Lately I have spent a lot of time thinking about stories and storytelling, and about how our history is such an integral part of the identity of social work.

If you will allow me for a moment, I'd like to put in a plea for a connection between history and social work and storytelling that is near to my heart. As we all know, the social work profession and social work faculty are aging, with a majority of us over fifty and a great number of us near retirement. As this generation retires and leaves, a vast quantity of social work history will go with them.

So my plea is to not let that history be lost. Just as NASW honors social work pioneers, I hope each of you will work to honor the social work practitioner and academic elders in your agencies, schools and departments, and to capture their stories through recordings and writings. It’s important to us and to the future generations of social workers we wish to shape.