The Social Worker / Le travailleur social

CASW | ACTS
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As the Canadian Association of Social Workers marks 100 years, The Social Worker Podcast examines where the profession has been and where it’s going. The Social Worker Podcast brings forward the voices, stories, and lived experiences that have shaped, and continue to shape social work in Canada. Each episode invites practitioners and leaders to reflect on the profession’s legacy, confront its harms, and imagine a more just future. Real stories, honest conversations, and a century of learning. Learn more about CASW here: https://www.casw-acts.ca/en/about-us/about-casw Alors que l'Association canadienne des travailleurs sociaux célèbre son centenaire, Le balado du Travailleur social  revient sur le parcours de la profession et se penche sur son avenir. Le podcast « The Social Worker » donne la parole aux personnes, aux récits et aux expériences vécues qui ont façonné et continuent de façonner le travail social au Canada. Chaque épisode invite des praticiens et des dirigeants à réfléchir à l'héritage de la profession, à faire le point sur ses inconvénients et à imaginer un avenir plus juste. Des histoires vraies, des conversations sincères et un siècle d'apprentissage. Pour en savoir plus sur l'ACTS, rendez-vous ici : https://www.casw-acts.ca/fr/%C3%A0-notre-sujet/%C3%A0-notre-sujet

  1. 8h ago

    The Social Worker Interview with Dr. Cindy Blackstock and Andrew Eckert

    Social workers are increasingly being asked into the courtroom, and the ethical stakes are higher than most of us realize. In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Dr. Cindy Blackstock and Andrew Eckert as part of CASW's special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada. The conversation looks at a place the profession is being drawn into, one it was not always trained for: class action litigation. Across the country, social workers are being asked to support class actions affecting First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples through reports, expert evidence, research, and help with implementation. It is work with real stakes, and real ethical risk. Dr. Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, came to this work through a landmark human rights case and through her own family's experience. Andrew Eckert, staff lawyer with the Independent Class Action Clinic at the University of Windsor, came to it through the class members who are too often left without a voice at the bargaining table. Together they map the terrain a social worker enters when the invitation arrives from class counsel, when there is money on the table, and when the harms are so severe that settlements climb into the billions. Throughout the conversation, they return to a set of quiet tensions that do not resolve on their own. Where does a social worker's duty lie when the pursuit of compensation comes into conflict with the deeper goal of systemic change. What happens to research data gathered for one purpose when it is later sought for another. Who is an expert actually working for when their duty is to the court, but the pressure comes from elsewhere. This episode invites us to think about ethics as something practiced in the light rather than in the dark. Sometimes that means learning what a class action is before stepping into one. Sometimes it means naming a conflict of interest and refusing to let small compromises accumulate into a violation. Dr. Blackstock and Andrew Eckert leave listeners with a grounding reminder for the next century of social work: the best apology is changed behaviour, know what space you are entering before you enter it, and have the moral courage to stand behind the ethics of the profession even when the chips are down. Listen to the full series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada: https://www.casw-acts.ca/en/social-worker-podcast

  2. Aug 7

    The social Worker Interview with Mabel Lam

    In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Mabel Lam as part of CASW's special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada. Mabel's journey began with a conviction she carried from a young age in Hong Kong: a simple, stubborn desire to help people and to see them treated with dignity and genuine humanity. That desire became a profession, and that profession became a bridge between two very different worlds. That thread has followed her across schools, newcomer organizations, domestic violence victim services, and eventually the Government of Alberta's Victims of Crime Assistance Program. It has also deepened through her own experience of immigration, arriving in Canada in the wake of the pandemic, rebuilding a career from the ground up, and learning a new system through trial and error, so that she could turn around and light the path for the newcomers coming after her. Throughout the conversation, Mabel reflects on what it means to practice social work across cultures and in the quieter corners of the profession, the outreach visits, the letters where every detail matters, the spaces where care does not always look the way people expect. She reminds us that the people who hold space for everyone else are human too, and that the emotional weight of this work is real, even when it goes unspoken. This episode invites us to think about care differently. Sometimes it is safety planning and court support. Sometimes it is accepting your own humanity, naming your own limits, and imagining the structures we have never built, like an anonymous national helpline where social workers in crisis could finally turn to someone without shame. Mabel leaves listeners with a grounding reminder for the next century of social work: accept your own pace, be honest with yourself, and remember that no one is perfect. Every experience, good or bad, is a single dot in a larger drawing, and one day you will step back, see the whole picture, and find your true resilience and power. Above all, she hopes the profession never loses its humanity, that in an age of rapid technology, we hold onto the heart-to-heart, human-to-human connection that makes this work irreplaceable.

