Insights For Social Workers: Recognizing Black History Month

Explore articles, podcasts, and events aimed at widening and deepening your knowledge and understanding of Black History, colonization and anti-racist practices.

This Black History Month, OASW celebrates the contributions of Black individuals, communities, and social workers across Ontario.

The 2026 theme, 30 Years of Black History Month: Honouring Black Brilliance Across Generations — From Nation Builders to Tomorrow’s Visionaries, invites social workers to reflect on the legacy of Black changemakers, advocates, community builders, and educators who have shaped our profession. Compiled by OASW’s policy team, explore this list of events, articles, books and multimedia resources aimed at celebrating Ontario’s Black communities and Black social workers, as well as deepening our understanding of tackling anti-Black racism.

Research & Academic Publications

Black-Focused Social Prescribing / Afrocentric Approach (2024)
Focus: Examines culturally grounded social prescribing models that center Afrocentric values and respond to health and social needs of Black communities.
Use: Supports practice innovation, program design, and culturally safe engagement.
Making Social Work Research Black – Beyond Number Politics (Patricia Bailey-Brown, 2025)
Focus: Challenges Eurocentric research methods and centers Black epistemologies and lived experience.
Use: Research training, academic discussions, equity-centred practice.
Social Workers’ Perspectives on Anti-Black Racism and Parenting Outcomes (Journal of Social Work, 2024)
Focus: Examines structural anti-Black racism across child welfare, healthcare, and criminal legal systems.
Use: Supports reflective practice and systems-level advocacy.
Mapping Disparities for Black Families in the Child Welfare System
Focus: Documents systemic drivers of disproportionality in Ontario child welfare.
Use: Anti-racist training, policy reform, program redesign.

Podcasts & Audio Learning

These show voices and lived experience of Black social workers / practitioners:

Queens of Social Work Podcast
Focus: Practice, burnout, identity, and career pathways for Black and BIPOC social workers.
Social Workers Matter Podcast
Focus: Anti-racist supervision, systemic challenges, practice wisdom.
Use: Professional development and reflective practice groups.

Learning Opportunities & Professional Development

National Africentric Social Work Circles (CASW)
Focus: Monthly community of practice for Black social workers and allies.
Applicability: Ongoing learning and networking through 2026.
CASW Webinar – It’s Time to Take a Stand
Focus: Anti-Black racism, mental health, Africentric practice.
Use: Training, in-service learning, continuing education.

Books

Doing Anti-Oppressive Social Work (4th edition) — Baines, Clark & Bennett
Focus: Examining power, racism, colonialism in social work systems.
Use: Anti-oppressive and accountability-based practice.
My Grandmother’s Hands — Resmaa Menakem
Focus: Racialized trauma and embodied healing.
Use: Trauma-informed care and reflective practice.
Abolition and Social Work — Kim, Rasmussen & Washington
Focus: Abolitionist frameworks and critiques of carceral systems.
Use: Anti-carceral practice discussions and policy redesign.
Decolonizing Therapy — Dr. Jennifer Mullan
Focus: Interrupting colonial dynamics in therapeutic settings.
Use: Anti-racist and liberation-oriented practice.

Events

The Inspiration of MLK: Black Masculinity, Black History and Anti-Racist Psychotherapy

Join us on Wednesday, February 25, for a webinar exploring how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s revolutionary perspectives continue to inform the development of anti-racist psychotherapy. This session will also examine how EMDR therapy and Rhythm and Processing (RAP) can serve as similarly transformative interventions during times of social adversity.

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Atelier: Trauma racial complexe et pratiques antiracistes : se guérir pour sortir des pratiques oppressives.

L'objectif de cet atelier est d'approfondir la compréhension du trauma racial complexe et de ses conséquences sur les pratiques d'intervention, tout en offrant un espace de réflexion. Les participants auront l'opportunité d'explorer des outils pour améliorer leurs pratiques professionnelles en adoptant une approche antiraciste et sensible aux traumatismes.

Workshop delivered in French. This workshop aims to deepen understanding of complex racial trauma and its consequences on intervention practices, while providing a space for reflection. Participants will have the opportunity to explore tools to improve their professional practices by adopting an anti-racist and trauma-sensitive approach.

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