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Visit our YouTube channel to view recent talks on leadership in social work

Enhancing the leadership of our students and faculty is one of the pillar’s of FIFSW’s “Advancement Alignment Priorities: FIFSW at the Forefront of Social Impact.” With this in mind, two lectures, presented online this fall address how social workers and social work students can build their leadership capacity in an effort to lead social change.


Setting Leaders Apart: The Big 8 Capabilities

On September 9, Rose M. Patten, Chancellor of the University of Toronto addressed Master of Social Work students. Her lecture, Setting Leaders Apart: The Big 8 Capabilities, was open to all. Patten is a renowned leader, well known from her 30-year career as a senior leader in the Canadian financial services industry. Currently she is Special Advisor to the CEO and Senior Executives at BMO Financial Group. In 2009 the University of Toronto awarded Rose Patten the degree Doctor of Laws, honoris causa, for her leadership as a role model for women executives in Canadian banking, for her community volunteerism and for her service to the University.


Leading Social Change: Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship in Social Work

In October the Factor-Inwentash Faculty’s Alumni Association invited Associate Professor Micheal Shier to present the first public lecture in it’s 2020-2021 Alumni series. Shier’s lecture, Leading Social Change: Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship in Social Work, addressed how social workers can not only advocate for change, but lead it. Shier is the Coordinator for Human Services Management and Leadership field of study in the Master of Social Work program at FIFSW. His research focuses on the mechanisms and conditions that support social innovation and social entrepreneurship within the nonprofit and voluntary sector. He also works extensively with nonprofit human service organizations to develop and implement models of evaluation that support the identification and implementation of social innovation efforts.


Upcoming events

On November 12, the Ontario Association of Social Workers (OASW) and its School Social Work Advisory Group (SSWAG) presents the 33rd Annual School Social Work Symposium: Courageous Conversations About  Anti-Black Racism.

Date: November 12, 2020
Time: 9:30 AM – 3:00 PM
Location: Virtual platform

Keynote Address by Kike Ojo-Thompson , 10:00 – 11:30pm 

At 1:00pm, The Factor-Inwentash Faculty is proud to sponsor the panel discussion: From Conversation to Action: Tangible ways to dismantle anti-Black racism in our schools and engage in transformative change at the individual, school and board levels. Dexter Voisin, Dean of FIFSW is one of the featured panelists.