Challenges of Violence Worldwide

PREFACE

As a result of the findings of the commission, the U.S. Congress passed a law that sets aside money for programs to educate Americans about the challenges facing underdeveloped countries and efforts being made to improve living standards there.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW), through its Peace and International Affairs program, received some of this funding in 1988 when it was awarded its first development education grant from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Building on five years of experience, NASW received its third USAID grant in 1993. The initiative that was subsequently launched is called the Violence and Development Project. The Educational Resource and Curriculum Module that you hold in your hands are one result of this initiative.

The main objective of the project has been to expand the context within which social workers address social problems to include a global understanding of the relationship between violence and development. Six NASW chapter-based project centers, involving 11 states, were established as part of the project. The centers engaged the talents of hundreds of their chapter members at the grassroots level in developing educational materials, educating their constituents locally and regionally on violence and development issues, and organizing teach-in activities. The project centers were the Northwest Center on Violence, Development, and Ethnicity (involving the Oregon, Idaho, and Washington NASW chapters); the New York City NASW chapter Center on Violence, Development, and Poverty; the California NASW chapter Center on Violence, Development, and Trauma; the Florida NASW chapter Center on Violence, Development, and Trauma; the Minnesota NASW chapter Center on Violence, Development, and Women and Children; and the Midwest Center on Violence, Development, and Substance Abuse (involving the Michigan, Ohio, Illinois, and Indiana NASW chapters).

A highlight of the project came in February 1996, when a national Teach-In titled Social Workers and the Challenge of Violence Worldwide was held on the campuses of several hundred schools of social work in 41 states, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands. Local organizers put together programs about violence and development. Two landmark national satellite video conferences were broadcast live during the week. Both programs were moderated by renowned CBS broadcast journalist Charles Kuralt. Twenty thousand social workers watched. During the second broadcast, viewers around the country interacted live via telephone with Mr. Kuralt and a panel of speakers.

From the experience of the Teach-In week, we learned that social workers are eager to study community building and global learning as a response to violence. Ninety percent of those who responded to a national evaluation felt that these topics should be incorporated into social work training at every level.

The Educational Resource and Curriculum Module are one response to this need for training. For topics as enormous as development, violence, and global interdependence, no one book contains all the answers. But these materials do represent one more step forward in the efforts of social workers to better understand and respond to a rapidly changing world. It is our hope that they will help social workers see their profession in an international context and understand that countries in the developing world, while struggling with issues and problems similar to our own, have created models and approaches that can be useful to us.

Dorothy Van Soest and Jane Crosby
August 1996

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