Honoring those that help others during Social Work Month

March is National Social Work Month and it recognizes the countless contributions that social workers give every day in service of others.

Social workers spend every day with the most vulnerable in our society from neglected children and elderly citizens to sexual or domestic abuse victims or those suffering from addiction.

Washington County Children's Services assistant director Alice Stewart has been with the agency for 18 years. She said it takes a special person to do this job every day.

"You have to have a lot of perseverance and motivation and your own kind of self-esteem," Stewart said, "to kind of keep going every day and doing that work, knowing that you are doing a good thing and not expecting a lot of money or praise."

According to the National Association of Social Workers, there are more than 680,000 social workers in the United States.