43th Annual NABSW Conference convenes in N.O. April 19-22

18th March 2011 · 0 Comments

Members and prospective members of the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) will gather for four days of workshops, meetings and service projects in New Orleans April 19-22 for the NABSW national conference. This will be the 43th annual meeting for NABSW. More than 37 local chapter members will participate in the events of the conference. The city and state governments will recognize the event with welcoming gestures. Members will have opportunities to gauge the progress that has been made since hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

The theme for this year’s conference, which will take place at the New Orleans Riverside Hilton Hotel, is “Beyond Rhetoric: A Call for Social Action.”

“Just like Black people, New Orleans is on the move and is rising from the ashes like the proverbial Phoenix,” NABSW national president Joe E. Benton Jr. said in a letter to conference attendees recently. “Of course, as with the Black experience everywhere in this nation, all is not rising at the same time. New Orleans in microcosm is the epitome of what has happened to us throughout our time in the Americas. This year, at all levels, we bring a message of hope and help to our people.”

Among the scholars scheduled to speak at the NABSW conference are Anthony T. Browder, a cultural historian, artist and author of The Browder Files and Nile Valley Contributions to Civilization; Dr. Nancy Boyd Franklin, a professor, psychologist and family therapist whose interests include the treatment of African-American families, the development of a model of therapeutic support groups for African-American families living with AIDS and home-based family therapy; Carol BeBelle, a community activist, author and co-founder of the Ashé Cultural Arts Center in New Orleans; and Dr. Greg Kimathi Carr, an Associate Professor of Africana Studies and the Department Chair of Afro-American Studies at Howard University in Washington, DC.

The National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW) is mandated by its mission to advocate for Black people. The position papers are an important tool for NABSW membership and the broader community to be informed on the issues from NABSW’s perspective. Local chapters are encouraged to utilize these papers to advocate for policies and procedures that preserve African-American families.

Other highlights of the conference include a tour of post-Katrina New Orleans on Tuesday, April 19, titled “5 Years Later: The Promising and the Promises Unfulfilled.” The cost of the tour is $35 per person or $40 with a New Orlean poboy sandwich. To reserve a spot on the bus tour, which departs from the Hilton Riverside Hotel at @:00 p.m., call Wonda Crawford at (504) 359-6867.

As part of the NABSW Community Day of Service, the conference will also raise funds to bolster the work being done by three community organizations: A.L. Davis Park, St. John #5 Baptist Church’s Ace HIV Program and Grace Outreach Center.

The last meeting held in New Orleans in 2005 reached record-high attendance numbers. This year is expected to be even larger, and is set to generate millions of dollars in economic impact.

For more information, visit www.nabsw.org or noabsw.org