2021 Albany, washington D.C., United NaTions ~ Virtual Advocacy Days

by Pat Shelly updated Mar. 8, 2021

We’re pleased to announce these social work advocacy days for Spring 2021, all virtual, as we act to keep ourselves and our communities safe during COVID-19.
Dates: Washington DC: Wed. March 10th and Thu. March 11th via YouTube
NYC United Nations Headquarters Tue. March 16th plus Sun. March 14th for students via Zoom

(If you are a UBSSW member – student, faculty, alumni, staff – please let us know that you are participating in any of these events by emailing Pat Shelly pashelly@buffalo.edu
We like to know about your advocacy efforts!
Thank you.)

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MARCH IS SOCIAL WORK MONTH

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Washington D.C. Social Work Days on the Hill
CRISP – Congressional Research Institute on Social Work and Policy
[Virtual Events Live-streamed on YouTube & LinkedIn]

3. Wednesday, March 10, 2021

9 AM CRISP Policy and Politics Forum
“Social Work and the Future of Democracy”
No cost, but Registration required.
Panelists:
Dr. Charles E. Lewis, CRISP
Hon. Edolphus “Ed” Towns, Former Congressman (Brooklyn) and social worker
Dr. Jason Ostrander, Moderator, Sacred Heart University
Hon. Chad Lassiter, Exec. Director, Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission
Dr. Mimi Abramowitz, Bertha Capen Reynolds Professor of Social Work, Silberman School, Hunter College

10 AM Young Social Workers Speak Out on the Future of Democracy
A panel of social work students and recent graduates will give their
perspectives on the roles the social work profession should play in addressing threats to democracy and promoting an
agenda shaped by the challenges they will be facing in the future.

3 PM CRISP Annual Awards Presentation
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4. Student Advocacy Day on the Hill (Virtual)
Thursday, March 11, 2021

Registration Fee: $25. https://www.crispinc.org/2021-student-advocacy-day-registration/
Four UBSSW students will have registrations costs covered; for details, contact
Pat Shelly pashelly@buffalo.edu.

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5. Social Work Day at the United Nations (2 parts, Mar. 14 1and Mar. 16)

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Student Conference: Opportunities through Adversities During COVID-19
Noon – 2 PM EST via Zoom

Register here – scroll down to find the date:
https://fordham.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtdu2hpzwrG9zLKXLQEF6JgaEDf9ORwKlL

Tuesday, March 16, 2021
Responses to COVID-19: Standing Together Makes Us Stronger
Noon – 1:30 PM EST
via Zoom

Register: https://www.monmouth.edu/school-of-social-work/student-resources/united-nations/

37th Annual Social Work Day at the UN Description

Panelists:
Christina Behrendt, Ph.D., Head Social Policy Unit, Social Protection, International Labour Organization (ILO)

Judith Browne Dianis, Executive Director of the Advancement Project

Paul Ladd, Director of the United Nations Research Institute on Social Development (UNRISD)

Sponsored by:
The International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW)

The International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW)

The International Council on Social Welfare(ICSW)
Hosted by:
Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service
Monmouth University School of Social Work
Rutgers University School of Social Work

Did you attend any of the Advocacy Events on March 2, 10, 11, 14 or 16?
Please comment below with your highlights or takeaways from the event!

Inequality for All #MacroSW Live Twitter Chat 3/26/2020

via Inequality for All #MacroSW Live Twitter Chat 3/26/2020
Inequality for All #MacroSW Live Twitter Chat 3/26/2020

As many colleges have gone to remote/online/distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, here’s a great opportunity for students to learn about the roots of income inequality – a status that is reflected today in spending priorities that left our public good subservient to the interests of the wealthier segment of society. We’ll be hosting this chat, with Jimmy Young, PhD, MSW, MPA, from California State University, San Marcos.

A scale is silhouetted against a green background. One side, the heaviest, has a single man in a top hat. The other lighter scale has a mass of individuals crowded onto the scale.

Image: ProMarket.org

Join us Thursday evening, March 26, 2020 at 9 PM ET / 6 PM PT.

#MacroSW Chat 2/13/2020: A Conversation with NASW about Legislative and Social Justice Priorities

Reblogged from #MacroSW: Where Social Workers Connect About Macro Practice,
Post by Kristen Battista-Frazee: https://macrosw.com/2020/02/10/macrosw-chat-2-13-2020-a-conversation-with-nasw-about-legislative-and-social-justice-priorities/
Editor’s Note: If you have any priorities that you’d like NASW to address, please email https://macrosw.com/contact-us/ or join the chat on Feb. 13th!

 

Announcment for teh February 23, 2020 #MacroSW Twitter Chat: "A conversation with NASW about legisaltive and social justice priorities." Photo is of a Black woman, weraing a blue dress,with black glasses adn a heart-shaped pendant.

The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) works on a range of policy initiatives which supports and affects social workers nationwide. All social workers can play a role in the policy work undertaken by NASW.  Also, your community priorities and efforts need to be shared to create necessary synergies a the local and national level.

Join our chat on Thursday, February 13 at 9 p.m. Eastern (6 p.m. Pacific) co-hosted by NASW who will share their legislation and social justice priorities and macro practice initiatives. The goal of this chat is for NASW to receive your feedback about their legislative work and learn about your policy priorities in your local community and state.

Questions from NASW

  1. What areas in macro practice do you think the social work profession should tackle?
  2. What issues and legislation are you and your organization working on?
  3. NASW signed on to a letter demanding President Donald Trump rejoin the Paris accord to address global warming. Is anyone working on the issue of climate change?
  4. How can NASW support what you are doing in macro practice and policy work?
  5. NASW has long been committed to improving the rights of people of color. What are you doing on this issue? How can you work with NASW to achieve the goal of equal rights for all? #MacroSW

Resources:

NASW Policy Issues

NASW Social Justice Priorities and Briefs

Protecting Social Workers and Health Professionals from Workplace Violence Act of 2019 (HR 5138/ S.2880)

Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Services Act introduced by Rep. Joe Courtney (D-CT) and co-sponsored by Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA),

Improving Access to Mental Health Act

Resources for “Social Work’s Response to Immigration”

by Pat Shelly

The #MacroSW Chat on January 30, 2020 is “Social Work’s Response to Immigration.” That blog post can be found at https://macrosw.com/2020/01/27/macrosw-1-30-2020-social-works-response-to-immigration.

 

Signs at a rally for immigrant rights: "Immigratns make America Great" in red and blue lettering, "No Hate No Fear Refugees are Welcome Here."

Photo: Nitish Meena on Unsplash

Here are a few resources to prepare for the chat’s discussion questions.

 

Aguilar, C. (2019, June). Emotions and Politics: A Social Work Response to the Mental Health of Immigrants. SWHelper. Retrieved from https://socialworkhelper.com/2019/06/05/emotions-and-politics-a-social-work-response-to-the-mental-health-of-immigrants/

Fratzke, S. and Dorst, E. (2019, November).  Volunteers and Sponsors: A Catalyst for Refugee Integration? (Policy Brief). Retrieved from https://www.migrationpolicy.org/research/volunteers-sponsors-refugee-integration

Haidar, A. (2017). Social workers and the protection of immigrant and refugee rights. In University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration Advocacy Forum. Retrieved from http://ssa.uchicago.edu/social-workers-and-protection-immigrant-and-refugee-rights

Jani, J.S. and Reisch, M. (2018). Assisting the least among us: Social work’s historical response to unaccompanied immigrant and refugee youth. Children and Youth Services Review, Volume 92 (September 2018), pp. 4-14. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.02.025

National Association of Social Workers. (2019). Child Migrant Protection Toolkit. Retrieved from
https://www.socialworkers.org/news/1000-experts/media-toolkits/child-immigrant-crisis

 

Please add any resources you found helpful in our “Leave a comment” above the title.

