A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

SIU MING KWOK is the President of the ACSW Council. He is a full professor and Associate Dean (Undergraduate Programs) of the Faculty of Social Work at the University of Calgary. You can contact Siu Ming at president@acsw.ab.ca.

HOPE, CONFIDENCE, AND A PLAN. 2021 is a year of transition for the social work profession in Alberta. As the new ACSW president, I am inviting your collaboration to navigate through this year of transition together with hope, confidence, and a plan.

This is a year of transition for ACSW’s governance model. Because of legislated changes introduced in June 2020 by Bill 30: the Health Statutes Amendment Act (2020), ACSW Council is required to increase public member representation from 25 to 50 percent on our Council, Hearing Tribunals and Complaint Review Committees effective April 1, 2021. This increase ushers in a new era from a self-regulated to a co-regulated model of our profession. The equal number of elected members and appointed public members on Council is new to ACSW and requires efforts on both sides to explore a co-governance model for the protection of the public.

This is a year of transition for ACSW to revisit its identity. ACSW has a long history of combined regulatory and association functions for the social work profession. Nonetheless, the passage of Bill 46: the Health Statues Amendment Act (2020) last December has not only altered the nature, but also the identity of ACSW. We are required to submit a plan to the Minister for the divestment of our professional association functions in June 2021 and complete the plan by summer 2022. Afterwards, the College will be focused mainly on regulatory functions, such as registration of social workers, competency development as it relates to the Standards of Practice, and disciplinary hearings.

This is a year of transition for ACSW in response to racism and embracing diversity in our regulatory functions. In addition to ACSW’s commitment to champion key calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, it is a good time to review our registration process and Standards of Practice in response to the Black Lives Matter movement and the anti-Asian racism exacerbated by the pandemic.

My plan for the next year is to ask you to work with ACSW to explore how to operationalize the co-governance model for our Council, to get involved in the new social work association in the wake of the divestment plan completed by ACSW, and to engage in conversations around making our regulatory practices, including registration, complaints and discipline, competence program, and Standards of Practice align with an anti-oppressive and de-colonizing lens. You can write for the Advocate magazine, run for ACSW Council in 2022, join the regulatory committees of the College, contribute to establishing the future social workers association and so on. Engagement with and from members is imperative for an outstanding regulatory college.

Lastly, I am a first-generation immigrant from Hong Kong and have social work practice and teaching experiences in child protection, criminal justice and addictions counselling in British Columbia, Ontario, and Alberta over two decades. I came from a thousand miles away to serve and treasure each encounter. I am confident we are working toward the same goal: to make ACSW more solid, strong, and diverse when we emerge from the transitional year of 2021/2022. Siu Ming Kwok, PhD, RSW