An informal social gathering to meet IASWG leaders and socialize with other members. Please be sure to join us by 7:45am ET for important information about what to expect and how to navigate the platform

Group work during prolonged political violence and collective stress places facilitators within the same reality as participants, raising methodological and ethical questions about neutrality, positionality, and moral responsibility. This experiential learning presentation will provide hands-on tools for creating flexible, humanizing spaces that hold complex emotions, resist black-and-white thinking, and balance respite with action. It will also highlight ways to use radical self-care, supervision, boundaries, creativity, and reflective practice as essential supports for facilitators seeking to sustain effective group work within difficult social and political realities.

Discover how an international, interdisciplinary placement model turns group work into real change for at-risk primary school learners in South Africa. This session unpacks Khula Development Group's STERK programme — an eight-session journey through Self, Future, Emotions, Respect, and Choices — showing how mutual aid, cultural humility, and cross-cultural partnership between UK and South African universities build resilience where it's needed most.

The best conversations happen when great minds come together. Join IASWG’s Membership Committee during the 15-minute breaks and transform a quick pause into a professional networking opportunity. Here you will be able to exchange ideas, discover new collaborations, or simply meet peers from around the globe.

By the end of this presentation, participants will be able to identify cultural traditions, describe how to use 'dichos'. proverbs, and sociodrama for grief, loss and disaster trauma care, and explain post-traumatic growth models applied to Puerto Rico, Nicaragua and other Latino/Latine social contexts.

Discover how Photovoice can transform social work education by fostering critical reflection, collaboration, and student engagement. This interactive workshop introduces the foundations of Photovoice, offers a hands-on group photo analysis exercise, and practical examples for teaching and practice. Participants will leave with concrete ideas for integrating participatory visual methods and group work into their own educational or professional settings.

Together, we will explore the IASWG Standards and how they can be used in guiding and promoting effective and ethical work with groups in practice, education and research. Our primary purpose is to assist workshop participants in gaining understanding and applicable skills to expand group work competence to meet needs and enhance the lives of members.

The best conversations happen when great minds come together. Join IASWG’s Membership Committee during the 15-minute breaks and transform a quick pause into a professional networking opportunity. Here you will be able to exchange ideas, discover new collaborations, or simply meet peers from around the globe.

This panel presents three examples of ecosocial group and community work addressing energy poverty in Puerto Rico, Nigeria, and Slovenia, highlighting varying degrees of non-state solutions. Panelists will share how mutual aid, community participation, local knowledge, and collective action are being used to address energy poverty within their respective contexts. Through these examples, participants will gain a deeper understanding of the importance of ecosocial work for group work and social work as a whole.

As part of our one-day virtual professional conference, all attendees are warmly invited to join the Membership Committee's interactive networking experience. Through guided interactions and conversation prompts, attendees will have the opportunity to share experiences, discover common interests, and establish new connections that can extend well beyond the conference itself. Don't miss this chance to connect, collaborate, and become an active part of our professional community. Come for the networking, stay for the connections, and leave with a stronger professional community.

How can group work strengthen communities beyond traditional practice? This workshop examines how group work provides the skills needed for political engagement, community organizing, and local leadership. Participants will explore a practical framework for integrating political social work into practice while promoting community resilience through collaboration and collective action.

This presentation will focus on the creation of a self-managed running group whose goal is to promote the social inclusion of people with visual impairments. This open group brings together both people with and without visual impairments. Running, as a unifying activity, fosters dynamics of mutual support, thereby promoting positive change among all participants and, on a broader scale, within the community.

Join this interactive Namibia–Nigeria dialogue examining how Ubuntu-informed group processes support mutual aid, collective resilience, and social change. Drawing on community responses to recurring fire disasters in Namibia’s Erongo Region and participatory development initiatives in Nigeria, the workshop explores how groups cultivate solidarity, shared leadership, and collective agency. Participants will also reflect on power, inclusion, and the social worker’s role in strengthening community-driven capacities while preserving local ownership.

The best conversations happen when great minds come together. Join IASWG’s Membership Committee during the 15-minute breaks and transform a quick pause into a professional networking opportunity. Here you will be able to exchange ideas, discover new collaborations, or simply meet peers from around the globe.

Social workers spend an inordinate amount of time in meetings, which are often frustrating, ineffective or a waste of time. Using a group work lens, this workshop identifies practical strategies for facilitating and participating in productive meetings. Topics covered include: strengths and limitations of meetings, structuring a meeting, engaging participants, addressing conflict, agendas, minutes, and the group work concepts of contracting, mutual aid, and clarity of purpose. Come and enhance the effectiveness of your meetings!

This panel explores innovative groupwork approaches that engage men of color through movement, mutual aid, and culturally responsive practice. Drawing on running/walking groups, movement-based resilience programming, and trauma-informed men's circles, presenters will demonstrate how embodied interventions can foster emotional literacy, strengthen peer support, reduce barriers to help-seeking, and promote healing, connection, and resilience across diverse communities of men.

Please join us for a closing activity to wrap up the day together and learn more about what IASWG has to offer in the coming months!