A leading women's real-life magazine is today launching a Thank
God For Social Workers campaign in support of the profession.
Take a Break, which sells 943,000
copies a week, decided to highlight social workers' life-changing
work after hearing about Community Care'sStand Up Now for
Social Work campaign.
The latest issue, out today, includes an interview with
social worker of the year Jacqui Knight and anecdotes from
Community Care's CareSpace discussion forum in which social
workers talk about their proudest moments. The article is
featured on the cover of the magazine while Take a Break
also has 500 "Thank God For Social Workers" badges to give
away.
"It's obvious that there are
many thousands of excellent social workers who are
performing small miracles day after day, to whom we as a society
owe a great debt of gratitude," said Take a Break editor
John Dale. "It is time to report these everyday
miracles, to recognise the wonderful good which this
profession achieves, to redress the balance and express our many
thanks."
Dale is keen to run more articles and is appealing for social
workers to send in their stories, with a pledge that personal
details will be disguised to protect clients.
"We definitely want to do at least one more piece under that
banner Thank God For Social Workers," he said. "That's why we are
appealing for members of the social work fraternity to send us
stories for our campaign."
The activity is a victory for Community Care's
Stand Up Now for Social Work campaign, which is calling
for more balanced media coverage of social work and has been
working to promote positive images of social work in the mainstream
press.
Meanwhile, our sister title, Personnel Today, has
backed the campaign. The
magazine and website
is widely read by council human resources staff, who are concerned
about the impact that
negative press
coverage has on recruitment and retention of social workers
.
More information
Take a Break's article is on page 17 of the 2
July edition, in shops from 25 June.
ACT NOW to stand up for your profession
Badges are available to anyone - simply
e-mail
stating how many you would like
Contact Take a Break
Contact Community Care to
share your social work
success stories 
Blog: Take a
Break offers an unprecidented opportunity to boost social
work's image