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‘Dear social worker’: a poem to make practitioners feel seen

Social worker Becky Haasch's poem is a celebration of the good fellow practitioners do, often without acknowledgement

July 1, 2024 in Workforce
typewriter with a note writing 'Dear Social Worker by Becky Haasch'
Photo by 4Max/AdobeStock

by Becky Haasch

I feel immensely proud to be a social worker.

After 18 years working in children’s services, I left and set up my own business supporting other social workers through coaching, leadership training and development.

This year, when social work week came around, I didn’t have a service I could celebrate with as I was working on my own. So instead I felt inspired to give a shout out to all of the social workers who work tirelessly to help others.

This was my small way to acknowledge them and enable them to feel seen.

Poem by Becky Haasch

by Becky Haasch

Celebrate those who’ve inspired you

For our 50th anniversary, we’re expanding our My Brilliant Colleague series to include anyone who has inspired you in your career – whether current or former colleagues, managers, students, lecturers, mentors or prominent past or present sector figures whom you have admired from afar.

Nominate your colleague or social work inspiration by either:

  • Filling in our nominations form with a letter or a few paragraphs (100-250 words) explaining how and why the person has inspired you.
  • Or sending a voice note of up to 90 seconds to +447887865218, including your and the nominee’s names and roles.

If you have any questions, email our community journalist, Anastasia Koutsounia, at anastasia.koutsounia@markallengroup.com

Becky has been a social worker for the past 19 years, working in both the US and the UK. She has her own business offering support to social workers through coaching, leadership training and development, alongside offering consultancy to local authorities that are on an improvement journey.

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6 Responses to ‘Dear social worker’: a poem to make practitioners feel seen

  1. Alec Fraher July 1, 2024 at 10:54 pm #

    the best social work is valourised and for good reason; bringing products to market is very nice for some, and genuinely well done Becky for such, but really it’s much more than about this isn’t it …

  2. Shaheda Dhandia July 1, 2024 at 11:20 pm #

    Thank you Becky, that’s a beautiful and very insightful poem, spoken from the heart like a true social worker!

  3. Gill Pitfield July 2, 2024 at 11:25 am #

    Becky you are amazing I always knew you would go far with your determination and drive. Always there for everyone and standing up for what’s right.

  4. Christian Kerr July 2, 2024 at 1:02 pm #

    I can’t help but notice the poem (copyrighted) is accompanied by an introduction and branding that clearly foregrounds the author’s business.

    Did Community Care get paid for this advert?

    Or is it the case that all private business interests need to do gain positive publicity in our field is say something nice about social work?

    • Mithran Samuel July 3, 2024 at 9:08 am #

      Hi Christian,
      Thanks for your comment and feedback, which we appreciate.
      Just to clarify it wasn’t paid for.
      Cheers,
      Mithran

  5. Sonia BJ July 3, 2024 at 11:40 am #

    Beautiful and how heartfelt …. how we can all resonate as a social worker and TM x