“I wanted to see the field grow.” Joan Aaron shares what inspires her to support social work education and programs
Categories: Alumni + Friends, PartnersIn recognition of U of T Giving Day, we bring you a story on Joan Aaron, one of the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work’s dedicated supporters. Learn what inspires her to give back to the Faculty as a donor and volunteer.
Donations up to $1,000 made between now and March 26 will be matched by the University, while matching funds last.
Looking back now, Joan Aaron (BSW 1960, MSW 1962) realizes that she had a natural inclination towards social work before she’d even heard of the profession.
“Growing up, I didn’t know anyone who needed a social worker or was a social worker, but I was always trying to help kids who were having trouble at home or struggling in some way,” she says. “So when I learned about the job and went to the School of Social Work at U of T, the ideas and theories I encountered there all just made sense to me. Ever since then, being a social worker has been such a big part of who I am.”
To Aaron, living that identity meant not just building a successful career in child welfare, but supporting the Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW) with time, expertise and financial contributions.
Much of her career was with the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto, where she held multiple positions focused on foster care placement, foster parent support and adoption issues. “I worked in every department over the years and wrote several practice manuals,” says Aaron.
Even as a young professional, she supervised U of T social work students in their field placements, an experience she credits with expanding her own knowledge. “I loved going out to visit students at the different child welfare agencies, seeing what the agencies were doing and learning from them,” says Aaron. “The courses on supervision that I took at U of T brought supervisors together to share our ideas and allowed me to meet so many people in the field that I wouldn’t otherwise have known.”
She also found the interaction with students to be personally rewarding. “I love working with young people and feeling their enthusiasm,” says Aaron. “It keeps you young, because they’re often the most energetic and passionate about social work.” (Learn more about the benefits of becoming a field instructor via FIFSW’s website.)
As her career progressed, she often thought about donating to social work at U of T, but two things held her back: she thought she had to have a very large sum to give, and, even if she did, she couldn’t settle on where she would apply her gift. “When I found out that the university matches many donations, it clinched my decision,” says Aaron.
Then she learned that she could target her gift – made with her husband Bernard – to any area that held special meaning for her. “By that time in my life, many of my family members and friends were aging and having trouble finding support,” says Aaron. “I became interested in gerontology, so I decided to create a scholarship for graduate students specializing in that area. I wanted to see the field grow.” Hearing from the scholarship recipients about their research and meeting some at a special donor event were highlights of this experience, according to Aaron.
The Aarons most recent gift to FIFSW went towards an innovative program that benefits both social work students and older adults. “Talk It Out, Work It Out” at Jane/Finch Centre — a joint initiative with U of T’s Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and community partners — combines in-person physical activity with group discussions facilitated by MSW students on various mental health topics. The program is part of the Talk It Out Clinic created during the pandemic by Professor Lin Fang of FIFSW to provide free, culturally responsive mental health services to groups with heightened mental health needs. Being able to draw on the wealth and experience of FIFSW’s alumni, including Aaron, proved valuable as the program evolved from a burgeoning idea to a fully realized, community-engaged offering.
“What made this donation so special was that Lin consulted with me about how to develop the program to best serve seniors, and she implemented my advice,” says Aaron. “It meant everything to me to be involved, to have her keep in touch with me about the progress and then to see the astounding success of it.”
Aaron expresses pride in the Talk it Out program specifically, but also in her alma mater more generally. “The faculty’s research covers such a wide variety of topics, and their impact on the community is so impressive,” she says. “They let me be a partner, not just a donor, and that made all the difference.”
By Megan Easton
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