NASW-Illinois Chapter President Latesha Newson, MSW, LCSW
Greetings NASW-IL Social Work Community,
As we transition into the last month of 2024, I reflect on our tremendous work as a chapter. This past month, we hosted our 2024 NASW Chapters Virtual conference: Empowering Social Workers in collaboration with the North Dakota and Nevada chapters. This event was a tremendous success, fostering collaboration across chapters and offering numerous enriching workshops on the latest best practices in our social work profession—special thanks to our amazing leadership staff and members who made this event a success. At the opening of our conference, I acknowledged the anticipated challenges that we, as social workers and the people that we serve, will face with the change in our political climate. However, I remind social workers of our remarkable strength and resiliency to fight injustice and to fight for those marginalized in our society.
A few weeks ago, our chapter advisory board met and held its final board meeting for 2024. Together, we finalized our priority goals and objectives for fiscal year 2025 with a renewed strength and commitment to serve well. I am grateful for the tremendous leaders who serve on our board, and I reminded them that, “[G]reat men and women are called for a time that they are needed the most!” We have arrived at a moment in time where our leadership is needed, and it is with renewed vigor and commitment that we will lead, we will advocate for social justice, and we will protect the human rights of all persons!
I am reminded of the great words of former NASW President Whitney Young Jr.: “You can holler, protest, march, picket and demonstrate, but somebody must be able to sit in on the strategy conferences and plot a course. There must be strategies, the researchers, the professionals to carry out the program. That’s our role.”
Lastly, this past month, I saw the vision of Treatment Not Trauma be fully implemented by the City of Chicago with the re-opening of the Pilsen-Ashland Clinic. For the past four years, our chapter has been greatly involved in the advocacy efforts to get this initiative passed and established as an official City Council Ordinance in the City of Chicago. This journey has been very special for me being appointed by Mayor Brandon Johnson’s team to the MHSE Working Group. The MHSE Working Group proposed a framework and roadmap to expand behavioral and mental health clinical services, reimagine a citywide response to behavioral and mental health crises, and increase community awareness around available resources. It has been quite refreshing to work alongside the many members of this team towards this shared vision of equitable public mental health services for the city of Chicago. This beautiful collaboration was community-informed and community-driven. I look forward to the completion of this our fiscal year 2024 plan with the re-opening of the Roseland Community Clinic this month. This is the amazing transformative work of social work!
As we embark on 2025, I encourage us to reflect on the many lives that have been impacted and changed due to our influence and service. Allow this to renew our hope for a bright future. We are the leaders that world needs!
Wishing you all a blessed and prosperous new year!
In solidarity,
Latesha Newson, MSW, LCSW
NASW-Illinois Chapter President
Latesha Newson, MSW, LCSW (she/her), serves as university lecturer and BSW field coordinator at Governors State University in the Department of Social Work. She is a strong advocate for social justice and works to influence policies that create equitable and transformative change in our society. She has served on the NASW-Illinois Chapter Board of Directors since 2019, previously as Calumet District Chair, chair of the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Committee (DEIAC), and as member of the national NASW Delegate Assembly. In 2020 she served as co-chair of the NASW-Illinois Chapter Task Force on Racial Justice where the chapter’s final recommendations on police reform were reflected in the Criminal Justice Omnibus bill. Latesha believes that it is our social responsibility to create and effect change through advocacy, policy, and the advancement of social work.
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