Welcome to another episode of Lurie Breaks It Down, a podcast where we dig deeply to connect the dots on the issues that shape our world.

I'm Lurie Daniel Favors, author, activist, attorney, and host of the Lurie Daniel Favours show

on Sirius XM's Urban View, Channel 126.

Earlier this week, I had an opportunity to spend some time with an organization that

has quickly become very, very special to me.

And this is an organization known as

the National Association of Black Social Workers, N-A-B-S-W. This is a group comprised of people of

African ancestry who are committed to enhancing the quality of life and empowering people of

African ancestry through advocacy, human services delivery, and research.

Well, they had their annual conference this week in Richmond, Virginia, and I was one of the

speakers, and I was able to participate in a phenomenal panel conversation.

It was a symposium, really, the Joan E. Coleman Symposium, moderated by Dr. Daryl Frazier,

and my other panelists were Dr. Anthony

E. Street and Dr. Keisha and Allen. And it was a phenomenal engagement and conversation where

each of us gave remarks and then had an engagement, if you will, as colleagues in the space

where we are all committed to doing the work of making the lives of our communities even better.

Now, I will be honest with you, I have a special place in my heart for social workers because when I was a young, I was in need of some social work support.

There were several instances around a particular period of rebelliousness that your sister

friend was engaged in where thankfully there were people whose professional

obligation it was was to connect me and the needs that I had to the resources

that were there to help me navigate those needs and so when I was called upon

to speak about the capacity for social work being in action,

...