The Australian Council of Professions (ACoP) welcomes as a new Professional Association Member the Australian Community Workers Association (ACWA) – the professional body that supports Australia’s community work practitioners, which is also celebrating its 50-year anniversary.
ACWA joins the peak Professional body that includes many of Australia’s critical Professions including engineers, accountants, psychologists, nurses, midwives, management consultants, health information managers and pharmacologists.
Australian Council of Professions President, Associate Professor Klaus Veil, said ACoP is pleased to welcome the ACWA and looks forward to ACWA contributing to the important work of the Council. “In the world of service-orientation and “Industry 4.0” we are excited to have the national body for community workers join our Membership. The Australian Community Workers Association adds a new dimension to our thought leadership conversation in the key policy areas of Education, Professionalism, Diversity and Ethics. We congratulate ACWA on its 50 years of leadership,” said Professor Veil.
ACWA CEO, Ms Sha Cordingley, said that joining the Council was “the first step in our 50th-anniversary celebrations that will focus on bringing public awareness to the specific work of community work practitioners”. Further Ms Cordingley said, “It’s the final step of a fifty-year process that has seen community work emerge as a recognisable community of practice, a Profession, distinct from social work or personal care work. Australian community work practitioners care about the public good and the welfare of others. Their quiet efforts deserve our acknowledgment. Joining the Council is our way of letting community workers, their clients, families, employers, policy-makers and the public know that they are recognised as skilled and valued Professionals.”
ACWA was formed in November 1969 as a professional group distinct from social work. The organisation is running a year-long awareness campaign to help Australians appreciate and understand the work of ACWA members.
Welcome ACWA to the Australian Council of Professions!