Southwest Pennsylvania NASW Pioneers.

In 1994, The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) officially established the Pioneer Program in order to recognize social workers who have made significant contributions to the profession. Two years later, the Southwest Pennsylvania chapter of the NASW Pioneers formed with the intent of documenting the history of social work in this region as well as providing a sense of connection between generations of those in the field. To this end, Barbara K. Shore, Ph.D., formed a committee in 1999 to record the oral histories of retired social workers. The committee chose to focus on the development of social work in a number of different contexts, including health and family agencies, schools, services to the poor and aging, Jewish agencies, unions and community organizations and group work agencies serving Pittsburgh's Hill district. Names of the potential participants were obtained from the Pennsylvania chapter of the NASW. Those interviewed are professionals who graduated with social work degrees prior to 1950. The Southwest Pennsylvania Pioneers created a form in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh's School of Social Work to be used during the interview. In order to guarantee the resulting information could be used for research and publication, the interviewees were asked to sign permission forms. For accuracy's sake, a number of interviews were recorded to tape. The interviewers then wrote summaries of the conversations and sent them to the interviewees for their review and approval.

From the description of Records of the Southwest Pennsylvania NASW Pioneers Oral History Project, 1998-2006. (University of Pittsburgh). WorldCat record id: 173691951