Exchange on the Future of Social Work

Strong together: exchange & networking as part of the World Social Work Day 2025

On March 18, 2025, the MCI Department of Social Work celebrated the international World Social Work Day together with the obds (Austrian Professional Association of Social Work). This year's motto was “Strengthening Intergenerational Solidarity for Enduring Wellbeing”.

The obds-Tirol used the framework of the World Social Work Day (WSWD) in the evening for a joint “get-together”, i.e. for an informal exchange for collegial networking and the sharing of ideas and impulses between social workers and social pedagogues from practice, training & teaching and science & research. A wide variety of topics and current challenges in the Tyrolean social landscape were discussed from the different perspectives of the profession. In addition, ideas for the future direction of the professional association's work in Tyrol were discussed and follow-up meetings were planned in the form of informal evening meetings.

Moritz Reisberger, research & teaching assistant at the MCI Department of Social Work, attended the meeting on behalf of the program and was accompanied by several bachelor's and master's students of Social Work.

A special highlight for the students was the opportunity to exchange ideas directly with representatives from Tyrolean Social Work practice and to gain insights into the historical interweaving of Social Work and social pedagogy in the province.

The Department of Social Work welcomes the activities of the Professional Association of Social Work in Tyrol as a professional stimulus for disciplinary diversity. The 'get-together' of the obds-Tyrol as part of the WSWD was a complete success and the follow-up meetings offer a suitably informal framework to further strengthen the networking of all those involved in the profession and discipline of Social Work in Tyrol and to become active together under the umbrella of the professional association in the future.