Summer Reading, Viewing, and Listening List 2018

Edited by Pat Shelly

here's your list! with checklist image and a stack of books

 

Books:  Social worker autobiography — Nonfiction — Fiction – Memoir –Humor
+ Films /  Podcasts /  Poetry /  Songs /  Spoken Word

 “I recommend the U.S. Constitution and your state constitutions and amendments for summer reading,” one chat participant tweeted.  http://constitutionus.com/

BOOKS     Listed A-Z by Author

Social worker autobiography:

Twenty years at Hull-House with autobiographical notes. by Jane Addams, 1912
http://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/addams/hullhouse/hullhouse.html

Lying down with the lions: A public life from the streets of Oakland to the halls of power. by Ronald V. Dellums with H. Lee Halterman, 2000
https://www.amazon.com/Lying-Down-Lions-Streets-Oakland/dp/0807043192

Open Wide the Freedom Gates. by Dorothy Height, 2005 
https://books.google.com/books/about/Open_Wide_The_Freedom_Gates.html?id=paqIjGvjKEgC

An Uncharted Journey.  by Bertha Capen Reynolds, 1991
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/171209.An_Uncharted_Journey

Nonfiction

Post Traumatic Success: Positive Psychology and Solution-Focused Strategies. by Fredrike Bannink, 2014
https://www.amazon.com/Post-Traumatic-Success-Psychology-Solution-Focused/dp/0393709221/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530235148&sr=1-1&keywords=post+traumatic+success

Known to Social Services. by Freya Barrington, 2015
Features British social worker Diane Foster on her job in the Deacon Hill housing estate. She faces late hours, troublesome clients, and intrusions of her work on home life and intimate relationships. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25039358-known-to-social-services

Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone. by Brené Brown. 2017  https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780812995848

The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity. by Nadine Burke Harris, 2018 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38727237-the-deepest-well

Choose hope (always choose hope). by Elizabeth J Clark, 2017
an elucidating and timely account about the positive impact of hope to individuals suffering from disappointments and crisis.”
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/choose-hope-elizabeth-j-clark/1127608273

Untangled Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood by Lisa Damour. 2017
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/246248/untangled-by-lisa-damour-phd/9780553393071/

Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City. by Matthew Desmond, 2017 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25852784-evicted

$2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America. by Kathryn Edin and Luke Shaefer, 2017 The person recommending this tweeted: “They break down relevant policy & history on #poverty, which is a great resource when lobbying for social services.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23719398-2-00-a-day

Suicide in Schools: A Practitioner’s Guide to Multi-Level Prevention and Assessment.  2015. Eds: Terri Erbacher, Jonathan Singer, Scott Poland
https://www.routledge.com/Suicide-in-Schools-A-Practitioners-Guide-to-Multi-level-Prevention-Assessment/Erbacher-Singer-Poland-Mennuti-Christner/p/book/9780415857024

Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence – from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. by Judith Herman, 2015
https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/judith-l-herman/trauma-and-recovery/9780465061716/

The Garbage Bag Kids. by Virginia Jeffers, 2015 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25305568-the-garbage-bag-kids

The Story of Jane: The Legendary Underground Feminist Abortion Service. by Laura Kaplan, 1997
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/676543.The_Story_of_Jane

The Gratitude Diaries: How a Year of Looking on the Bright Side Can Transform Your Life. by Janice Kaplan, 2015 http://www.gratitudediaries.com/

The Price of Silence: A Mom’s Perspective on Mental Illness. by Lisa Long, 2014
“The online journal posted as ‘I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother.’ The post went viral” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20821070-the-price-of-silence

Technology, Activism and Social Justice. by John McNutt, August 2018 Forthcoming title https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/technology-activism-and-social-justice-in-a-digital-age-9780190903992?cc=us&lang=en&

The Power of Onlyness: Make Your Wild Ideas Mighty Enough to Dent the World. by Nilofer Merchant, 2017
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33656403-the-power-of-onlyness

Upside: The New Science of Post Traumatic Growth. by Jim Rendon, 2015 https://www.amazon.com/Upside-New-Science-Post-Traumatic-Growth/dp/1476761639/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1530234756&sr=8-2&keywords=upside

Beginnings, Middles and Ends: Sideways Stories on the Art and Soul of Social Work. by Ogden W. Rogers, 2013
http://www.socialworker.com/products-services/social-work-books/beginnings-middles-ends/

The Body Keeps Score. by Bessel van der Kolk, 2015 https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1530234982&sr=1-3&keywords=the+body+keeps+the+score

Crown Heights. by Colin Warner and Carl King, 2017 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36157859-crown-heights

The Fire This Time: A new generation talks about race. (2016)
“groundbreaking essays and poems about race—collected by National Book Award-winner Jesmyn Ward and written by the most important voices of her generation”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28505023-the-fire-this-time

Book Reviews from The New Social Worker: http://www.socialworker.com/topics/books/

2014 List from USC “10 books every social worker should read”- fiction, nonfiction, memoir
https://msw.usc.edu/mswusc-blog/10-social-work-books-every-social-worker-should-read/

Fiction:

Zoom. by Istvan Banyai, 1995. At first glance, it’s a child’s picture book, with no text. However, it also illustrates “the ability to step back and take a broader view.” The author published this slideshare, with all the art he created for the book.
Slideshare: https://www.slideshare.net/zarthustra7/zoom-by-istvan-banyai-23329406
Book:   https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/78991.Zoom

Fourth of July Creek. by Smith Henderson, 2014
“After trying to help Benjamin Pearl, an undernourished, nearly feral eleven-year-old boy living in the Montana wilderness, social worker Pete Snow comes face to face with the boy’s profoundly disturbed father, Jeremiah. With courage and caution, Pete slowly earns a measure of trust from this paranoid survivalist itching for a final conflict that will signal the coming End Times.”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18651980-fourth-of-july-creek

Unprotected. by Kristin Lee Johnson (2012) A young social worker with a lonely past… A small Minnesota town’s favorite son…An allegation…It’s the story of Amanda Danscher, a young child protection social worker with a past she is trying to forget. She quickly becomes embroiled in a case against a former state champion hockey player and favorite son. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13813114-unprotected

All Our Names. by Dinaw Mangestu, 2014. A refugee from a revolution in an African country begins a romantic relationship with his quaint midwestern social worker. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18050096-all-our-names

The Boy with the Rainbow Heart. by William Mason, 2018. For children ages 3-9. He lives in the town of Gray, and he really stands out. And (spoiler alert) the moral of the story is: Kindness wins. https://mascotbooks.com/mascot-marketplace/buy-books/childrens/picture-books/boy-rainbow-heart/

Rise and Shine. by Anna Quindlen, 2006 A story about two sisters, one a TV host and one a social worker, and how, in very different ways, the Fitzmaurice women adapt, survive, and manage to bring the whole teeming world of New York to heel by dint of their smart mouths, quick wits, and the powerful connection between them that even the worst tragedy cannot shatter. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49501.Rise_and_Shine

Push. by Sapphire, 1997 Novel was adapted for the 2009 movie “Precious.”
“Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible: invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem’s casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and highly radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment.” The book has a social worker that is not as ethical or effective as the one in the movie, as portrayed by Mariah Carey. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/71332.Push

Knucklehead. by Adam Smyer, 2018 “Set amid the racial violence of the 1990s, Knucklehead is hard-hitting, hilarious, and frank. . .meet Marcus Hayes, a brilliant black attorney who struggles, often unsuccessfully, with the impulse to confront everyday bad behavior with swift and antisocial action. The cause of this impulse is unknown to him. When he unexpectedly becomes involved with the kind, intelligent Amalia Stewart, her love and acceptance pacify his demons.” https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34381048-knucklehead

The Social Worker. by Michael Unger, 2011 (Canadian) Joey sets out to get revenge on the system that he believes failed him and his family. Joey’s plan for revenge may have worked, except buried in old agency files he learns that his family has many secrets yet untold and that the lives of social workers are more complicated than they seem to the children in their care. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11359152-the-social-worker

And more fiction

Octavia Butler: http://octaviabutler.org/publications/ If you like speculative fiction, you appreciate Butler’s brilliance. “[Her] evocative, often troubling, novels explore far-reaching issues of race, sex, power and, ultimately, what it means to be human,” said the New York Times.
Lilith’s Brood (Trilogy  1987-89: Dawn, Adulthood Rites, Imago) /  The Parable Series 1993-1998 (Parable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents – / Fledgling 2007 (Butler’s last book is a stand-alone novel)

Harry Potter series: https://www.jkrowling.com/
An article: “Living through death with Harry Potter” https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/01/living-through-death-with-harry-potter/550445/

Memoir:

Etched in Sand: The True Story of Five Siblings Who Survived an Unspeakable Childhood on Long Island.  by Regina Calcaterra, 2013  https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16248189-etched-in-sand

The Line Becomes a River. by Francisco Cantú, 2018
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/555764/the-line-becomes-a-river-by-francisco-cantu/9780735217713/

Drink: The intimate relationship between women and alcohol.  by Ann Dowsett Johnston, 2013
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17349236-drink

Reflections by Rosa Parks: the Quiet Strength and Faith of a Woman Who Changed a Nation. by Rosa Parks with Gregory J. Reed, 2018 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35553352-reflections-by-rosa-parks

Three Little Words: A Memoir. by Ashley Rhodes-Courter, 2009.
http://rhodes-courter.com/three-little-words/

Waking: A memoir of trauma and transcendence. by Matthew Sanford, 2006  Comment by the person who recommended this: “a book every social worker who works in healthcare (and even those who don’t) and/or with trauma should be required to read!”
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/185932.Waking

Humor:

How to Make White People Laugh. by Negin Farsad
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27170153-how-to-make-white-people-laugh

FILM

“13th” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5895028/ An in-depth look at the prison system in the United States and how it reveals the nation’s history of racial inequality.

