Our graduates go on to make significant change in their communities and can be found in schools, hospitals, correctional facilities, and agencies across Canada. We want to collaborate with our alumni and learn how we can better support them. Consider connecting with us!
Our alumni
About Helen Mann
In 1943, Helen Mann became the first lecturer hired at the University of Manitoba School of Social Work. Mann worked for the School for 31 years. Throughout her career, Mann made an enormous contribution to shaping the standards of social work practice in the Winnipeg community and across Canada. She also contributed to the development of social work in Canada and was renowned for the way in which she combined her skills as an educator and scholar with those of personal graciousness and sensitivity.
Mann’s wisdom and experience has had a profound effect on the Faculty of Social Work. In the Fall of 1992, the Faculty of Social Work created the Helen Mann 50th Anniversary Award to honour her memory. A Helen Mann award was also established to provide bursaries to students who are registered in fulltime studies in the BSW program at the William Norrie Centre or at Thompson, Manitoba, and who require financial assistance in order to continue their studies.
Honouring our community
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The Helen Mann 50th Anniversary Award
The Helen Mann 50th Anniversary Award recognizes a person or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to the social work profession and/or to the field of social work in Manitoba. The award is presented at our Homecoming events. Everyone is encouraged to nominate a social worker/activist or an organization.
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2024 Helen Mann 50th Anniversary Award Recipient:
Elder Billie SchiblerThe Helen Mann 50th Anniversary Award recipient will be honoured during our Homecoming 2024 reception in September.
Past award recipients
- Kathy Mallett (1993)
- Jeanette Block (1994)
- Margo Buck (1995)
- Pat Woolley (1996)
- Don Lugtig (1997)
- Elsie Flett (1998)
- Gisèle Saurette-Roch & Tom Simms (1999)
- Addie Penner (2000)
- Irma MacKay (2001)
- Maureen Kalloo (2002)
- Kenneth Martin (2003)
- Don Browne (2006)
- Bruce Unfried (2007)
- Sel Burrows (2008)
- Grand Chief Phil Fontaine (2009)
- Audrey Lumsden & Bert Crocker (2010)
- Jaime Carrasco & Martha Aviles (2011)
- Esther Blum & Colleen Waters (2012)
- Sister Jean Ell (2013)
- Sandra Loewen (2014)
- Clark Brownlee (2015)
- Yvonne Pompana (2016)
- Chuck Groening (2017)
- The Comité garderie de l’Association étudiante de l’Université de Saint-Boniface (2018)
- Jainna Cabral (2019)
- Lorna Hanson (2020)
- Lindsay Bacala (2021)
- Lynne Fineman (2022)
- Jill Taylor-Brown (2023)
Homecoming
Faculty of Social Work Homecoming Reception
Promoting Social Justice through Green Social Work
Join us for an engaging evening exploring the intersection of social justice and environmental sustainability through green social work. Evening will include greetings from the Honourable Tracy Schmidt, Minister of Environment and Climate Change, the Helen Mann 50th Anniversary Award presentation honouring Elder Billie Schibler and the Baird Poskanzer Memorial Guest Lecture Series with Dr. Susan Hillock.
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Baird Poskanzer Memorial Guest Lecture Series
"Greening Social Work"
Based on Hillock’s new edited collection, Greening Social Work Education (University of Toronto, 2024), this lecture aims to green social work by sharing recommendations about how educators/practitioners can best incorporate environmentalism and sustainability into their curricula/practice. To accomplish this, Hillock introduces the first-ever Red-Green Manifesto For Greening Social Work Education. Her manifesto summarizes the top ten things social work education needs to do to green itself asap.
This inspirational talk also provides a rationale about why this topic is important for the social work profession; useful ideas related to innovative theoretical approaches, analyses, and constructs; and practical suggestions about how to “green” social work education/practice, help social workers/educators gain confidence to transform their teaching/methods, and mobilize colleagues/students towards climate action/ justice/ leadership.
Mentoring our students
Are you interested in contributing to our students’ success working in the field? Our Field Education Program is always looking for field instructors and agencies. As part our undergraduate curriculum, students are required to gain field practicum experience in agencies across Canada and graduate.
If you are interested in becoming a field instructor, contact us.
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Fort Garry and Inner City Field Education Program
Karen McKim
Field Program coordinator
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Distance Delivery and Northern Field Education Program
Candielya Jackson
Distance Delivery Field Program Coordinator
candielya.jackson@umanitoba.ca
As we are an accredited program, Field Instructors must possess a BSW, MSW or RSW with a minimum of two years' experience.
Make a difference
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Thanks to your support, our students in financial needs are given opportunities to further their education and research through awards and bursaries. If you are interested in supporting Faculty of Social Work students, make a gift to social work fellowships and bursaries.
For specific funding opportunities, select “Social Work” under the fund search.
