Social Welfare event will explore intersection of social work, labor, economic justice

The School of Social Welfare is hosting a virtual panel event, Looking Back to Move Forward: Social Work, Labor, and Economic Justice, on Thursday, Jan. 22, from 12-2 p.m.

The panel, hosted by Social Welfare assistant professor Tadeo Weiner Davis, will feature social workers who will share their experiences at the intersection of social work’s commitment to economic justice and the struggles in organized labor. It will award two hours of continuing education credit.

In this session, participants will learn about a social work scholar’s construction of an archive of the history of an organizing effort—Stand Up KC—that built power with and for low-wage workers, changing conversations about economic justice and advancing tangible wins in Missouri. Together, social workers will consider the implications of this body of work and these accumulated experiences on today’s issues of workers’ rights, ongoing unionization efforts, and social work’s struggle for economic justice.

During the event, Weiner Davis will discuss a community archive he put together with members and workers of Stand Up KC. In this archive, Weiner Davis and Stand Up KC collect digital and physical materials from the labor movement, including signs used in protest, photography, video footage and more.

“It's a broader opportunity to talk about labor and labor activism in social work, or in relation to social work,” Weiner Davis said. “Historically, social workers have engaged on questions of labor, both within social work and in other spaces, like nonprofits, therapists, activists, whatever it might be.”

Before the Jan. 22 event, Stand Up KC will also host a gallery exhibition on Jan. 17, highlighting how intentional design helps strengthen anti-racist working-class organizing. The exhibition will display some items from the community archive. These organizing efforts showcase how bold color, typography and composition can help identify a movement’s public presence. The gallery, which will run from Jan. 17 through Feb. 28, came together as a collaborative effort between Weiner Davis and contributing artist tyler galloway, who is a professor at the Kansas City Art Institute.

Weiner Davis looked forward to the Jan. 22 community engagement event and sharing this project.

“It’s really gratifying to have a project be a tool as a way to talk about broader issues,” Weiner Davis said. “This was my interest in community archives and community history, and how they can function as a way to build community, conduct analysis, or ask questions in our current moment.”