The Association of Student Social Workers (ASSW), is a student organization at UW-Eau Claire that focuses on social justice and giving back to the Eau Claire community.
Meetings take place once a month in HSS 177 from 12-1 pm and are open to any university students of any major. While many members have a social work major, it is not required. The club is open to anyone who holds values of service, compassion and empowerment.
As the organization is very service-based, they hold events throughout the semester focused on fundraising. Three ways the organization has given back this past semester were their plant sale fundraiser, menstrual products donation drive and a donation to the Boys and Girls Club located in downtown Eau Claire.
Many of the fundraiser ideas are brought by members of the community directly reaching out or by members of the organization that have connections to community programs and see a need for service.
Sydney Raway, a third-year social work major who is the club’s current vice-president and next year’s president, said how the plant drive collects the plants that are sold for the fundraiser.
“This is our second year running the plant sale, so we got donations of plants from faculty, staff, and students, and also the Eau Claire community in general,” Raway said. “And then, we took those and propagated them to sell more of them. Then we raised money for our menstruation product drive,” Raway said.
The menstruation product drive was one of the ASSW’s most successful efforts this past year.
Kayla Klippen, a fourth-year social work student the club’s current president, explained their experience with this effort.
“We just finished our menstrual product drive where we raised over, I think about thousand dollars … We were able to donate them to over 10 places in our community,” said Klippen.
The menstrual product drive was stated to be both Klippen’s and Raway’s favorite fundraisers of the year.
As a whole, the organization tries to serve the community.
“We focus specifically on overnight shelters, schools and places that are really in need,” Raway said. “Especially because a lot of them have had a lot of their funding cut. So we are trying to fill in the gaps where they really need our support now and be able to donate stuff for them.”
Information on the ASSW can be found in a few places around campus. Meeting times are posted in the Social Work Digest, found on posters in HSS and stated in lower-level social work classes.
Anyone looking for additional information can go to their Instagram account @uwecassw, at https://www.instagram.com/uwecassw/ or go to the social work department located on the second floor of HSS.
Lederer can be reached at [email protected].