 “Dead Poets Society” (1989) English teacher John Keating (Robin Williams) inspires his students to look at poetry with a different perspective of authentic knowledge and feelings. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097165/

“Flint Town” (2018) An 8-part documentary series: “Over a two-year period, filmmakers embedded with cops in Flint, Michigan, reveal a department grappling with volatile issues in untenable conditions.” https://www.netflix.com/title/80156688

“Precious” (2009) based on the novel Push by Sapphire https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0929632/

 “Short Term 12” (2013) “A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.”
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2370248/

“The Silent Child” (2017) Winner of the 2017 Oscar for Best Live Action Short (22 min)
“Set in rural England and Inspired by real life events. The Silent Child film centres around a profoundly deaf four year old girl named Libby who is born into a middle class family and lives in a world of silence until a caring social worker teaches her the gift of communication.”  https://www.thesilentchildmovie.com/story

 “The Year We Thought about Love” (2014)
Documentary:   “With wit, grace, and attitude, a diverse troupe of LGBTQ youth transforms their personal struggles into theater for social change….[it]celebrates the powerful work of a Boston LGBTQ troupe, True Colors: OUT Youth Theater, as they write a play about love.”  http://www.theyearwethoughtaboutlove.com/

10 More Documentaries on Netflix for Social Workers (2018): Many provide in-depth looks at subjects relevant to social work practitioners and students. https://mswcareers.com/10-more-documentaries-on-netflix-for-social-workers/

Movies for social workers: 2014 list from https://socialworklicensemap.com/social-work-movies/

PODCASTS

Social Work:

The Social Work Podcast  http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/ The first social work podcast!
Jonathan Singer @socworkpodcast

inSocialWork http://www.insocialwork.org/  explores emerging trends and best practices in social work
@SWpodcast

Doin’ The Work: Frontline Stories of Social Change https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/doin-the-work

And:
Armchair Expert https://armchairexpertpod.com/
On the messiness of being human

The Daily https://www.nytimes.com/podcasts/the-daily
20 min. segment, from the NY Times

Ear Hustle  https://www.earhustlesq.com/
Stories of life inside prison, shared and produced by those living it

Fake the Nation http://www.fakethenation.com/
Delivering a gut punch to the political system

In the Thick https://www.inthethick.org/
Journalists of color tell you what you’re missing from the mainstream news

Mental Illness Happy Hour  http://mentalpod.com/
Each episode explores mental illness, trauma, addiction and negative thinking

NPR Code Switch  https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/
Race and identity, remixed

Pod Save America  https://crooked.com/podcast-series/pod-save-america/
A political podcast for people not yet ready to give up or go insane

Rough Translation https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510324/rough-translation
What’s being talked about somewhere else in the world?

Up First https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510318/up-first
10 min. segment from NPR — the news you need to start your day

POETRY

“Time of Need” by Allison Seay
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/55086/time-of-need

SPOKEN WORD

I‘m not feeling well : (4:42 min) A spoken word piece by the poet Amen Ptah,
highlighting the racial disparities in the Health Care Industry. “This is a public
health state of emergency!”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bT3BKbltCsA&feature=youtu.be

SONGS

“Disaster Kit” by KRS-One.  “He’s literally rapping about prepping to survive a natural disaster”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WfnbFUmoic

#MacroSW Protest Song Playlist on YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlLGC46a0Nmu4FaOcl_ojvX_TqYARqYPV&disable_polymer=true

 

Do you have suggestions to add to this list? Tweet them to @officialmacroSW #MacroSW!

Financial Capability Building: Mobile Money as an Intervention Going to Scale. Feb. 22, 2018 #MacroSW Chat

We’re pleased to have our @UBSSW faculty member Dr. Nadine (Shaanta) Murshid as the guest expert on this chat – hope you all can join us!

reblogged from https://macrosw.com/  Financial Capability Building: Mobile Money as an Intervention Going to Scale. Feb. 22, 2018 #MacroSW Chat 

money transfer

Imagine you are a woman who begins to work in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh. You have never received a paycheck or hourly wages for your labor before you were hired for this job. You have never had a banking account. You have minimal financial literacy, such as the knowledge and skills to manage monetary resources effectively, and to make informed financial decisions. You do not know English, the international language of banking and finance. You lack basic information and communications technology. Now what?

Enter the introduction of mobile money: the use of a basic cell phone- not a smart phone – as a technology that addresses the need for banking services for the previously unbanked. It is a method to store, withdraw and transfer money. This innovation was adopted and spread very quickly in Bangladesh, with buy-in from the World Bank and major banking institutions.  Read more Read more

Using Technology for Social Work Scholarship: Creating and Sharing your Work

Reblogged from:

Laurel Hitchcock’s Blog

 

This post was written and edited by Nancy J. SmythMelanie Sage, and myself as part of our collaboration on our forthcoming book, Teaching Social Work with Digital Technology, to be published by CSWE Press in 2018.

Social and digital technologies offer many tools and opportunities to create and disseminate scholarship in social work.  For example, social work educators can use blogs, podcasts, videos, and infographics to create and share content for professional purposes.  To see an example of how to use infographics, please see Harnessing Technology for Social Work Scholarship (Hitchcock & Sage, 2017).  This blog post describes two social work academics are using social media to share their research with others.

Dr. Jimmy A. Young, an Assistant Professor of social work at California State University San Marcos, shares how he uses social media to disseminate his research:

Social media technologies offer exciting opportunities to disseminate scholarship with a broader audience and share your research with others. A few examples include using Twitter to share a quick highlight or quote with a direct link to the article, a blog post with a longer quote or summary and direct link to the article, or some sort of video message on YouTube or Snapchat that also shares a summary and direct link. Today’s social media users enjoy rich content and video is an engaging way to share articles with others. I have also been successful in using professional academic social networks such as ResearchGate or Academia.edu to host articles, post summaries and links, as well as to connect with others working in a similar area. The great thing about these websites is you can get some analytics that can be useful for demonstrating your scholarly impact. . . .

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Ableism In Social Work: Working Toward Inclusion – Oct. 5, 2017 #MacroSW Chat

We’re proud to have one of our UBSSW #MSW students, Matt Schwartz, lead this chat about how social workers can more effectively support the colleagues we work beside and the students we teach who have a disability – visible or not. Reblogged from https://macrosw.com/

Safe Schools Initiative – Assessing Threats of Extremist Violence

by Emily Hammer, MSW 2018

 

I attended the 14th Annual Safe Schools Initiative Seminar Series, put on by the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention at the University at Buffalo in April. It was very informative and relevant to my first year MSW field placement at Buffalo Public School 198, International Prep.

 

Image: Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention

The first half of the morning consisted of a fascinating presentation by the FBI Office of Buffalo, discussing signs of students who may be lured into violent extremist practices. My key takeaway? There is no single profile. Any student can be enticed into various extremist practices, regardless of race, class, ethnicity, gender identity, etc. We should never judge a threat solely by outward appearance, because research shows that student profiles who fall prey to violent extremism are so diverse.

 

I realized that we often forget that these threats occur in our own backyards. We learned that the media make the threats seem far away– in a different city, state, or country, or in a group different from that of our normal day-to-day ones– until it happens at home. Then it becomes real. The FBI Buffalo Field Office cited examples of extremist incidents  as recent as one week before the seminar presentation. These occurred in both the Buffalo and Rochester areas. The incidents involved teenagers and young adults who were preparing to fly to Syria to engage in warfare; these young people attempted to influence their friends to do the same.

 

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Sustainability and Social Work: Earth Day 2017

by Pat Shelly

Sustainability and Environmentalism

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.” This is an old Yankee/New England proverb that resounds with our more environmentally-conscious society today.

