From the Pen of the President: February 2026
- NASW-IL Staff
- 3 hours ago
- 4 min read
NASW-Illinois Chapter President LaTasha Roberson-Guifarro, MSW, LCSW
A social worker sits with a parent who arrived late, again. The child does not leave their side and keeps looking at the door, flinching when footsteps pass the hallway. When the social worker asks what made it hard to come in, the parent hesitates and then says, “They were outside our building last week.” No uniform description is offered. No agency name is said. It does not need to be. The parent explains that a neighbor was taken without warning or chance to gather belongings. Since then, the family has been keeping the lights low and the door locked during the day. The child has been asking what happens if someone knocks. That same week, a letter arrived about Medicaid redetermination. The parent does not understand the form, only that it came sooner than expected and that missing paperwork could mean losing coverage. The medication that helps the child stay regulated depends on it. The social worker pauses, aware that access to care now hinges on timing, documentation, and fear intersecting all at once. The visit ends and after the door closes, the social worker sits still for a moment, holding the weight of enforcement, access, safety, and responsibility together.
This is part of the reality social workers are navigating across Illinois. Families are changing how they move through the world. People are delaying care, disengaging from systems, or withdrawing entirely out of fear. Immigration enforcement continues to harm communities of color here and beyond our state, including devastating violence tied to racialized targeting in places like Minnesota. At the same time, a Medicaid rule change that goes into effect on February 1st is disrupting continuity of care for people who rely on it for behavioral health, primary care, and stability. These forces collide in the lives of the people we serve and in the ethical decisions social workers are asked to make every day.
As I ponder how we get through the moments, I recall to mind that March is Social Work Month, and this year’s theme of "Uplift, Defend, Transform" reflects exactly what social workers are being called to do in moments like this. These ideals show up in how we respond to fear, how we protect access, how we hold responsibility when systems strain, and how we continue to act with clarity when the conditions around us feel unstable—we have an anchor, and we just have to continue answering calls to action with resolve.
A live example of this occurred at the end of January 2026 when NASW Chief Executive Officer Dr. Anthony Estreet issued a call to action to the profession, naming the responsibility social workers carry in moments like this. The NASW-Illinois Chapter is answering through the leadership of our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Access, and Belonging (DEIAB) Committee. Later this month, the NASW-IL DEIAB is launching a new monthly campaign focused on courageous practice, collective responsibility, and ethical action grounded in our code of ethics. I invite you to engage with it as a way to stay connected to shared language, shared purpose, and shared action. If you are seeking additional ways to take in the world we live in and continue evolving your practice to uplift, defend, and transform, try one of these actions:
Build a benefits check into your assessment process and keep an updated referral list for SNAP employment and training, legal aid, and local food access partners.
Maintain warm handoff pathways to immigration legal support and trauma-informed counseling in environments where families are showing acute stress, reduced help seeking, and fear tied to enforcement tactics.
Know your continuum of care contacts and local coordinated entry process so transitions remain connected and humane.
Attend an event in your district to connect with other social workers in your community who are holding onto what matters and challenging what feels misaligned. Upcoming opportunities are available at: https://www.naswil.org/events.
Engage with the DEIAB monthly campaign and use the shared materials to support ethical, courageous practice where you work and live.
As I stated in my December "From the Pen of the President" article, we live inside the tension of what is and what ought to be. That tension remains with us. If you need a compass, hold the multiple truths in front of you, stand in that tension, challenge what diminishes dignity, and do the next right thing. The truths of what is may not be aligned with our values, but what we do and make of them can be.
LaTasha Roberson-Guifarro, LCSW, currently serves as vice president and chief operating officer at Lutheran Child & Family Services of Illinois, one of the state’s largest child welfare and adoption agencies, and where she also acts as privacy officer. In this role, she leads programming, data and information systems, and enterprise-wide initiatives that strengthen performance, expand impact, and drive outcomes. Recognized as a trusted voice in the field, LaTasha’s leadership extends nationally and statewide. She is a Council on Accreditation (COA) reviewer, co-chair of the Child Welfare Advisory Committee for Innovation, Technology, and Stakeholder Engagement (CWAC-ITASC), board member of the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation (IDFPR), vice chair of the Illinois Child Welfare Licensure Board, and president of the NASW-Illinois Chapter. She also serves on multiple advisory boards and committees dedicated to system transformation, child and family well-being, workforce stability, equity in race and LGBTQIA+ care, social justice, and innovation.