About Us

The Minnesota Social Service Association (MSSA) supports the health and human service profession through education, advocacy, and member benefits. MSSA was established in 1893 as the Minnesota Conference on Corrections and Charities to share best practices from Minnesota and other states to improve care for clients. Today MSSA represents over 4100 health and human service professionals from non-profit, for-profit, and government agencies. Our members work in all areas of human services including mental health, chemical health, aging, children's services, unemployment, homelessness, and more. 

Our mission is “Uniting diverse professions and passionate people through education and legislative advocacy to enrich lives.”

MSSA's board completed a strategic planning process in February 2017. MSSA is proud to announce our core values and purpose statements from that process.

Core Values and Purpose

Social Responsibility

Every human is entitled to an acceptable quality and standard of living. It is our obligation to proactively facilitate critical conversation about human welfare.

Equity

Every human deserves access to services. We advocate for equitable treatment and fair allocation of community resources.

Inclusion

We cultivate and support a vibrant, engaged and truly diverse membership of health and human service professionals.

Purpose

  • We grow, develop and empower health and human service professionals through emerging and evidence based programs.
  • We are a progressive issue leader, building collaborations between like-minded organizations to achieve common goals.
  • Our policy work strives to ensure that all Minnesotans have their basic needs met.
  • A strong grassroots network can transform the lives of our members and improve the communities they serve.
  • We operate with transparent leadership, governance, and communication processes.
  • Our strong professional staff works collaboratively with an active and engaged volunteer membership.
  • We are passionate and genuine. We have empathy for one another. We trust, respect, and support each other as professionals. We expect and assume positive intent in each person’s actions.
  • We are comfortable being uncomfortable because we know that dialogue is the path to solutions. We encourage open and respectful conversations in search of meaningful answers to eliminate institutional bias and discrimination. 


1924 MN Conference Picture
1924 Minnesota State Conference and Institute of Social Work