World Social Work Day 2026: Joining the Conversation on Hope, Harmony, and Shared Responsibility
- Michael Elwan
- Feb 21
- 2 min read
On 17 March 2026, I will be joining a national panel for World Social Work Day 2026, hosted by the Australian Association of Social Workers. The panel brings together the 2025 National Excellence Award recipients to explore this year’s theme:
Co-Building Hope and Harmony: A Harambee Call to Unite a Divded Society.
Chaired by Wilma Peters, the discussion will include fellow award recipients Lisa White and Yaleela Torrens. Each of us brings different practice contexts, lived and professional perspectives, and ways of understanding what it means to support people and communities in increasingly complex environments.
Why this conversation matters now
This year’s theme draws from the African philosophy of Harambee, meaning “all pull together”. It speaks to unity, mutual support, and shared responsibility.
For those of us working in social work, mental health, disability, and community services, this is not abstract language. We are navigating:
rising complexity of need
workforce strain and moral distress
systems stretched beyond design
communities negotiating belonging and exclusion
increasing pressure to do more with less
The question is no longer whether division exists. It does.
The question is how we practice in ways that build connection rather than deepen fracture.
What I will be bringing to the panel
My contribution will draw on three interwoven lenses:
Practice reality: Working alongside individuals, families, and practitioners navigating systems that can both support and overwhelm.
Lived and living experience: Understanding how stigma, migration, caregiving, grief, and silence shape how people engage with care.
Systems perspective: My research and advisory work examining how organisations can better support lived/living experience leadership and build cultures that hold, rather than harm.
Together, these perspectives point toward one consistent truth: sustainable care is collective work.
Beyond service delivery: co-building responses
Co-building moves us beyond consultation toward shared authorship. It invites us to ask:
Who defines the problem?
Who holds decision-making power?
Who carries the burden of implementation?
Who benefits from the outcome?
These questions sit at the heart of ethical practice and sustainable systems.
Why World Social Work Day still matters
World Social Work Day offers more than recognition of a profession. It provides a pause point; a moment to reflect on how we practice within systems under pressure and communities experiencing fracture.
Hope is not sentiment. It is enacted through small decisions that build trust.
Harmony does not mean agreement. It means remaining in relationship while holding difference.
Harambee reminds us that the work was never meant to be carried alone.
If you work in social work, mental health, community services, or policy, I hope you will join the conversation.
You can register for this free event here:
On 17 March, we pull together.
Based in Perth, WA, LEXs provides telehealth counselling across Australia for individuals, couples, and NDIS participants. Services extend to Social Work supervision, Peer Work supervision, training, and keynote speaking on men’s mental health, CaLD community wellbeing, and culturally responsive suicide prevention; helping people and organisations make mental-health care more compassionate, inclusive, and effective. LEXs provides services across Australia, supporting clients in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, and beyond. To learn more about our work across Australia, visit LEXs' services
