The Association for Specialists in Group Work (ASGW) joins with ACA and other Divisions to acknowledge the latest events tearing at the fragile tapestry of our national community. In the events of the last year and the explosion of this new year of 2021, we have seen the constructive power of groups to build alliances, promote healing, and bring about change. We have also seen the destructive capacities of groups. Groupthink is real, as is the facility of people to band together to tear down and engage in violence. As group workers, we must respect the power of groups and treat it with the care, responsibility, and accountability it requires to serve people to do better, be better, and nurture compassion with each other. Anything else that links people in furious destruction or dismissal is annihilating to the human spirit and a profound refusal to acknowledge our common shared humanity. Let us work together to intentionally use groups to transform hate, facilitate courageous conversations, and enhance community building.
Devika Dibya Choudhuri, 2020-2021 ASGW President