Remember that during the terrible bloodshed of the second Battle of Ypres in the spring of 1915, Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a doctor serving with the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps, wrote about poppies which lived on among the graves of dead soldiers:

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

John McCrae

Listen to the Leonard Cohen recites the full version of the “In Flanders Fields”

A world where love, care and share are critical guiding principles of social work and social development,

A world where all people are treated as equals,

A world where respect for dignity and worth of every human being, social justice and service to humanity always prevail is still work in progress.

Peace is a work in progress.

Share your way to remember, and let’s keep building the world united in courage and peace, love, share, and care.

Lest We Forget!

With respect

Sasha