[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 43 (Wednesday, March 31, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1764-H1765]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     IN HONOR OF SOCIAL WORK MONTH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I rise today in observance of 
Social Work Month. Since 1984, March has officially been designated as 
a month to acknowledge and recognize that social workers make 
meaningful and humanitarian differences and contributions to people in 
communities all over the world.
  According to government health statistics, 60 percent of the Nation's 
mental health services are delivered by social workers. Trained social 
workers provide more than 40 percent of disaster-related mental health 
services for the American Red Cross. Roughly 600,000 social workers are 
dedicated to ensuring that people of all ages, creeds, sexual 
orientations and nationalities have access to information, resources 
and services. They often make all the difference in the world to 
individuals and families who might otherwise fall through the cracks 
into hopelessness and despair. Social workers measure success by 
helping all those in need of basic services to achieve their goals on 
their own terms.
  Often working behind the scenes, social workers are trained to 
address problems that some cannot see or issues that others hope will 
simply go away, drug addiction, family violence, joblessness, 
homelessness, mental illness, prejudice and many other conditions which 
affect millions of people every day, leaving them with little hope and 
few options.
  According to the National Association of Social Workers, social 
workers help to open the doors of access and opportunity to those in 
greatest need through training and dedication. Moreover, social workers 
also actively advocate for changes in policy and legislation that 
strengthen the social safety nets that make a critical difference to so 
many.
  Social workers have been at the forefront of many social movements. 
Some of the pioneers who were actively involved in creating social 
change include Dr. Dorothy Height, Jane Addams and Whitney Young.
  Dr. Height was not only a giant in the civil rights movement, she 
also developed several model programs to combat teenage pregnancy, to 
address hunger in rural areas, worked as a proponent for AIDS 
education, implemented a project to expand business ownership by women 
and to provide funds for vocational training, and much more. She 
received a Congressional Gold Medal last week in recognition of these 
works as one of the preeminent social and civil rights activists of her 
time. In addition, she was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the Nation's 
highest civilian distinction, by President Bill Clinton in 1994. In 
fact, she has been acknowledged for her leadership by every President 
since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
  Jane Addams, another great social worker who built Hull House, which 
is in Chicago in my district; Whitney Young, former president of the 
National Urban League, and the list goes on and on and on.
  In addition, there are several social workers who serve in our body, 
individuals who were engaged as social workers before being elected to 
Congress: Representatives Susan Davis, Barbara Lee, Ciro Rodriguez and 
Ed Towns, as well as Senators Barbara Mikulski and Debbie Stabenow. All 
of these individuals have made tremendous differences.
  I simply come, Madam Speaker, to commend those who engage themselves

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in the profession of social work, recognize the great achievements and 
accomplishments that they have made and urge we recognize their 
importance to our society.

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