Sustainability is  a word that appears more frequently in the press around Earth Day, which is observed on April 22 in the US. Many slogans address environmental issues. Some instruct: “Reduce, Reuse, Recyle,” or humorously inform: “Recyclers do it over and over again,” or recommend:

 

Smiling man in baseball cap with arms hugging a big tree. Only one arm is visible as tree's circumference is too large to encircle with his arms. is too big to get

Photo: Carolina Hoyos Lievano / World Bank

 

 

 

 

 

“Hug a tree, they have fewer issues than people.”

 

 

 

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Online Connections for Professional Learning

Images of twelve diverse faces connected by lines, showing a network

Image by Jurgen Appelo on Flickr (https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurgenappelo/679725279), shared under Creative Commons Attribution license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ 

I’m often asked how I stay current on new developments and trends that affect our profession. I use multiple strategies, but my most robust strategy is the professional/personal learning network (PLN) that I’ve developed online. Simply stated, PLNs employ, within an online environment, the same strategy that professionals have used for centuries: connect to people who share interests and with whom you can share useful information. Only now, these people could be in my city or on the other side of the world. The advantage of an online PLN is that it you can access it almost anytime, and it draws from a variety of sources: blogs, e-letters, interest communities (e.g., Facebook or LinkedIn groups, Google+ communities, Twitter chats), listservs, and various other social media platforms.

A true story from a UB colleague, Dr. Phillip Glick, illustrates the power of PLNs. One of his medical residents contacted him in the middle of the night, concerned about a child’s non-response to emergency treatment. Seeking to advise the resident on what might help, Dr. Glick immediately searched Medline, an online database of biomedical articles, but he was unable to find anything useful.  Next, Dr. Glick reached out to his Twitter network (using general statements, so as to not disclose protected health information). A few hours later, he had a suggestion from a doctor in Sweden who was writing up a series of similar cases – that suggestion saved the child’s life. What’s important to highlight is that Dr. Glick had already done the work, prior to the crisis, to build a trusted, professional learning network on that social media platform. How lucky for that child and family that they had a physician who was globally-connected.

Beyond staying abreast of new developments and providing opportunities for consultation, PLNs can open up opportunities for collaboration; for example, I’m writing a book with two social work academic colleagues who are part of my PLN – I met and came to know them well through social work conversations on Twitter and the Google+ Social Work and Technology Community.

You usually will see PLNs described as Personal Learning Networks. The term comes from the educational technology learning communities and has its origins in Connectivism, a learning theory developed by George Siemens to fit the network-based learning that occurs in the digital age. However, in social work the word “personal” can raise some concerns for clinical social workers who are especially sensitive to the need to keep boundaries between their personal and professional personas. For this reason, when I first introduce PLNs I use the word Professional, not Personal, and then later then I explain the origins and more general use of the term Personal in this context.

Want to learn more about PLNs? Some resources are listed below. However, honestly, it’s hard to understand them from just reading about them – the best way to learn is to get started, observe what others are doing, and then to reach out to others with questions and comments.

Resources on PLNs

Crowley, B. (2014, December 31). 3 Steps for Building a Professional Learning Network – Education Week. Teacher. Retrieved from http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2014/12/31/3-steps-for-building-a-professional-learning.html

A good introduction to PLNs. While it’s targeted at teachers, it conveys the general strategy very well. The post also includes some excellent advice around not overwhelming yourself in the process of doing this.

Graffin, M. (n.d.). Step 1: What is a PLN? – Teacher Challenges. Retrieved July 28, 2016, from https://teacherchallenge.edublogs.org/pln-challenge-1-what-the-heck-is-a-pln/

A good overview of PLNs that was created for teachers; it includes helpful graphics and videos. Pay special attention to the right sidebar menu, because there are links to many other posts that will be helpful to someone who wants to develop a PLN.

Hitchcock, L. (2015, July 1). Personal Learning Networks for Social Workers. Retrieved from http://www.laureliversonhitchcock.org/2015/07/01/personal-learning-networks-for-social-workers/

A great introduction to the topic for social workers. She suggests some starting places, and shares links to good resources, including an introductory video that we developed here at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work.

Kanter, B. (2012, January 26). Peeragogy: Self Organized Peer Learning in Networks | Beth’s Blog. Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.bethkanter.org/peeragogy/

A more advanced read for people who like to glimpse the “big picture,” in this case, higher level peer-to-peer learning projects. Mentioned here is the work of Howard Rheingold,  the man who is credited with first coining the term “virtual community.”

Michaeli, D. (2015, November 15). Personal Learning Network Twitter Cheat Sheet. Retrieved July 29, 2016, from http://www.socialwork.career/2015/11/personal-learning-network-twitter-cheat-sheet.html

A focused, how-to guide for social workers to using Twitter to develop a PLN. Presents a great visual overview through an infographic (i.e., visual display of information).

Richardson, W., & Mancabelli, R. (2012). Personal Learning Networks: Using the Power of Connections to Transform Education (3rd edition). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Although this is a book targeting educators, it is an excellent overview of networked learning, and the need for all schools to move to this new learning model. The authors start by focusing on the need for teachers to develop their own PLNs and to become networked learners, before they can move this model into their classrooms. Most of the book then focuses on developing networked classrooms and schools, including policy issues that come into play.

Note: some of the content from this article appeared in the dean’s column in the Fall 2016 issue of Mosaics, the magazine of the University at Buffalo School of Social Work, on page 3.

Nancy J. Smyth is the Dean of the School of Social Work, University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

PREP SCHOOL NEGRO: Periscope of the discussion on Race, Racism and Leveraging Technology for Social Justice

Post by Pat Shelly

Periscope by Nancy J. Smyth

 

flyer-prep-school-negro

 

 

 

Thirty years before our current election cycle’s talk about racial disparities, killings streamed on Facebook and the rise of the #Occupy and #Blacklivesmatter movement, a young Black man was offered an opportunity for what he hoped was a better life.  André Robert Lee’s full scholarship to attend a Philadelphia prep school was supposed to be his way out of the ghetto, but this elite education came at a high personal cost.

 

Prep School Negro documents André’s journey back in time to revisit the events of his adolescence while also spending time with present-day prep school students of color and their classmates to see how much has really changed inside the ivory tower. What he discovers along the way is the poignant and unapologetic truth about who really pays the consequences for yesterday’s accelerated desegregation and today’s racial naiveté.

 

A screening of Prep School Negro was held on September 19, 2016 as part of the University at Buffalo’s School of Social Work series on Social Work and Emerging Technologies, led by affiliated faculty member Mike Langlois, a clinical social worker and educator.  After the screening, Mike engaged André Lee, the director of Prep School Negro and producer, civil rights educator and activist, in a discussion on race, racism, the seismic shifts in technology and how to leverage emerging technologies in the fight for social justice.

 

André Robert Lee, filmmaker

André Robert Lee, filmmaker

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike Langlois, LICSW

Mike Langlois, LICSW

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Full-length version of Prep School Negro is now available on PBS
(through Feb. 10, 2017):
http://www.pbs.org/video/2365172448/

 

Here are links to the Periscope recordings:

 

We welcome any comments, and will pass any received along to André and Mike.

Cultural Humility: A Lesson Plan for Social Work

By Sarah Richards-Desai, MSW

 

The UB School of Social Work has developed a new resource to assist students, faculty, and practitioners in their understanding of cultural humility. Conversations about Culture: Video and Lesson Plan  introduces students, practitioners, and the public to the concept of cultural humility. This module includes a 12-minute video, containing interviews and content designed to raise questions and introduce the concept of cultural humility in social work. There are additional resources, a lesson plan, and some possible activities to try on your own or in a classroom setting.

Video for the UBSSW Cultural Humility module

Video for the UBSSW Cultural Humility module

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After Orlando / #PulseOrlando: #MacroSW Chat – Open Mic 06-23-16

This mass shooting reveals some of the most complex social problems of our era: homophobia, racism, hate crimes and gun violence.

(The edited version is by Pat Shelly, who was using the handle @officialmacrosw for this chat.)

In the wake of the Orlando shooting (we will use #PulseOrlando as our hashtag for this chat), we feel heartache, sadness and anger. We may be left wondering why this happened and how we can prevent…

a memorial black ribbon has rainbow stripes in th ellop and Pulse nightclub logo on one edn witha pink heart around the logo

credit: kyliesoniquelove

 

 

Source: After Orlando / #PulseOrlando: #MacroSW Chat – Open Mic 06-23-16

#MacroSW chat 4-14-16: Smart Decarceration and Social Work

An important issue for the U.S. and our profession. How can we implement the best practices for effective reentry for the millions currently incarcerated, many under racist drug laws?