  3. Jul 24

    The Social Worker Interview with Madelaine Robillard

    In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Madelaine Robillard as part of CASW's special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada. Madelaine's journey began with a question she asked at the edge of burnout: what would it look like to do work that actually reflects what she values, rather than work that slowly empties her out? That question has followed her across retail management, a domestic violence shelter, child welfare, Indigenous health policy, and eventually the founding of a therapy and wellness collective in Calgary. It has also deepened through her lived experience, and through what she learned about power once she finally reached the tables where decisions are made. Throughout the conversation, Madelaine reflects on what it means to practice social work when the authority we imagine at the top is more limited than it appears. She reminds us that systems are not always built with autonomy, dignity, or affirming care in mind, but that social workers can build spaces where community voice, lived experience, and human connection come first. This episode invites us to think about professionalism differently. Sometimes it is credentials and modalities. Sometimes it is showing up unmasked, naming your own experience, refusing predatory contracts, and asking whose voices were left out of the room. Madelaine leaves listeners with a grounding reminder for the next century of social work: do not sacrifice your values for employment, know your rights, find spaces that celebrate you, and be gentle with yourself while you do hard work.

  4. Jul 10

    The Social Worker Interview with Alisha Stubbs

    In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Alisha Stubbs as part of CASW’s special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada. Alisha’s journey began with a simple but powerful curiosity: why are people’s struggles so often treated as individual, when they are shaped by systems, relationships, access, and opportunity? That question has followed her across developmental services, adult protective services, education, nonprofit leadership, municipal politics, research, and early years advocacy. It has also deepened through her lived experience as a parent navigating autism diagnosis, school systems, funding, advocacy, documentation, and the emotional labour families are often expected to carry alone. Throughout the conversation, Alisha reflects on what it means to practice social work in the tension between policy and ethics, compliance and care, bureaucracy and humanity. She reminds us that systems are not always built with dignity, accessibility, or neuroaffirming practice in mind, but social workers can still move through them with intention, curiosity, and relational accountability. This episode invites us to think about advocacy differently. Sometimes it is public and visible. Sometimes it is quiet, behind-the-scenes work: changing one policy, shifting one conversation, supporting one family, or asking where flexibility might exist inside a system that feels rigid. Alisha leaves listeners with a grounding reminder for the next century of social work: find your people, find your peace, protect what sustains you, and never stop learning.

  5. Jun 26

    The Social Worker Interview with Sophia Thomas

    In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Sophia Thomas as part of CASW’s special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada. Sophia brings us into the realities, complexities, and beauty of rural practice. From growing up in rural Saskatchewan to becoming a social worker, educator, and researcher, Sophia reflects on what it means to work in communities where everyone is connected, resources can be scarce, and social workers are often called to be creative, flexible, and deeply relational. Throughout the conversation, Sophia speaks about the “dance” of rural practice: being both a community member and a service provider, navigating dual roles, building trust, and showing up with humility. She also reflects on the importance of working in meaningful partnership with Indigenous communities, listening first, respecting local knowledge, and allowing community needs to guide the work rather than rigid expectations. Sophia also shares insights from her thesis on the mental health and well-being of post-secondary students in rural Saskatchewan. Her research reminds us that education, isolation, access, culture, stress, and mental health are deeply connected, and that rural students deserve learning environments where they can feel supported, seen, and connected. This episode invites us to reimagine rural social work not as practice with “less,” but as practice that asks for more creativity, more listening, more humility, and more intentional connection.

