By Laetitia Clayton, News staff As a young girl, Carla Gonzalez says she dreamed of becoming Miss America one day. Now, as a multiple pageant winner, she dreams of putting an end to domestic violence. Gonzalez, whose current title is Ms. U.S. World Elite 2017, also is a social worker and longtime NASW member. She visited the national office in ... Read More »
By Alison Laurio, News contributor Imagine yourself leaving home to go to work every day thinking “Will this be the last time I see my house? Will this be the last time I see my family?” One young woman in her 20s has worked two jobs for the last 10 years as the main breadwinner for her family of five. ... Read More »
By Paul R. Pace, News staff The nation’s opioid crisis is creating a new threat in some of the hardest hit states: a social work workforce shortage in child welfare and addiction treatment. “The demand for social workers has always been high, but it is particularly true now,” says Michael Patchner, university dean at Indiana University School of Social Work. ... Read More »
By Alison Laurio, News contributor A 4-year-old boy was brought into a North Carolina hospital emergency room in August after his mother’s boyfriend picked him up by his legs and threw him across the room. He told his grandmother, “Mommy didn’t protect me.” Family violence happens every day in every state, and it affects people in every stage of life, ... Read More »
Social worker Rufus Sylvester Lynch says one out of three children in our nation would better thrive if public policy was more inclusive of fathers’ contributions to the well-being of children. Research and studies show that children who are involved with their fathers, even when they don’t live in the same residential setting, typically have more access to benefits such ... Read More »
NASW is now accepting compelling proposals for the 2018 NASW National Conference, “Shaping Tomorrow Together,” which will take place June 20-23, 2018 in Washington, DC. Submit your proposal today as an individual, symposium, or poster presentation to be considered as a presenter and showcase your research, innovation, methodologies, or strategies during the conference. More than 2,000 social workers and like-minded ... Read More »
By Alison Laurio, News contributor Melanie Sage is part of a suicide special interest group that meets on Twitter, where she said “the medium helps get us out of our silos and see problems from multiple perspectives.” In 2014, Stephanie Berzin was given a Teaching with New Media Award by Boston College for outstanding uses of technology in teaching for ... Read More »
By Maren Dale, News contributor Although progress continues to be made toward lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) equality in the U.S. — as evidenced by marriage equality and better recognition of and respect for people who identify as LGBTQ — this progress is not felt by all members of the LGBTQ community. For LGBTQ youth in foster care ... Read More »
By Paul R. Pace, News staff To stop the spread of HIV, it cannot be treated as a health or medical problem alone, says Tom Fenn, project director of the Coordinating Comprehensive Care for Children (4Children). “It’s not going to go away if we act like it’s the health sector’s responsibility or simply a question of ensuring we test and ... Read More »
By Alison Laurio, News contributor When Maura Nsonwu was a teenager and her mother, Mary Anne Busch, was working on her master’s degree in social work, her mother called the children into the room to try out a family therapy technique: family sculpture. It calls for the client and all family members to be physically placed in a way that ... Read More »
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