From the Pen of the President: June 2026
- NASW-IL Staff
- Jun 1
- 4 min read
NASW-Illinois Chapter President LaTasha Roberson-Guifarro, MSW, LCSW
Busy has become deeply ingrained in social work.
Many of us learned early how to carry multiple realities at once. We respond to urgent needs, shifting systems, competing priorities, hard decisions, documentation, advocacy, crises, and the emotional weight that often follows all of it. We become highly skilled at adapting because the work requires it. We move quickly and stretch because people are depending on us.
Because social workers care deeply and understand the stakes so personally and professionally, carrying more can begin to feel normal. Expected. Even necessary. Over time, busyness can begin to feel connected to contribution. It can feel like proof of commitment and become so embedded in the culture of helping that many people stop questioning the pace entirely.
Social workers are often asked to hold extraordinary complexity while staying responsive, grounded, ethical, and effective. Entire communities and systems continue moving because social workers keep finding ways to absorb more, adapt more, and carry more. There is something deeply admirable in that. There is also a cost. People can spend years proving they can carry everything while losing connection to what they actually want to carry.
I have thought about that often in this profession. Many thoughtful, values driven, deeply capable people spend disproportionate amounts of energy maintaining what is urgent while the work they most hoped to influence slowly gets pushed further out of reach. It becomes easy for usefulness to become identity. Important work and meaningful work can begin carrying the same internal weight because everything feels urgent and someone always needs something.
Too often, deeply committed social workers spend so much time maintaining what is urgent that there is little room left to shape the work they most hoped to move forward. It can become difficult to hear ourselves clearly inside all of that motion. Social workers understand what happens when support does not arrive. We understand instability. Harm. Systems breaking down. The human cost of unmet needs. Which is part of why almost everything can feel worthy of our attention. Much of it is.
Still, there are moments when care has to become movement. Moments when we ask ourselves what matters enough that we are willing to invest our voice, leadership, time, and energy and stay connected to it long enough to help shape what comes next. There is something deeply energizing about that kind of work. To see something you care about begin taking shape, build alongside others and feel your effort connected to something meaningful enough to keep showing up for. That kind of investment can restore us too and remind us why this work matters in the first place.
Some of the most impactful social workers I have known were not connected to everything. They were deeply connected to something. A population. A community. A policy issue. A part of the profession they felt compelled to strengthen. Their labor carried direction because they were intentional about what they wanted to shape and what they hoped to leave behind.
That feels especially important as I think about the NASW-Illinois Chapter and the work ahead. Across our chapter, we currently have committee opportunities. Those roles help shape advocacy, ethics, social justice, professional development, leadership, and the future direction of our work together. More importantly, they create opportunities to invest in something you care enough about to help strengthen over time. Before considering whether to step into one, I invite you to ask: What do I care enough about to stay connected to over time? Where do I want my voice and leadership to help create momentum? What part of this profession do I feel ready to strengthen, challenge, or help shape with others? If something rises for you as you reflect, trust it. Follow it. The work that keeps calling your care and your energy may be pointing you toward where your leadership can have meaningful impact in this season.
The future of this profession will continue being shaped by social workers who invest intentionally in the work they care enough about to build, protect, and influence over time. Social work will continue asking much of all of us. My hope is that while we continue meeting the urgency around us, we also stay connected to the work we care deeply about to shape and protect enough space to sustain that commitment over time.
As the season shifts, I hope you make room to breathe, reconnect, and pay attention to what keeps calling your care and your energy. That may be exactly where your next meaningful step belongs.
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.