Here is a link to the summary of this chat.

And below, the resources and references that were shared regarding Smart Decarceration:

Sources (in the original post)

Here is a link to the Grand Challenge, Promote Smart Decarceration – at this link, click on the cover of the AASWSW Grand Challenges paper, “From Mass Incarceration to Smart Decarceration” to download a copy.

Links for the report’s authors:
Dr. Carrie Pettus-Davis bio
Assistant Professor and Director, Concordance Institute for Advancing Social Justice, George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University in St. Louis

Matthew W. Epperson bio
Assistant Professor, School of Social Service Administration, The University of Chicago

Related articles:

Breaking the cycle of drug use

Alternatives to incarceration

Additional Resources on Smart Decarceration (tweeted during chat on 4-14-16)

Michelle Alexander on The New Jim Crow (Bill Moyers interviews Alexander in 2010): https://vimeo.com/40261507

The New Jim Crow in the 02-19-13 article by John Light  http://billmoyers.com/2013/02/19/mass-incarceration-and-the-new-jim-crow/

Prison Policy Initiative http://www.prisonpolicy.org
Winnable criminal justice reforms: A Prison Policy Initiative briefing on promising state reform issues for 2016
Link to download this report::
http://www.prisonpolicy.org/searchresults.html?cx=015684313971992382479%3Aa3be84yykbq&cof=FORID%3A11&q=winnable

Prisons for Profit article:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/28/how-for-profit-prisons-have-become-the-biggest-lobby-no-one-is-talking-about/

Video: War on Drugs & Mass Incarceration “The House I Live In” http://www.thehouseilivein.org/

Transgender People in Prison Article
Prison is horrifying for transgender people. It’s hell.
http://www.vox.com/2016/4/11/11355702/prison-transgender

Combatting Mass Incarceration ACLU infographic (2011)
https://www.aclu.org/infographic-combating-mass-incarceration-facts

6,000 drug offenders to be released from federal prison starting Friday. (Oct. 2015)
http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-prison-release-20151029-story.html

Blog post on Prison Reform by @StuckOnSocialWork:
THE Question When It comes to #justice and #prison #reform.
https://stuckonsocialwork.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/the-question-when-it-comes-to-justice-and-prison-reform/    also: https://stuckonsocialwork.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/empathy-not-expulsion-for-all-students/

Univ. of Chicago Smart Decarceration Initiative: Reversing Mass Incarceration in America http://ssascholars.uchicago.edu/smart-decarceration-initiative

Creating trauma-informed correctional care: a balance of goals and environment. Niki A. Miller and Lisa M. Najavits 2012
http://www.ejpt.net/index.php/ejpt/article/view/17246

Effective reentry:
4 Elements of Successful Reentry Programs for Inmates
http://www.socialsolutions.com/blog/4-elements-of-successful-reentry-programs-for-inmates/

Center for Employment Opportunities 2013 Annual Report
http://ceoworks.org/about/annual-reports/

Preventing Future Crime With Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
http://www.nij.gov/journals/265/pages/therapy.aspx

HIPAA compliant technology:
VSee – Word’s Largest VideoTelemedicine Platform for HIPAA compliant video visits.
https://vsee.com/     Dr. Joiner of Wayne State describes it: “VSee is a version of videoconferencing (we use it w/ our online students when holding synchronous meetings). VSee is a great tool to continue the conversation and 2 engage beyond the traditional classroom .”

Restorative Justice http://restorativejustice.org/

German Prison System: CBS 60 Minutes April 3 2016
Privacy, weekend leave, keys…This is prison?
Script: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-germany-prisons-crime-and-punishment/

Mental Health Courts
Judge Ginger Lerner-Wren http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ginger-lernerwren/the-top-five-lessons-from_b_8024440.html

 

#SWmonth and What We’ve Been Up To! #MacroSW chat 3/24/16 at 9pm EDT

This will be a good chat!  This post is reblogged from #MacroSW: Where Macro Social Workers Come To Connect. Original post here

(Summary of this chat can be found here..)

ACEs & Trauma-Informed Systems: Building Practices & Policies to Avoid Re-traumatization — Feb. 18, 2016

Reblogged from #MacroSW: Where Macro Social Workers Come to Connect

The #MacroSW Twitter Chat on February 18, 2016 (9:00pm EST) will be on expanding the reach of #TraumaInformed Care into the policy arena and through transforming our social work practices.

UPDATE: Chat archive now available!

by Pat Shelly

 

Hands cupping hands

 

All social workers and other professionals who work with people who have experienced trauma are at risk of being personally impacted by that trauma. Secondary traumatic stress (STS), vicarious trauma (VT) and re-traumatization are common among helping professionals. When we hear the term trauma-informed care we typically think about how to avoid re-traumatizing our clients.

 

But what about considering a trauma-informed approach to the systems in which we work?

On February 18, 2016, the #MacroSW chat will discuss systems-level change to avoid re-traumatizing not only our clients but ourselves as social workers, as staff and as nonprofit entities.

 

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The Age of #DigitalLiteracy and the Media Revolution

By Pat Shelly

 

Where do you get most of your news of the world?
What are skills needed for digital literacy?
Do you use social media for any part of your school or professional work?
Will universal digital literacy lead to world peace?

 

 

The Age of Digital Literacy is Now

 

The University at Buffalo observed the 2016 International Education Week with lectures, film, student events, exhibits and a keynote: “The Media Revolution: What it Means for You” by Geneva Overholser.

 

She has worked as an editor, ombudsperson, journalist at many top papers, including the New York Times and the Washington Post. She lived in and wrote from Paris and Kinshasa over a period of five years.

 

Overholser spoke of the radical change from traditional, or “legacy” media – newspapers, radio, network television, cable TV – to new media technologies. These include social networking, instant messaging, blogs (coined from “web” and “log”), internet video (YouTube), digital media sites (Vice, Vox, Gawker), radio podcasts, political news outlets (Politico, Democracy Now!), social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr). All are accessible from the palm of the hand through smart phones and other mobile devices.

 

The cost of such technology is becoming less and less expensive. One survey she cited found that Africa is leading the world in the rate of  adoption of mobile internet use.

 

Photo credit: Kainan Guo, The Spectrum

Photo credit: Kainan Guo, The Spectrum

Ms. Overholser spoke to the necessity of being literate in this new realm of media. “[N]ow, thanks to new technology, EVERYBODY owns a press.” We are our own reporter, editor, and publisher. “… thanks to social media, each of us has a limitless, unmediated space for communicating with one another.”
We both consume and contribute to this public space.

 

 

 

 

What’s in your diet?

Living in the digital age also means maintaining an healthy diet while consuming media, and avoiding too much of the media junk food. This diet comes from “countless numbers of sources – a cacophony of information that runs the gamut from useless to reliable, from base to inspiriting.” She warned that anything anonymous lacks accountability. Regulating one’s diet has another dimension: sometimes we need to refrain from consuming toxic elements.

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The big picture: Infographics for social work

by Pat Shelly

We’ve all heard the saying:

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

splashes of paint in many colors erupting against a black background

image: TerrellCotton.com

Aristotle said, “The soul never thinks without a picture.”

Pictures can inform and inspire us.

One way to brighten and broaden the view of social work is through infographics.

An infographic is a visual representation of information or data. It combines data and design in a format that is easy to share and to understand.

Chart showing circles overlapping withthe elements of a good infographic: Data, Design, Story, Sharability

image: Daniel Zeevi – Dashburst

Given the role of technology and the internet in knowledge-production and dissemination, this educational tool is especially useful today.

Read more

Trauma-Informed Care – Join the #MacroSW Chat

by Pat Shelly

Note: A summary of the chat can be found here
https://storify.com/UBSSW/trauma-informed-care-macrosw-twitter-chat-9-10-15

All the new resources mentioned in the chat summary can be found below the list of suggested readings at the end of this post.

What: Macro Social Work Twitter Chat
When: Thursday, Sept. 10, 2015  at 9pm ET / 6pm PT
Why: Knowledge of trauma and its impact, assessment and treatment are essential to the future of social work practice, and social work education.*
How: Follow #MacroSW  (see here for live twitter chat tips by our chat partner @LaurelHitchcock)

Photograph: Images.com/Corbis

Photograph: Images.com/Corbis

During this #MacroSW Chat, we will be focusing on Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) and Social Work.

