CELEBRATING OUR COMMUNITY We are proud and gratified to recognize the contributions of social workers in our province every year! We gathered this fall to honour our award winning social workers and committed community allies, as well as our amazing volunteers, committee chairs, and all of the dedicated social workers in Nova Scotia who contribute to our profession and enable us to advance our mission. Our guest speaker at this year’s virtual awards gala was Robert Wright, RSW, who spoke passionately about embracing the dynamic tension between professionalism and activism.
CASW Distinguished Service Award Jim Morton has been contributing to service delivery in the public and private sectors as a clinician, administrator and consultant for almost five decades. Those who know him soon learn of his commitment to the idea that no individual human being can be understood apart from their connections to family and community and that the world’s abundance must be shared fairly amongst all of us. Jim is deeply grateful for his membership in the social work community and for the guidance, support, collegiality and friendships he has been privileged to enjoy since joining the Nova Scotia Association of Social Workers in 1975.
JIM MORTON
Three priorities guide Jim’s life: family (his own and family systems theory); literature (what would life be like without Middlemarch, Under the Net or My Antonia?); and politics, where canvassing a neighbourhood, making a fundraising call or organizing an NDP election campaign are his effort to build social work values and an end to poverty into legislation. The words of J.S. Woodsworth’s (one of the first social work educators in Canada) inspire Jim’s thinking about our profession and politics: “We are thankful for these and all the good things of life. We recognize that they are a part of our common heritage and come to us through the efforts of our brothers and sisters the world over. What we desire for ourselves, we wish for all. To this end may we take our share in the world’s work and the world’s struggles.”
14 Connection | Fall 2022