The Call To Social Work
Life Stories
- Craig Winston LeCroy - Arizona State University, USA
Social Work Practice
The Call to Social Work is based on a simple question: What can we learn by listening to the stories about the work of the social worker? The result is a collection of passionate stories told in vivid detail about social workers' efforts to contribute to compassion and justice in the world, to pursue social transformations, and to provide a vision for a better way of living. Providing students and those interested in social work with a glimpse of what it is like to do social work or to be a social worker, the book shows why people become social workers and what meaning they derive from their work.
"The life narratives, voices, or actual experiences contained in this book reflect the spiritual awakenings, desires to make a difference in the quality of life, and the day-to-day realities of social workers in action. These narratives offer contemporary insights and beg the question: Why were you called to this profession? The passion for social justice and meaningful activities, the dedication to compassion, and the commitment to building community connections and healing journeys are only a few of the motivational themes that [emerge from this book]."
"The Call to Social Work: Life Stories offers what has long been needed: a large dose of crucial, unvarnished stories about the work of social work. LeCroy has brought erudition of hands-on experience to those who are new to the profession and to those of us who need to experience renewal of the contexts in which we teach and practice. The stories portray personal, political, and professional struggles of vision, courage, and sacrifice. This important book should be essential reading for anyone seeking a candid guide that elucidates major themes that define and underlie the profession of social work."
"This is a book of narratives, of stories, of practicing social workers from a variety of fields and with a variety of experience. These stories are rich in detail, emotion, consideration, philosophy, conflict, hope, and determination that make up the dailiness of the lives of social workers. Professor LeCroy has done a masterful and respectful job of recounting these narratives, and arranging them in themes that emerge not just from the stories but from the very nature of social work itself. The use of story and narrative is a kind of evidence that we ignore or belittle at our peril. I learned more about the faces and phases of social work reading these narratives than in thousands of pages of surveys or empirical accounts of this life. The central message here is that social work is a calling, a call to service (as Robert Coles has written). The words of these social workers speak to the luminous and nearly spiritual essence of the calling. ‘I still go back to the core thing,’ says one social worker. I do something that matters to somebody else, that matters to me. Something that has value. That is a demonstration of caring." Or, more directly, another social worker says, ‘Social work is a calling. A call to something. There is restlessness inside of you and you have the opportunity to deal with [it]. That restlessness has to do with injustice in the world...’"
“The introduction to social work every student should get.”
"The Call to Social Work is a valuable contribution to the literature because it provides a descriptive and qualitative context to a variety of practice issues which is typically missing in most introductory textbooks. Most of all , the reader will be impressed by the realism of the accounts."