September 10 is the eve of the 14th anniversary of 9-11, which resulted in trauma to a nation, a city, communities, families and individuals; 9-11  (see #NeverForget_911) joined #OklahomaCityBombing as synonyms for “acts of mass murder by terrorists.”

This is also #SuicidePrevention Week. Trauma is obviously part of what both suicide attempt-survivors and suicide loss-survivors experience.

It’s been 10 years since #HurricaneKatrina devastated New Orleans.

Current traumas in the news include the #refugee crisis in Europe, and the ongoing issues of racist violence in the U.S. as seen in #BlackLivesMatter #SayHerName #Ferguson #Charleston.

Please join us, with our guest experts from the Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care, @UBSSW professors Sue Green @UBittic and Tom Nochajski @ubthn.

We’ll want to hear about your experiences with trauma-informed care and thoughts on how this enriches our profession.
*Knowledge of trauma and its impact, assessment and treatment are essential to
the future of social work practice, and social work education.
Check back on September 11th, when a summary – including a list of references and resources – will be posted.

Questions for discussion:   1. What is trauma-informed care? /  2. How does trauma-informed care (TIC) fit into macro social work? / 3. Have you had any experiences with TIC? / 4. What is already happening around TIC in social work and in the macro areas? / 5. What special training is needed to become a social worker / agency / policy that is trauma-informed?

The links and resources that were mentioned in the chat can be found below this reading list

Suggested Reading: (an incomplete list – we welcome your comments and additions)

Bloom, S.L., Farragher, B., Restoring Sanctuary: A New Operating System for Trauma-Informed Organizations, (2013) New York: Oxford University Press

British Colombia Provincial Mental Health and Substance Use Planning Council. (2013, May). Trauma-Informed Practice Guide.

Carello, J. and Butler, L. (2014). Potentially Perilous Pedagogies: Teaching Trauma is not the Same as Trauma-Informed Teaching. In J. Trauma & Dissociation.  Retrieved from:   http://www.academia.edu/9331463/Potentially_Perilous_Pedagogies_Teaching_Trauma_Is_Not_the_Same_as_Trauma-Informed_Teaching

Fallot, R.D. and Harris, M. (2009) Creating Cultures of Trauma-Informed Care: A Self-Assessment and Planning Protocol
https://www.healthcare.uiowa.edu/icmh/documents/CCTICSelf-AssessmentandPlanningProtocol0709.pdf

Finkel, Ed. (2015). Problem-solving courts dig deep to acknowledge, and, sometimes, address trauma. ACEs Connection Network (April 16). http://www.acesconnection.com/blog/problem-solving-courts-dig-deep-to-acknowledge-and-sometimes-address-trauma

Harris, M. and Fallot, R.D., Eds. (2001). Using trauma theory to design service systems. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Kawam, E. (2015, Sept. 1). Trauma Informed Care and Social Work Education: A Case Study. Retrieved from:
http://www.socialjusticesolutions.org/2015/09/01/trauma-informed-care-ethics-social-work-education/

Kusmaul, N., Wilson, B., & Nochajski, T. (2015) The Infusion of Trauma-Informed Care in Organizations: The Experience of Agency Staff. Human Services Organizations Management, Leadership & Governance, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 2015, pages 25-37.
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/23303131.2014.968749#.VfG6LX2iNdw

Richardson, S.A. (2014) Awareness of Trauma-Informed Care. Social Work Today, July 2014
http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/exc_012014.shtml

SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach (2014, July). Retrieved from:
http://www.traumainformedcareproject.org/resources/SAMHSA%20TIC.pdf

SAMSHA. (2010). Creating a Trauma-Informed Criminal Justice System for Women: Why and How. Retrieved from:
http://www.traumainformedcareproject.org/resources/TIC%20criminal%20justice%20for%20women%20%282%29.pdf

SAMSHA. (2014, March). TIP 57: Trauma-Informed Care in Behavioral Health Services. Retrieved from:
http://www2.jbsinternational.com/kap/TIP-57.htm

Singer, J. B. (Producer). (2013, April 29). An Overview of Trauma-Informed Care: Interview with Nancy J. Smyth, Ph.D. [Episode 80]. Social Work Podcast [Audio Podcast]. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkpodcast.com/2013/04/an-overview-of-trauma-informed-care.html

University at Buffalo Institute on Trauma and Trauma-Informed Care (ITTIC) Resources on #Trauma, #TraumaInformed Care:
Trauma Talks at UB ITTIC
http://socialwork.buffalo.edu/social-research/institutes-centers/institute-on-trauma-and-trauma-informed-care/trauma-talks.html

ITTIC’s expert Advisory Panel
http://socialwork.buffalo.edu/social-research/institutes-centers/institute-on-trauma-and-trauma-informed-care/about-us/expert-advisory-panel.html
You Tube Video’s podcasts at ITTIC
https://www.youtube.com/user/UBITTIC
Resource Center:
http://socialwork.buffalo.edu/resources/resource-center/resources.html?cat=1

Resources / Links that were recommended by Trauma-Informed Care #MacroSW chat participants:

Infographic on trauma and trauma-informed care:
http://socialwork.buffalo.edu/content/dam/socialwork/social-research/ITTIC/trauma-informed-care-infographic.pdf

Trauma-Informed Care: Top 10 Tips for Caregivers and Case Managers. By David Ott, Christina Suarez, LCSW and Kimberly Brien,  for Devereux Florida:
https://ncwwi.org/files/Evidence_Based_and_Trauma-Informed_Practice/Trauma_Informed_Care_-_top_10_tips.pdf

Top 10 Recommended Trauma-Informed Care Online Resources
http://www.crisisprevention.com/Blog/April-2012/Top-10-Recommended-Trauma-Informed-Care-Online-Res

National Center for Trauma-Informed Care at U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: http://www.samhsa.gov/nctic

The National Center for Trauma-Informed Care (NCTIC), National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors:
http://www.nasmhpd.org/content/national-center-trauma-informed-care-nctic-0

Trauma-Informed Care. National Council for Behavioral Health State Association of Addiction Services
http://www.thenationalcouncil.org/topics/trauma-informed-care/

Trauma-Informed and Trauma-Specific Services. Oregon.gov Addictions and Mental Health Services: (resources in and beyond Oregon) 
http://www.oregon.gov/OHA/amh/pages/trauma.aspx

Tarpon Springs, FL, first trauma-informed city, embraces messy path toward peace. http://acestoohigh.com/2014/09/17/tarponsprings/

NASW Maryland Chapter’s 2015 Annual Macro Conference, Sept. 25:
http://www.nasw-md.org/?page=MacroSocialWorkCo

Webinar- Building a Trauma-Informed Nation
Sept. 29 & 30, 2015
Free! Register at https://www.blsmeetings.net/traumainformednation/
Sponsor: The Federal Partners Committee on Women and Trauma

About the #MacroSW Twitter Chat Partners:

#MacroSW is a collaboration of social workers, organizations, social work schools, and individuals working to promote macro social work practice. Macro social work practice focuses on changing larger systems, such as communities and organizations. It encompasses a broad spectrum of actions and ideas, ranging from community organizing and education to legislative advocacy and policy analysis. The chats are held bimonthly on Twitter on the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 9 p.m. EST (6 p.m. PST). For more information, chat schedule, and chat archives check out https://macrosw.wordpress.com

       Our collaborators include:

  • Association for Community Organizing and Social Administration (ACOSA),
    @acosaorg
  • Karen Zgoda, MSW, LCSW, Instructor of Social Work at Bridgewater State University,
    @karenzgoda
  • Network for Social Work Management (NSWM),
    @TheNSWM
  • Rachel West, The Political Social Worker,
    @poliSW
  • University at Buffalo School of Social Work,
    @ubssw
  • Sunya Folayan, MSW, ACSW, founder/executive director, The Empowerment Project, Inc.,
  • @SunyaFolayan
  • Laurel Hitchcock, PhD, Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of Alabama at Birmingham, @LaurelHitchcock
  • Kristin Battista-Frazee, MSW, Author and Marketing Consultant,
    @porndaughter

Vet’s Best Friend

by Jim Bisco

This was originally published in the UB School of Social Work magazine Mosaics, Spring 2015 issue

Research investigates effect shelter dog rehabilitation has on combat veterans

Those normally part of the bustling traffic of the UB Student Union were halted in their hurried tracks during a lunchtime last year by the presence of two shelter dogs at an exhibit table. They were, in a sense, manning an exhibit for an organization called Dog Tags Niagara with their human companions who were military veterans.