Guest Lectures
Dr. Peter Simcock
Topic: The Strength of Disability: Managing, Coping, Innovating and Contributing to Society
Recorded Presentation
About lecture
Disability research focused on needs, risks and vulnerabilities is important, but can also perpetuate negative stereotypes of disabled people as passive and dependent.
In this presentation, Dr. Peter Simcock explores the competence, capability, coping abilities and contributions of disabled people, illustrating this exploration with examples from his work in the field of deafblindness, particularly during the Covid19 pandemic.
Peter argues that highlighting the abilities and unique contributions of disabled people helps humanity as a whole to respond to life’s challenges.
About Distinguished Guest Lecturer
Dr. Peter Simcock is Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Birmingham City University, United Kingdom. He has an academic background in law, social work, and gerontology, and has worked in social work education for over ten years. Prior to his academic career, Peter was a social worker, working predominantly in the physical and sensory disability field. Widely published in the field of deafblindness, he is also co-author of the Polity published text ‘Social Work and Disability’ and more recently published a chapter on disability in the text ‘Human Rights and Social Justice. Key Issues and Vulnerable Populations’ edited by Prof. Carole Cox and Prof. Tina Maschi.
Dean Dr. Asher Ben-Arieh
Topic: What We Can Learn from Children and Why We Should Listen to Them
About Lecture:
On October 3rd, 2023, Dr. Ben-Arieh presented on the major shifts and changes in the study of children’s well being. He highlighted the need to incorporate subjective perceptions of children in any effort to understand their lives, and will present findings from the International Survey of Children’s Well-Being (ISCWeB), the biggest ever survey of children. In this study, they collected representative data on children’s lives, daily activities, perceptions, and evaluations of their lives in as many countries as possible. During the last decade, they conducted the study in more than 50 countries and asked more than 250,000 children about their lives. Special emphasis will be given to the implication of this new knowledge to child welfare, health, and social services.
About Dr. Asher Ben-Arieh:
Specializing in children's rights and child welfare, Dr. Ben-Arieh is a professor and Haruv Chair for the study of Child Maltreatment at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is also the Dean of the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare and Director of the Haruv Institute in Jerusalem. He served for 20 years as the Associate Director of Israel’s National Council for the Child. Since 1990 and until 2011 he has been the founding Editor-in-Chief of the annual “State of the Child in Israel”.
Dr. Ben-Arieh has published extensively on children’s well-being, child maltreatment and indicators of children well being. Dr. Ben-Arieh is the founding Editor-in-Chief of the Child Indicators Research journal (CIR) and the Child Well Being: Indicators and research book series. Dr. Ben-Arieh is one of the leading international experts on social indicators, particularly as they relate to child well-being. He initiated and coordinated the International Project “Measuring and Monitoring Children Well-Being”, was among the founding members of the International Society for Children Indicators (ISCI) and elected to be its first co-chair. Currently, he is one of the PI’s of the multi-national, multi-million International Study of Children’s Well-being (ISCWeB) research project.
Ongoing projects and events
PCWC Conference
Prairie Child Welfare Consortium (PCWC) hosted their 12th biennial conference on June 12-14, 2024, in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
The PCWC is a unique tri-provincial and northern, multi-sector and cross-cultural child welfare network in Canada. Partners include the prairie based social work programs, provincial ministries, and community agencies. Our goal is to build capacity, at the different levels of all systems that support children, families, and communities in the Prairie Provinces, while ensuring respect for needs for engagement of First Nations and Metis Communities in the delivery of child welfare services.
National Forum on Education Equity for Children & Youth in Care
Child welfare and education professionals are independently and universally mandated to work in the best interests of children. Yet, despite the fact that collaboration is unequivocally endorsed as “best practice” for working with youth (Darlington & Feeney, 2008, p. 195), it has not yet emerged as an intuitive approach to practice for educators and child welfare workers, nor is it instituted in policies, practices, and structures. Given that both professions share collective responsibility for children in care, facilitating an inter-professional focus and dialogue around the needs of children in care can highlight a greater understanding of the value of working collaboratively, with a view toward improving children’s educational experiences.
The objective of this national forum is to bring together an inter-professional group of researchers, academics, and practicing practitioners to highlight current research and works in progress on the policy, practices, and programs related to educational experiences and outcomes of children in care of child welfare systems.
Please visit equityforkidsincare.net for more information and to register.
Twitter: twitter.com/EduEquityKids
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Strangers in New Homelands Conference
Conference chair: Dr. Michael Baffoe
This conference has run through very critical times in world migration history: the unprecedented displacement and movements of people from their homes into other countries, especially to Europe seeking safety as well as better life conditions.
This year marks the 13th edition of the Strangers in New Homelands Conference and focuses on the challenges and opportunities in world migration and settlement in the continuous era of global conflicts and post-COVID-19 global pandemic.
Presentations and workshops examine how migrants interact with potential oppressions and markers of identity such as race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status, age, religion, language, and socioeconomic status.
Contact us
Faculty of Social Work
Room 521 Tier Building
173 Dafoe Rd. W
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 Canada
204-474-7050
204-474-7594