CSWE-APM Giveaway Page!

The Wood’s Homes Stampede Breakfast is a Calgary tradition.  Literally thousands of kids and their parents start lining up early in the morning and there’s a great air of anticipation along with the intoxicating smell of frying pancakes. Wood’s puts on a great breakfast with tons of fun activities including the Faculty of Social Work tent. There’s usually a prize wheel and a selection of assorted university swag including the ubiquitous cowbells and other typical swag offerings.

Problem was there wasn’t a lot for the kids. “I always felt bad handing out swag that was kind of boring to kids,” admits Don McSwiney, the communications and marketing director for the faculty. “They were so excited to spin the wheel, then their faces would kind of drop when I handed them a book of post-it notes. So, after the last breakfast I decided to do something different.”

In chatting with the children and their parents, McSwiney said he heard a couple of consistent questions: what do social workers actually do anyway? And, more fundamentally, what is social work. Some of the children who attend the breakfast are in contact with social workers or have friends who do. 

“The goal,” says McSwiney, “was to create something that was fun, and could explain a little bit about what social workers do as well as how important social work and social workers often are to families.”

The result was a colouring book, entitled Everyone is Special focuses on social work as a helping profession, touching on counseling, community building and advocacy. The big question was who would illustrate the book?

McSwiney turned to the Alberta University of the Arts, who he knew had an illustration class that focused on children’s book illustration. The students were allowed to choose a page from the book to illustrate, and professor Mike Kerr who teaches illustration at AUA says the exercise was also beneficial for the students.

“Our students are often focused on fictional creative works. As immersive as these can be, students return to their own world and lived experiences. I suspect that many of those experiences relate, at least in some small degree, to the subjects explored in the colouring book project,” says Kerr. “Freud said a creative is "one who dreams in broad daylight," and that creative works can reflect and reconcile uncomfortable ideas. This project was a great opportunity for the students to explore this concept and bridge the gap between phantasy and lives lived. It gave them a glimpse of how their imaginative works could not only reflect the real world but also have real impact on that world.”

The book has been a hit with the children it was designed for, as well as with social workers who often can use a little colouring therapy as self-care.

“We brought a couple of boxes of our colouring books to the Council on Social Work Education conference in Orlando last year,” says McSwiney, “and we were blown away by the response. We went through every book we had on the first afternoon and had to have another 1,000 printed.”

The book has proved so popular that the faculty is looking to provide copies to any family or children-serving agencies who might like to have some. If you’d like one, you can usually find a box or two where ever the faculty shows up to do public outreach. You can also email don.mcswiney@ucalgary.ca.

“One thing I’ve noticed,” admits McSwiney, “is that social workers rarely colour within the lines – but I guess that’s not surprising!”