Jacob Silver, a junior in biomedical sciences, was among those who paused. A Marine Corps veteran himself carrying on his education after two tours in Afghanistan, he struck up a conversation with Mike, an Iraq war veteran dealing with transition and adjustment to civilian life, who proceeded to explain how Dog Tags turned his life around, and how it’s doing the same for fellow vets experiencing the after-effects of combat. The dogs looked as though they wanted to extol the benefits of the program as well.

White pit bull dog standing, on a leash, with dog blanket of khaki and pink.

Jewell, a (deaf) rescue dog

Thinking the mission of Dog Tags Niagara would make for a highly relevant research project, the pre-med student began to send emails out to various UB departments, eventually grabbing the attention of SSW Research Professor Thomas Nochajski.

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Social Workers Respond to Jihadism – Part I – Rationale and Resources

by Pat Shelly

The School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo has a Global Interest Group (GiG), which organizes events exploring social issues in a global context and bringing it into a local discussion. This encourages our MSW students to think outside the box of U.S. culture and look beyond its particular strategies for social change. At our monthly lunches, students, faculty, staff and community members listen an invited speaker, and join in the discussion that follows.

Topics for 2014-15 included working with survivors of torture, international field placement and its challenges, experiences of women in the Arab Gulf, social work issues in Tanzania, and immigration and human rights.

For the final Global to Local event of the academic year,”Social Work Responses to Jihadism: Promoting Peace and Human Rights” was held as an informal dinner discussion.

purple flower is growing up from cracked earth

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Implicit Bias in Social Work: A #MacroSW chat

by Pat Shelly

Implicit Bias in Social Work: #MacroSW chat was held June 25, 2015.

For an edited version of the hundreds of tweets over the hour-long discussion, go here.

In this twitter chat, we discussed implicit bias in the social work profession. What follows are some introductory thoughts.

To find resources shared during the chat, see below, at the end of the Links and Resources section.

The terrorist hate crime and murders at Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17th were allegedly committed by a young white man who espoused racist, white supremist reasons as justification for his actions. He held overtly prejudiced beliefs, and acted with deliberate intention. Is racial prejudice evidence of an abnormal psychology? Was the suspect in the Charleston shootings mentally ill or a sociopath? Or is he a thug?

One explanation for the basis for killings of African Americans in the U.S., particularly by law enforcement, has become more prominent in the media recently. It states there is a belief by many officers in the stereotype of the dangerous black person. This is implicit bias: not a conscious avowal of a stereotype but a covert attitude, with a lack of awareness that these biases even exist. Implicit bias can also be positive; a white person may have a bias in favor of African Americans, for example, or be unbiased regarding all religious faiths.

Read more

Violence against AAPIs is a problem. So are exclusion and invisibility.

This was an email sent to our School listserv on Thursday 3/18. Shared here with Laina’s permission.

Subject: Violence against AAPIs* is a problem. So are exclusion and invisibility.
From: Laina Y. Bay-Cheng

*Asian American Pacific Islanders


For anyone who has been paying attention – or who feels personally vulnerable – Tuesday’s murders are acutely upsetting, but unsurprising. Given our nation’s history, there is never any “surprise” in violence against racialized minorities, especially the women (trans and cis) among us.

The intentionally escalated and unleashed violence and vitriol against Asians is not new. It also is not isolated from anti-Black violence and vitriol. Or anti-Indigenous. Or anti-Latinx. Or misogynist (which fuels homo- and transphobic hate). These are all interlocked cogs of a larger system of oppression. One turns another. My closest family and I are all different combinations of Chinese, Latinx/Indigenous, Black, biracial, immigrants, L, G, B, and T. There is no part of our lives that operated free and clear.

Graphic by Pat Shelly

This is a pervasive system, but the machinations of racist oppression are nevertheless tailored and crafted differently. A critical mechanism of anti-Asian oppression in the U.S. has been our exclusion and invisibility (the stark contrast to the relentless surveillance and forced visibility of African Americans is important to note). This is obviously and literally spelled out in the Chinese Exclusion Act. Today, it is equally obvious and literal in university policies that exclude Asians and Asian Americans from who “counts” – literally – as underrepresented. (Who among us really thinks a majority in number automatically translates into an equality of power? I daresay the state of women across the globe – and in our own communities – proves the absurdity of such a claim.) I see and feel this exclusion repeated when we are left out conversations about race and racism. Or when the question is asked – or allowed to hang in the air – whether Asians are really people of color.

Please consider being not only outraged by explicit acts of violence and vitriol against AAPIs, but also on guard against lenses that leave us out of your view.

Laina Y. Bay-Cheng, PhD, MSW, is Associate Dean for Faculty Development and Professor at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work.

Social WOrk Futures: laura nissen Feb. 25, 2021 #MacroSW Twitter Chat

Pat Shelly


“The start to a better world is to believe that it is possible.” Lily Tomlin

I first heard Laura Nissen speak about futures thinking in 2018, during the annual meeting of the Council on Social Work Education. In a plenary session, she spoke of the potential of using a futures framework through which we can increase the scope of social work to address society’s challenges in the decades ahead. In 2021, the need for visualizing the challenges and complexities of a world addressing the dual pandemic ( COVID-19 coronavirus and structural racism) is self-evident. Social workers have the research, experience, and skills to help shape the future.

What is futures thinking?

The Two-Curve Framework
Source: Ian Morrison, Institute for the Future, 1996

“In futures thinking, if you’ve considered a whole range of possibilities, you’re kind of inoculating yourself [so that] if one of these possibilities comes about, you’re better prepared.” (Gorbis, 2019)

“Futures Thinking offers ways of addressing, even helping to shape, the future; it is not about gazing into a crystal ball. It illuminates the ways that policy, strategies and actions can promote desirable futures and help prevent those we consider undesirable. It stimulates strategic dialogue, widens our understanding of the possible, strengthens leadership, and informs decision-making.” Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

In this chat, we’ll discuss how futures thinking is a necessary element of moving the profession of social work into a leadership position in considering possible futures. We must be at the table that is evaluating what would be the most positive future for groups, populations, and societies.

Laura Burney Nissen, Ph.D., LMSW, CADCIII, @LauraNissen, is a Former Dean and Professor at Portland State University School of Social Work. She is pioneer in developing a futures framework for social work, and has worked with futures practice and lenses throughout her career. Her Twitter profile: “Social Work Academic. Futures practitioner/Futurist. Artist. Macro AND micro. Focus areas: Futures/Foresight – Addictions – Art/Social Change – Equity.” Dr. Nissen’s blog, Social Work Futures, explores “how social workers can increase their impact through futures frameworks.”

Discussion Questions:

1.  What might it mean for social workers to be more “ready” for the future?

2.  How is YOUR PRACTICE likely to shift and become more complex in the future and what are good ways to grow and prepare?

3.  How do we build strategies for future readiness that stay essentially focused on equity and anti-racism?  

4. You are a social work practitioner and leader. Give an example of a new challenge in 10 years from now.

Resources

Futures Thinking Brief The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
https://www.oecd.org/site/schoolingfortomorrowknowledgebase/futuresthinking/futuresthinkinginbrief.htm

How to think like a futurist (5 Principles for Thinking Like a Futurist) by Marina Gorbis
https://er.educause.edu/articles/2019/3/five-principles-for-thinking-like-a-futurist

Futures, Power, and Privilege by Aarathi Krishnan
https://aarathi-krishnan.medium.com/futures-power-and-privilege-14fa9096bf6

A Vision for the Future: 2020 Futures Series with Dr. Laura Nissen.
Three recorded webinars from The Network for Social Work Management
https://socialworkmanager.org/2020-futures-series/

A Love Letter to Social Workers on the Front Lines of COVID-19

by Melanie Sage, LCSW, PhD

Editor’s note: This letter was written by Melanie in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and originally posted on LinkedIn on April 9, 2020.  We have re-published it here with her permission. It has received over 80,000 views, dozens of tweets and Facebook posts and has been reblogged twice. We are proud to have her as a member of our faculty at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work. Follow Melanie on Twitter at @melaniesage.

A white person's hand holds up a paper cut-out of a house agianst the sky. Its window is aligned with a bright sun shining through.

