Senator celebrating World Social Work Day and a brand new book

Social justice champion Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard planning a social work-themed webinar and celebrating her just-released memoir, ‘A Child of East Preston’

CITYnews halifax \ Steve Gow

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Today is World Social Work Day and perhaps no one in Nova Scotia encapsulates the importance of the profession more than Halifax-based Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard.

“I certainly believe that social work is essential and I’ve certainly experienced that,” says the East Preston native and highly regarded national social justice champion. “I went into social work because I saw that as a platform that could help me achieve that vision of  social justice and social change.”

A well-respected social worker, educator, advocate and community activist, Bernard has been a professor at the Dalhousie School of Social Work since 1990, where she also served as director for a decade. She notes highlighting the efforts of social workers in Nova Scotia, as well as around the globe, is of particular importance in 2022.

“One of the things that I did when I first went to the Senate was I reached out to the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW) because I wanted to build strong links between what we were doing on Parliament Hill in terms of policy, development and so on with social work,” notes Bernard, adding that the past two years of challenges presented by COVID-19 have only impressed more of a need to recognize the importance of social work.

World Social Work Day will highlight the many facets of the professsion and aims to engage those networks and the communities in which they serve in order to promote the vital work of social workers.

To observe the special day, Bernard and the Senate of Canada have partnered with the CASW, as well as frontline social workers, to host a panel discussion regarding the critical role of the profession today. The online webinar will be available to view for free until March 16 at 1 p.m. AST.

“Part of what we’re trying to profile (is) the fact that social work is essential and has been essential,” adds Bernard, also a founding member of the Association of Black Social Workers. “Even more so during the pandemic.”

However, Bernard has not only been busy preparing for the webinar lately. In addition to her many duties as a six-year member of the Senate of Canada, the social justice pioneer has just released a new book in partnership with the Delmore “Buddy” Daye Learning Institute.

Entitled A Child of East Preston, the autobiographical account chronicles the senator’s early life growing up in the African Nova Scotian community and attempts to uncover what it was like to live in a segregated neighbourhood during the civil rights era.

“I do a lot of talks and presentations with young people, and inevitably they end up asking about my early life, and a lot of young people make assumptions about my early life,” says Bernard about the inspiration behind authoring A Child of East Preston.

“This book is primarily written for a young audience,” continues the senator. “Some of our young people are really struggling today. They see someone like myself in a position of relative privilege as a senator in this country and they want to imagine themselves there, but often they can’t see a path forward and so there’s often conversations about that.”

As a result, A Child of East Preston is a hopeful, inspiring story of resilience and success, and documents the significant impact the community had on Bernard’s triumphs in social justice and public service — all of which have earned the senator numerous awards and accomplishments, including the Order of Nova Scotia and the Order of Canada.

“Most people that see me today have no idea how my life has evolved over the years,” says Bernard. “I come from very humble, very poor conditions and impacted by a number of missteps, mistakes along the way, and part of what I wanted to do was to tell a fuller story about what it was like growing up in the 50s and 60s as a Black Nova Scotian.”

For more information on A Child of East Preston, visit the website.