Social Work Month: Uplift. Defend. Transform
This month, we celebrate the dedicated social workers who advocate daily for the rights and services of unaccompanied children. As professionals, we center children’s self-determination, honor their cultural backgrounds, and ensure their needs are met to ensure their overall well-being. This year’s theme, Uplift.Defend.Transform set by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), highlights the transformative impact social workers have on the lives of clients, within their organizations, and across society.
Amid ongoing changes to immigration policies and social safety net programs, unaccompanied children face heightened legal complexity, uncertainty, and vulnerability - all factors that directly shape their present access to safety, stability, and essential support systems. Despite these challenges, social workers at legal service providers continue to show up with unwavering commitment to human dignity and social justice. We honor your dedication and the lasting impact you have on the lives of unaccompanied children.
Uplift: Social workers serving unaccompanied children uplift their clients by centering their voices and affirming their dignity. In a time and system that can feel overwhelming, social workers create space where children’s experiences and emotions are heard and validated. Social workers continue to provide trauma-informed support and services that honor cultural identity and lived experience, center personal strengths and educational empowerment, and restore client’s sense of agency to foster resilience and healing. Beyond service provision, social workers remind colleagues of the importance of self-care and collective care practices to sustain this work for the long-term, recognizing that supporting unaccompanied children effectively requires maintaining the well-being of the advocates who serve them.
Defend: Social workers play a critical role in defending unaccompanied children’s right to safety, family unity, access to services like education, healthcare, housing, and mental health support. From the micro (individual) level to the macro (societal) level, social workers defend their clients’ rights to due process, dignity, and culturally responsive care. Defending client’s rights can take on many roles including:
- Helping children understand their rights and options in developmentally appropriate ways.
- Navigating the restrictive social service systems to connect clients to community-based services.
- Reducing barriers created by language or cultural differences.
- Advocating against and challenging practices that harm unaccompanied children.
Social workers uphold their ethical obligations by safeguarding, respecting, and empowering unaccompanied children to know, defend, and uphold their rights.
Transform: Social workers strive to transform systems in alignment with the core value of social justice outlined in the NASW Code of Ethics. Immigration systemic inequities have disproportionately impacted children from marginalized communities; limiting access to protection, stability, and opportunity. Through policy advocacy, interprofessional collaboration, and engagement in social movements, social workers push and call attention to humane reforms that prioritize child well-being. Through this work, social workers and advocates remain grounded in ethical practice, human rights principles, and a steadfast commitment to dignity and justice.
To all the social workers who uplift every immigrant child they serve, defend the rights of immigrant children across the country, and transform systems to protect the safety, stability, and well-being of immigrant children - Thank you! Together, we continue to make a difference in our organizations and in the lives of unaccompanied children!
By CILA social work team