Mission Statement
Since its origin in 1979, the mission of the CSWA is to collect and preserve documents and professional histories that illuminate the development of social issues and problems in the field of health and welfare in California, as well as the answers that have emerged to address such problems. The Archives are available to social workers, researchers, historians, students, developers of social policy, and others and offer the opportunity to examine linkages between the past and present, to learn from history, and to inform understanding of contemporary and future problems and appropriate solutions. Relevant items are collected, cataloged, and maintained by the USC Libraries in Special Collections and the Digital Library.
Our Program Goals
To grow and maintain an ever-broadening and robust collection of materials.
There is much to learn from an increasing number of social welfare organizations in California marking 100 years of operation. How they evolved, persevered over time, and met changing social welfare issues needs to be captured for study. Information on organizations that have more recently tackled emerging social issues and successfully addressed those issues needs to be available; those organizations at the cutting edge of new social problems unsuccessful in addressing the issues need to be examined as lessons learned. The CSWA is poised to capture information and records about the models and methods that have allowed organizations to successfully endure or contribute to their failure. Funding is needed to support materials collection from a broader cross-section of the state, archive the materials, and digitize the holdings to maximize accessibility.
To collect and provide oral histories that demonstrate the struggles, illuminate the times, and inspire action for change.
The past 50 years have been a time of creativity, innovation, and emerging research on social welfare issues and programs in California. Individuals involved in these cutting-edge developments are aging, retiring, and passing away. The CSWA plans to increase its capacity to capture the stories and wisdom from these contributors while they are able to describe in their own words “what happened” and how change was achieved. We intend to continue to gather information about remarkable people and service programs in order to preserve irreplaceable information and make it available to future social program planners and policy advocates. Funding is needed to develop an online training program to teach people across the state to conduct and produce quality video recordings of oral history interviews.
To build awareness and utilization.
The CSWA will promote increased awareness of the Archives using traditional and new media, including the Future Leaders program that engages students in social work programs across the state and motivates the use of the CSWA websites for coursework. Campaigns addressing practicing social workers and the general public will continue and expand.
To increase and sustain operational activities.
For most of its history, the CSWA has operated as a volunteer organization. In 2008, funding was generously provided by the USC School of Social Work to support part-time administrative support. As the organization has evolved and expanded, the responsibilities of the support position have grown in content and quantity. Funding is needed to retain and expand the position going forward to ensure the provision of the staff work required for CSWA and the California Social Work Hall of Distinction.
To engage and encourage participation in an ever-increasing number of social work programs in the Social Work Hall of Distinction.
By utilizing the California Social Work Hall of Distinction in their curricula and nominating social work leaders for induction to the Hall, social work programs will join in the study and celebration of the social work profession and contribute to building a comprehensive history of social work in California.