ABSTRACT
Woven through the chapters of this book is a recognition that social work is a collaborative and unbound endeavour. Accordingly, attempts to capture or represent social work through selective and bounded forms will inevitably fall short. In this final chapter, we celebrate social work’s collaborative and unbound identity by bringing together work from a creative writing project which explored reintegration after punishment. The work is the product of a collaboration between ‘Distant Voices’ and ‘Unbound’ at Vox Liminis and Irish poet and theologian Padraig O’Tuama. More specifically, it is a collaboration between people who have been in prison, prisoners on home-leave, academics, social workers, criminal justice professionals and artists: ‘At Unbound we leave any labels at the door and just get on with doing what we want to do’.
As is the case for all the chapters in this Reader, what follows is merely a snapshot of the diverse collection of voices that contribute to our knowledge and understanding of social work, of what it is to be human and of what it means to give and receive help. It is offered here in celebration of social work as a collaborative and unbound endeavour, and in recognition of the challenge of making that meaningful through social work’s daily encounters.