Social workers are often unsung heroes, and that’s often ok with them. They go about their work in the backgrounds of organizations that are meant to do other things: in hospitals that are meant to save lives, in schools that are meant to educate children. They work in child welfare agencies where the work is so sensitive that they avoid talking about it. In fact, most people don’t even want to think about it; they hear “social work” and say, “OH, I could never do that.”  Social workers try to show up with humility while giving their best help to people who are the most vulnerable.

 

Before I became a social work professor, I did casework in hospitals, child welfare agencies, crisis hotlines, and in the Veteran’s Administration. But now I am in the very privileged place of teaching others about social work while I reflect on, analyze, and research best practices for making the world a better place for the most vulnerable. I have not worked through a pandemic until now. Today I am telling you the stories of my colleagues, my former students, my current students- those I am connected to, like a string of hearts, with our value for social justice serving as a constant thread. I have asked permission to share these stories.

Against a blurred sunlit background, a clothesline has red paper heart clipped to the line.

One social worker I hear from is in her first semester of graduate school and is stationed in the emergency room of a New York City hospital, at “ground zero” of the pandemic. Her normally-bright affect is absent. I can see the exhaustion on her face and hear it in the pauses of her soft voice. One small part of her job is helping comfort families after the death of a loved one and preparing for what comes next: a mortuary, a funeral, their hopes for an honorable celebration of life, how they will manage their loss. Now she’s not sure about the procedure, things change every day. The mortuaries are full. How will they gather the remains? It’s not clear. She will figure it out. In some local hospitals, refrigerator trucks hold the overflow of remains of those lost to COVID-19. People say goodbye to dying loved ones through glass windows using walkie-talkies to avoid contamination. All this adds to the weight of the grief in this crisis. Like most social workers, she absorbs some of that grief. In normal times, she would process it with colleagues and supervisors, use self-care strategies, but there’s no time for that right now; the sadness sits with her. She is not only experiencing loss alongside her patients. She is not only afraid to bring home the virus. She is afraid to bring home the pain of patients and their families that she has collected all day long. She is afraid she will pass that on to her young child and her husband. She shares with me that some days she gets home and within an hour is called back- someone didn’t make it to their shift. More coverage is needed. She can hardly say no.

 

I get an instant message from another social work friend and ask her how she’s doing. She spends her workdays between two group homes; each houses 25 vulnerable men with difficulties stemming from substance abuse. They thrive on structure, some are recently released from prison. But nothing is normal right now. The outings they usually go on, from walks in the park to grocery trips to in-person recovery meetings are all on hold. The men have a limited amount of time to get ready for independence and worry that the pandemic will use up all their insurance-approved treatment time and that they won’t have jobs before they are expected to move out on their own. My friend tries to provide calm and structure within the walls of these group homes. She soothes anxiety and also makes sure all the normal things get done: medication management, daily living skills, online appointments, job search, treatment. She has found them virtual 12-step meetings, but it’s hard right now; they are abuzz with the news of COVID. And congregate care creates the risk of coronavirus spread. I am trying to make lemonade out of lemons every day, she says. Although she would love a good hug from her partner at the end of a stressful shift, my friend is sleeping in the guest room of her house to avoid contaminating him. There is no personal protective equipment (PPE) for her. She has made her own masks from fabric, although she knows it is not a good form of protection.

 

On the topic of PPEs, a student sheepishly tells me what she has done – she is deeply grounded in ethical practice but emotionally conflicted about how to balance her own care with that of her clients and community. The child welfare agency where she works is providing surgical masks to clients, but not to employees. She took one to use for herself, a disposable she is reusing several days in a row. She doesn’t want her own child to get sick, he has asthma; but still, she feels bad for using a tool meant for clients. She has talked to the agency about protecting workers, and the response from the administration is that they are “working on it.” Bureaucracy moves at a snail’s pace. They quietly condone the workers making “safe choices for themselves,” but avoid direct guidance about what that means in the context of the federally-mandated face-to-face contacts they must make. This student conducts interviews about child abuse on quiet front porches when she can, instead of going into houses, because maybe that’s safer. But minimizing contact is not always possible. Sometimes the call is an emergency, a mother is passed out after an overdose and needs medical care; the 2-year-old needs immediate safety. There’s no avoiding touching the child; not only is it cruel, but the child will also need carrying, buckling in car seats, a tight hug. Child welfare workers do the best they can with what they have, and often what they have is not enough.

 

Another student sends me an apologetic email. She’s going through a divorce and making a sudden move with her young child. She is currently working from home, but as a supervisor at the substance abuse center, she’s covering her work plus the work of another who is out on emergency leave. It’s hard to balance with her move. Her husband was laid off and will not be able to help with support. She will lose internet access for four days during the transition. It’s “a little chaotic with the move and work and my son at home” and could she have another few days on an assignment, it’s been hard to concentrate. Oh my goodness, who can concentrate right now, I try to tell her. All the real messiness of real life continues for each of the social workers as they provide invaluable services to their communities.

 

She tells me that many of the medical staff end up in the social work office since all this has started- a place they know people will hold space for all their grief. Social workers are not afraid of grief.

 

I hear from another social worker- a student in a rehabilitation care agency- the kind that we see on the news where outbreaks spread like wildfires and cause a string of deaths. They’ve closed down visits, even though visits are exactly the things that sustain hope for residents in her facility. She’s taken it upon herself to rally the team and find iPads to set up video visits for this group of folks who often have limited technology skills. She’s not sure how it will work, if it will work. She’s building the road as she drives down it. She tells me that many of the medical staff end up in the social work office since all this has started- a place they know people will hold space for all their grief. Social workers are not afraid of grief.

 

Holding space is just a thing social workers do. It means you can show up here with all the messy feelings. We won’t try to fix you or tell you not to cry or tell you that you shouldn’t feel that way. You can say the things that are not safe to say in other places. We will hold your words with confidence, and just as important, we will not judge you for saying them. We know that feelings are complicated, that they come in waves, that sometimes we just need someone to be with us and our Messy Feelings. We are holding space for a lot of people right now.

Two hands holding up cut letters in the sky that read "hope"

Doctors, nurses, respiratory specialists, and so many other emergency providers are still showing up every day to save lives. Social workers are there to make life worth living. They provide hope in the midst of loss, find resources for those who have none. Once the doctors rush out of the room, social workers sit with someone for an hour to conduct an assessment of their psychosocial histories- do they have anyone at home who will help? Will they be able to climb the stairs in their entryway? Are they having thoughts of suicide, and if so, can we talk about the guns in the house? They have all the hard conversations and try to leave the person with a sense of hope that things can, and will, get better.

 

As the pandemic winds down and hospital admissions return to normal, social workers will continue to pick up the pieces related to the domestic violence and child abuse that spikes during this kind of crisis. About 40% of social workers are employed with government agencies as vital members of public safety-net programs. Social workers will work with those who have fallen into depression and substance abuse. They will facilitate grief groups and individual therapy for the multiple kinds of loss experienced such as jobs, partners, parents, graduation ceremonies, and more. They will help children readjust to school after an extended absence, in some cases spent in chaotic environments. They will help agencies rethink policies and practices, collect and analyze data, and conduct community assessments so that we are better prepared for the next time this happens. They will lead conversations about how agencies can provide trauma-informed care in the face of widespread community trauma. Wise agencies will have a social worker at their tables during strategic planning to help think through the disparate impacts of this pandemic, and how to do better at ensuring equitable outcomes for vulnerable populations. As a fast-growing occupational path, social workers provide the majority of mental health services in our country and will be a vital part of our recovery.

And yet, social workers are often last in line for PPEs, for extra resources, for accolades. They are missing from the memes that say we should forgive all student loans, give raises to all the medical professionals when this is over, despite the fact that they are paid among the lowest of the essential health professionals. Still, they come up with resources out of nowhere, through a search of their electronic Rolodex of community agencies and personal contacts with whom they’ve nurtured relationships for a time just like this. You need iPads? You need a motel room, a bus voucher? You need a list of people to call in an emergency, a drug rehab that’s still accepting admissions? You need someone to talk to about the thing that happened that nobody else believes? Those are the things that social workers do. They are unsung heroes, and this is the reason for my love letter to social workers. If you know one, add them to the list of heroes of the pandemic, and please thank them for their miraculous work (from six feet away).

 

Melanie Sage is a social work academic researcher exploring ways that technology can enhance human connection and wellness. She is an Assistant Professor at the University at Buffalo School of Social Work.

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