UG, ChildLink Guyana team up to host conference on social work practices

In observance of World Social Work Week 2024, the University of Guyana’s Faculty of Social Sciences and ChildLink Guyana will host the Guyana Social Work Education and Practice Conference from March 19-20.
The conference will be hosted at the university’s George Walcott Lecture Theatre (GWLT), Turkeyen Campus under the theme; “Respecting diversity through joint social action: Aligning social work education and practice to global standards”. World Social Work Week is celebrated annually and aims to highlight social work’s achievements, raise social services’ visibility, and defend social justice and human rights.
Two broad sub-themes of the conference are Social Work Education and Social Work Policy and Practice. Under the Social Work Education sub-theme, the conference will consider the state of social work education, social work field education, social work professional identity, and new pedagogies in social work education. Under the Social Work Policy & Practice sub-theme the conference will examine all forms of violence, migrant families and children, access to social services, public health and mental health among other issues.
The Opening Ceremony of the conference will be held on Tuesday, March 19 at 9:00h and will present several high-profile persons composing presentations, including, Human Services and Social Security Minister, Dr Vindhya Persaud, Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Paloma Mohamed Martin, European Union Ambassador to Guyana, H.E. Rene Van Nes and University of the West Indies Social Work Expert, Dr Tracie Rogers, among others.
The international theme for 2024 is ‘Buen Vivir: Shared Future for Transformative Change’, emphasising the need for social workers to adopt innovative, community-led approaches that are grounded in indigenous wisdom and harmonious coexistence with nature.
The conference will provide the opportunity for social work educators and practitioners from the University of Guyana and other institutions, researchers, students, policymakers, and social planners to share the results of their academic research, pursuits, and experiences, and engage in policy discussions. The overall goal of the conference is to stimulate academic discourse on social issues related to the conference themes and to address practitioners’ role in addressing social issues in society.