From the Pen of the President: October 2026
NASW-Illinois Chapter President LaTasha Roberson-Guifarro, MSW, LCSW
Social workers often have the privilege and responsibility of seeing around corners. Our proximity to people, communities, systems, and policy gives us an extraordinary field of vision. We hear what families are experiencing while decisions are still unfolding and often recognize where pressure will land before its full impact is visible. That knowledge gives us time, and what we do with that time can change how prepared someone is for what comes next.
Here in Illinois, significant Medicaid changes are unfolding, with more ahead. Federal eligibility changes take effect October 1st for some Medicaid recipients. Beginning January 1, 2027, new federal work requirements and six month redeterminations also take effect, with their impact reaching people throughout the year based on individual renewal dates. One change is reaching people now, and another gives us valuable time to help people understand and prepare for what is coming. You may be wondering why Medicaid has surfaced in several of my past "From the Pen of the President" articles, and it is with good reason. Medicaid currently covers roughly one in four Illinoisans, and Illinois estimates that 270,000 to 500,000 residents could lose coverage from the new federal work requirements alone. The scale and potential impact are monumental and deserve our sustained attention. As implementation continues to unfold, I intend to keep paying attention, sharing what we know, and helping our profession understand and prepare for what these changes mean in real lives.
Our NASW-Illinois Chapter Ethics Committee (NASW-IL EC) is also bringing its expertise to this moment, preparing guidance that grounds these Medicaid changes in our professional responsibilities and considers how social workers can respond across practice. Their recent statement connects the immediate realities of eligibility, continuity of care, and administrative barriers with our ethical commitments to client well being, social justice, dignity and worth, and equitable access to resources. Illinois HFS has also developed fact sheets, customer guidance, multilingual materials, and other resources to help people navigate these changes, giving us practical information we can begin putting to use now.
We experienced what this kind of foresight can look like within our own chapter in September. After a year marked by aggressive enforcement tactics, documented harm, concerns about violations of people’s rights, and communities carrying the fear and destabilization that followed, ICE announced that it had acquired enough body worn cameras to equip its officers and agents. Training and implementation were still underway, creating an important opening to consider how this capability could contribute to greater visibility and accountability. Our NASW-IL Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility, and Belonging (DEIAB) Committee used what social workers and communities had already experienced to look forward. The resulting statement on ICE accountability called for greater transparency and safeguards around camera use while centering people’s rights, dignity, support, and healing. The opportunity is to help shape the conditions surrounding their use so that greater visibility can contribute to accountability and reduced harm.
There is care in helping people prepare, and there is responsibility in using what people have already experienced to inform what comes next. Our relationships keep us close to how systems are experienced in real lives, giving us insight that can help people navigate change and influence the conditions surrounding it. What do you know today that someone you serve may need to understand tomorrow? Information becomes powerful when people can understand it, trust it, and use it in time. Foresight creates room to prepare for consequential change, recognize an opportunity worth seizing, and carry what experience has taught us into decisions that are still taking shape.
Later this month, we will have yet another opportunity to widen our field of vision when we gather for our 2026 NASW Chapters Virtual Conference: Strength in Action: How We Uplift, Defend, & Transform, on October 28 and 29, alongside social workers from Missouri and Nevada. That is the strength in action I want us to continue building: knowledge connected to purpose and carried far enough to become useful. What social workers know is shaped by where we stand and by the people who trust us enough to let us close. I want us to honor that trust by using what we know with intention, helping people prepare for what is coming, and recognizing the opportunities we have to shape what comes next.
Thank you for continuing to lean into your foresight, preparedness and action. I look forward to connecting with many of you throughout the events happening across Illinois this October and closing out the month together at our Strength in Action conference.
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.
