IX th Kerala Social Work Congress and National Conference was organized by Kerala Association of Professional Social Workers and Dept. of Social Work, BharatMatha College, Thrikkakkara, Ernakulam at Bharata Mata College, Thrikkakara on 19-20 Oct 2024. The programme was inaugurated by the Law and Industries Minister Adv.P.Rajeev by lighting the lamp. The inaugural session was presided over by Dr.Cherian P Kurien, President KAPS. Many other dignitaries from social work field and state office bearers, district chapter office bearers, faculties/practitioners and students of 420 participated in the first day Programme. The second day program was online mode and academic /research papers were presented on following main
Theme of the Programme: ‘Social Work Practice in Disaster Preparedness, Response, and Recovery’. The sessions were handled by experts in the field and eminent speakers.
The following Sub Themes were the content of the symposium and workshops held as part of the conference
1.Climate change and green Social Work
2. Disaster Preparedness and resilience
3. Use of technology and innovation in disaster response
4 Social work practice at natural calamity affected areas -micro,mezzo and macro levels
5. Disaster impact on families , children and communities and successful models of interventions.
6 Community driven models in disaster Management
7 Post disaster rehabilitation of diverse groups for a shared future .
8. Successful disaster Management interventions in Kerala etc
The conference is evaluated as one of the best one organised by KAPS in recent times because of good number of participants, the content of the discussions and the co- ordination of different activities together.
Best Professional Social Work awards namely Gurusreshta (Fr. Jose ALex), Karmasreshta (Abraham O P and Mr.Reni Jacob) and Yuvasreshta (Dr. Jobi Babu – Marian College, Ms. Vrindadas- Thrissur and Mr. Sreeraj Kuruvat- Kasargod) were presented and they were honoured for their meritorious services to humanity by way of teaching and social work practice.