  6. Jun 12

    The Social Worker Interview with Francesca Serwaa

    In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Francesca Serwaa as part of CASW’s special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada. Francesca brings us into a conversation about mental health, addictions, Black communities, justice, reintegration, representation, and care. She reflects on her path into social work, from her early interest in psychiatry to placements in harm reduction and justice-related spaces that shaped her commitment to supporting people navigating complex systems. Together, we explore what it means to build trust with Black and racialized service users, especially in communities where stigma, silence, and “keeping things in the home” can make accessing support feel difficult. Francesca speaks with honesty about the power of representation, the importance of confidentiality, and the responsibility social workers carry when they are trusted with people’s stories. She also invites us to think differently about advocacy. Not only as protest, policy, or public action, but as the everyday work of connecting someone to support, helping a person reintegrate with dignity, naming barriers, and reminding people that they are not alone. And in a field where we are continuously talking about self-care, Francesca leaves us with a grounding reminder: boundaries are not a failure of care. They are part of how we continue. They are part of how we turn guilt into strength.

  7. May 14

    The Social Worker Interview with Tyler Coulbourne

    What does it mean to practice social work with curiosity, accountability, and the courage to hold more than one truth at a time? In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Tyler Coulbourne (he/they) as part of CASW’s special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada. Tyler’s path into the profession was anything but linear. From working as a flight attendant, photographer, bartender, hiking guide, pirate deckhand, and more, Tyler reflects on the many experiences that shaped how they show up in social work today. At the centre of that journey there has always been a commitment to relationality, learning, community, and supporting people in meaningful ways. Throughout the conversation, Tyler shares how queerness, decolonial learning, adult education, and Indigenous approaches to practice have shaped their understanding of what social work can be. They also speak honestly about the tension of being part of a profession with a history of harm while remaining committed to pushing it toward liberation, justice, and deeper accountability. This episode invites social workers to sit with complexity, resist simple answers to complex problems, and imagine a profession rooted in relationships, humility, mutual aid, and meaningful solidarity.

  8. Apr 24

    The Social Worker Interview with Jaeyell Kim

    In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, presented by the Canadian Association of Social Workers, we’re joined by Jaeyell Kim, a Korean-Canadian social worker, educator, and mental health advocate whose work is deeply rooted in supporting youth, newcomers, and families across Canada. Jaeyell shares his journey into social work, shaped by his own lived experience navigating racism, migration, and identity. From being one of the only Korean-speaking social workers in his community to building more accessible and culturally responsive care, his story highlights the critical role of representation in mental health services. In this conversation, we explore: What “transitional trauma” means and how it impacts newcomers navigating unfamiliar systemsThe realities of language barriers, stigma, and access to care in immigrant communitiesHow culturally grounded practice can build trust, safety, and connectionJaeyell’s creative use of comics and storytelling to make mental health more approachableHis advice to the next generation of social workers on cultural humility and lifelong learning This episode is a powerful reminder that social work is not just about services — it’s about understanding, belonging, and meeting people where they are.

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As the Canadian Association of Social Workers marks 100 years, The Social Worker Podcast examines where the profession has been and where it’s going. The Social Worker Podcast brings forward the voices, stories, and lived experiences that have shaped, and continue to shape social work in Canada. Each episode invites practitioners and leaders to reflect on the profession’s legacy, confront its harms, and imagine a more just future. Real stories, honest conversations, and a century of learning. Learn more about CASW here: https://www.casw-acts.ca/en/about-us/about-casw Alors que l'Association canadienne des travailleurs sociaux célèbre son centenaire, Le balado du Travailleur social  revient sur le parcours de la profession et se penche sur son avenir. Le podcast « The Social Worker » donne la parole aux personnes, aux récits et aux expériences vécues qui ont façonné et continuent de façonner le travail social au Canada. Chaque épisode invite des praticiens et des dirigeants à réfléchir à l'héritage de la profession, à faire le point sur ses inconvénients et à imaginer un avenir plus juste. Des histoires vraies, des conversations sincères et un siècle d'apprentissage. Pour en savoir plus sur l'ACTS, rendez-vous ici : https://www.casw-acts.ca/fr/%C3%A0-notre-sujet/%C3%A0-notre-sujet

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