Ottawa Catholic School Board Social Workers Making a Difference One Student at a Time

March 6 to 12 is Social Work Week in Ontario. This year’s provincial theme is #MobilizingMentalHealth, which honours the diverse roles that social workers play in mobilizing mental health access for Ontarians, from providing critical support to navigating complicated health, mental health and social services systems.

Social Workers are recognized world-wide for their advocacy of social justice principles. It is a profession that champions social fairness, equal access, and distribution of resources and opportunities. Social Work is collaborative. Together these professionals connect systems and people to empower positive change. 

Our OCSB Social Workers are dedicated professionals who showcase their commitment to OCSB’s Strategic Commitments of Be Community, Be Well, and Be  Innovative inside and outside the classroom. 

Here are a few ways they accomplish this:

1. Besides offering students mental health support and interventions, they support parents in their various struggles.
2. They offer insightful clinical consultation to school staff and the whole school system.
3. They build capacity with parents, school staff and the whole system through professional development as well as consultation and collaboration
4. They address the various barriers that both students and families are facing, magnified by the pandemic
5. They adopt a trauma-informed lens in the work that they do.

Please reach out and let them know how appreciative they are of the invaluable work that they do. We encourage our community to celebrate OCSB social workers by engaging online using the #MobilizingMentalHealth and #SocialWorkIsEssential hashtags.