The Social Worker / Le travailleur social

In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Lisa Marie Porter as part of CASW's special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada.

Lisa Marie's path into social work began in childhood. Growing up with violence, addiction, and scarcity at home, she knew what it felt like to be scared and not get the help she needed. That experience became a lifelong question about why life is harder for some people, and why the things we do not talk about so often cause the most harm.

That question carried her through nearly 29 years of frontline practice, from child protection in Calgary to her final role with the Remedy in Nova Scotia, a human rights response focused on persons with disabilities and deinstitutionalization.

Throughout the conversation, Lisa Marie reflects on social work as a practice in humility. She shares why she ended every meeting by asking people what else they wanted her to know and what she could have done better, and why the goal is always to take a little stress away, not add to it. She also speaks honestly about the toll of speaking up inside big systems, and why she does not regret a single time she raised her hand, only the times she did not.

This episode invites us to think about kindness differently. It is not about being nice. It is about truly seeing, hearing, and meeting people where they are, and having the courage to advocate when it matters, remembering that it is not about us.

Lisa Marie leaves listeners with a hopeful message for the next century of social work: let empathy prevail, protect human dignity, stay connected to your community, and do not feel guilty about the sick days.

In this episode of The Social Worker Podcast, we speak with Huda Adnan as part of CASW's special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada.

Huda's path into the profession began where many do: in a family of helpers. Drawn to community and to the work of supporting others, she went straight from high school into her social work program, and found herself, at seventeen, the only visibly Muslim woman in the room. In those early years she tried to blend in, to smooth over the ways she stood out, naming only "Canadian" when asked to locate herself. It was a young Muslim girl in a school program who changed that, running up to her, telling her you look just like me, and holding on. That moment, more than a decade later, still anchors how Huda carries her identity into every space she enters.

Community mental health remains the heart of her practice, even as her career has carried her through newcomer and refugee support, nonprofit work, consulting, and now private practice. That shift, she reflects, was never the plan. It grew out of frustration, out of watching systems fail her racialized, Black, and Indigenous clients, and out of a decision that the way to advocate was to step inside the very structures that hadn't made room for her. The private space she now holds came, in the end, at the community's request.

Throughout the conversation, Huda speaks honestly about what it means to practice as a racialized Muslim woman in rooms that don't always reflect her, from the quiet dismissals of her credentials to a client who questioned her humanity aloud while colleagues stayed silent, and the one person, another racialized client, who spoke up. She reminds us that allyship is not a statement but an action, that knowing your rights and your policies is its own form of protection, and that the discomfort others project is rarely about us at all. She is candid, too, about the toll of this work, and about the relationships and collective culture that have kept her grounded through it.

Huda leaves listeners with the advice she returns to again and again with the students and therapists she supervises: build your community from the very start, and don't burn your bridges. The field is big and small at once, she reminds us, and the relationships we tend, intentionally and generously, are the ones that carry us through a whole career.

In part two of this conversation on The Social Worker Podcast, we continue with Dr. Cindy Blackstock and Andrew Eckert as part of CASW's special series celebrating 100 years of social work in Canada.

Where the first episode opened the door to the courtroom, this one steps further inside. We pick up in a place the profession is increasingly being drawn into, one it was not always trained for: class action litigation affecting First Nations, Metis, and Inuit peoples. Social workers are being asked to provide research that supports certification, to develop criteria for distributing compensation, to advise on supports for class members, and sometimes to serve as expert witnesses. It is work with real stakes, and real ethical risk.

Andrew Eckert, staff lawyer with the Independent Class Action Clinic at the University of Windsor, walks us through what a class action actually is, and the question too easily overlooked: when the invitation arrives from class counsel, who does the social worker actually work for. Dr. Blackstock, executive director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, draws on a landmark human rights case and her own family's experience to name the four core risks at the heart of the practice standards she is drafting: independence, conflicts of interest, payment arrangements, and evidentiary integrity.

Together they trace the tensions that do not resolve on their own. What happens when settlements climb into the tens or hundreds of millions and the harm itself is never stopped. Why compensating the past is not the same as changing the future. What becomes of research data gathered for one purpose when it is later sought for another, sometimes by actors outside the reach of Canadian law. And how a social worker holds their duty to the court and to the community when the pressure to revise an opinion comes from elsewhere.

This episode invites us to practice ethics in the light rather than in the dark: to know what a class action is before stepping into one, to ask what the world looks like a year after the checks are cut, and to be prepared to be fired rather than sign off on an opinion you cannot stand behind.

Dr. Blackstock and Andrew Eckert leave listeners with a grounding reminder for the next century of social work: know the space you are entering before you enter it, keep your primary duty with the communities you are called to serve, and have the moral courage to hold the line 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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.