Group work's place in social work: a historical analysis

Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, Dec, 2001 by Janice Andrews

The Merger--Formation of NASW

By the late-1940s, social workers were members of seven different practitioner organizations based primarily on fields of practice. Each organization had its own eligibility requirements. AAGW membership included anyone who worked in the broad area of group work: recreation workers, social workers, teachers, social psychologists, and volunteer workers, for example. With each organization specifically focused, they were able to be "a vehicle for the advancement of practice, and perhaps a lobbying force with the schools of social work to include and update practice content ..." (Lewis, 1988, 219). The unanticipated outcome of the merger was that group work's ability to continue having this kind of influence regarding curriculum content in social work education was blunted.

In the fall of 1947, the American Association of Schools of Social Work called a meeting to organize a procedure to become one unified professional social work organization. A committee was formed of members of the various social work associations. Not until 1950 did a more permanent organization emerge that became the Temporary Inter-Association Council of Social Work Membership Organizations (TIAC). Group worker Sanford (Sandy) Solender served as chair of TIAC from 1953-1955. Other group workers, as well, had major roles in the merger (Pernell interview, 1999). While many group workers were opposed to the merger, particularly the large cohort who were not professionally trained social workers, many desperately wanted the identification of the larger social work organization. The supporters were those who had been trained in schools of social work and saw themselves as social workers with a social group work concentration. Ironically, it is from this group of original supporters, that disillusionment soon set in.

The National Association of Social Workers was born in 1955 with five practice sections: group work, medical social work, psychiatric social work, school social work, and social work research. It was decided that community organization would be a committee rather than a section and could apply for section status at a later time (NASW, TIAC Papers, SWHA).

Group workers who were concerned about the merger received some comforting words from the TIAC representatives (who included H. Gibbs, J. Jorpela, J. McDowell, H. Rowe, S. Solender, and H. Trecker) who published a memo to all AAGW members (6-17-54) in which they assured group workers that they would be "blanketed in" to NASW and explained why the merger was good for them. They explained that NASW would provide better services to all its members, provide a united approach to common concerns, and eliminate overlapping efforts. "It represents our coming to maturity as a profession", they proclaimed. They emphasized that the group work section would be able to concentrate on group work issues with "the advantages of increased staff service, travel budget, overall office operations."

The theme of maturity was continued by the editorial committee (headed by Frank Fierman) of The Group (1954, 2) by underscoring the anticipation: "The present period of anticipation prior to the birth of NASW is not unlike the tense and happy months experienced by expectant parents who await the arrival of a new baby." In explaining that The Group would no longer be published, he said, "It has served our field of social group work well during the adolescence of our profession, but must make way for our new tools which will serve us in our maturity." Just as the era of The Group was ending, AAGW president Harleigh Trecker pulled together some of the most significant contributions to the journal since 1939 and published them in a book, Group Work: Foundations & Frontiers (Trecker, 1955).