Race in America
June 6, 2010

Keynote speaker: Julian Bond, social activist; leader in the American Civil Rights Movement; politician; professor; and writer

The University of Pittsburgh has set the stage for a solution-focused dialogue on race. Pitt’s School of Social Work and the school’s Center on Race and Social Problems will host Race in America: Restructuring Inequality, a national conference in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Workshops include:

• The Color of Money: Economic Disparities among the Races
• Mental Health: Finding Solutions to the Problems Minorities Face
• The Bigger Issue: Obesity in Minority Communities

Early bird special for registration by March 31, 2010

For more details and to register visit: http://www.race.pitt.edu

January 4th marked a critical moment in social change - the official end of the HIV/AIDS related entry, stay and residence restrictions (more commonly known as the “travel ban” ) in place since 1987. NASW Social Work Speaks policy statements clearly support the removal of the ban, and views this and related restrictions as discriminatory and limiting a client’s right to care and treatment.

Social workers and allied professions have long viewed the ‘travel ban’ as an affront to individual rights. Everyday experiences of clients range from not being able to re-unite with family, friends, or partners because of that persons’ HIV status to limiting equal access to health and behavioral health care services. The ban also resulted in persons with HIV/AIDS denying they were living with a chronic illness. And for untold thousands, the ban limited their ability to apply for citizenship and work visas.

The lifting of the ‘travel ban’ is a necessary next step in the ongoing efforts to address and stop the stigma and discrimination universally experienced by persons living with and affected by HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS Spectrum Project - www.socialworkers.org/practice/hiv_aids

Embrace diversity. End discrimination.

Background

On December 10 the world celebrates Human Rights Day.  Every year, Human Rights Day marks the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948. This year the theme is focused on non-discrimination.

The Role of Social Workers

Social work is fundamentally a human rights profession.  When the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was ratified, human rights concerns had been the bedrock of the social work profession in the United States for more than 50 years.  Discrimination and social exclusion based on racial and religious intolerance; gender inequality and violence; denial of the rights of women and children, refugees and older people – all are social justice issues that long have concerned social work. (NASW 2009)

The International Federation of Social Workers includes human rights in their definition of social work: “The social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well-being. Utilizing theories of human behavior and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.”

Take Action

• Read more about Human Rights Day and human rights and social work
• Take a look at NASW’s Policy Statement on Human Rights and the International Federation of Social Work Policy Statement on Human Rights
• Spend some time browsing the Office of the United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights webpage
• Review human rights instruments that social workers may encounter in their work

References

National Association of Social Workers (2009). International Policy on Human Rights. Social Work Speaks, National Association of Social Workers Policy Statements, 2009-2012 (8th ed., pp 202-207). Washington, DC:  NASW Press.

International Federation of Social Work web page, retrieved December 2009; http://www.ifsw.org/p38000212.html

(Part I) Elizabeth J. Clark, PhD, ACSW, MPH

Hello from Egypt,

Each year, as part of our Social Workers Across Nations (SWAN) program, NASW leads a delegation of social workers to a different country. Our goal is to further understand the role of social work in various countries and to look at similarities, differences and how NASW and US social workers can assist with capacity building for social work in other parts of the world.

This year, we are visiting Egypt. We have been in two cities — Cairo and Alexandria — and have had the opportunity to meet with academics and practitioners in various programs, especially NGOs (non-governmental organizations).

No matter where we travel, I am always struck by the similarity of barriers faced by social workers. Egypt is no exception. We were fortunate to meet with Dr. Hoda Badran, formerly a professor and currently the chairperson for the Alliance for Arab Women, who would like to see unified standards for social work education around the world. Egypt also has issues with not enough social work faculty and with finding adequate supervision for field placements.

We were privileged that Egypt’s Minister of Solidarity decided to attend our meeting and address us personally. He is one of 32 ministers in the country. Perhaps his role is most similar to our Secretary of Health and Human Services. One of their goals is to reduce poverty by 50% by 2015 — a major challenge for the country. The Minister well understood the role of, and need for, social workers and said they would welcome the input of social workers and NGOs from other countries.

Without visiting, it’s hard to imagine the sheer numbers of people living within such a contained area. Cairo has 20 million citizens — practically twice the size of NYC. The city’s infrastructure is not adequate for so many individuals. Traffic is almost indescribable, yet it seems to flow. Drivers seem less aggressive here than in our country, and everyone seems to realize that orderly merging of traffic is essential.

Cairo only gets 4-5 days of rain per year, and I don’t think I had ever really thought about the role of rain in helping keep our environment clean. Litter and sand are everywhere. Pollution is a problem, and poverty is pervasive. Many families live on the equivalent of $100-150 per month.

Perhaps one of our delegates, Larry Higginbottom from Massachusetts, said it best. He traveled with us last year to South Africa, and sees similarities among all three countries. He noted that the problems faced in each country are very much alike, and that “people everywhere are just trying to get by.”

Social workers, domestic violence advocates, health care providers, law enforcement, survivors, and others across the nation have come together in their communities to raise public awareness about domestic violence. In October 1981, the observance of domestic violence began as a single Day of Unity. Later in October of 1987, the observance was expanded to identify October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month. President Obama made the official announcement in a proclamation available at: www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Presidential-Proclamation-National-Domestic-Violence-Awareness-Month/

For more information about domestic violence, visit:

• www.ovw.usdoj.gov
• www.cdc.gov/Features/IntimatPartnerViolence/
• www.4woman.gov/owh
• www.acf.hhs.gov
• www.endabuse.org

On these days, millions of people all around the world will take part in a united action of standing up in support of the end of poverty and the fulfillment of the Millennium Development Goals. Social workers can play a key role on this day, as they do every day fighting against poverty in the U.S. and around the globe. The primary mission of the social work profession is to enhance human well-being and to help meet the basic human needs of all people, with particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, oppressed and living in poverty.

Thousands of events are being scheduled around the world as part of “Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now.” Citizens across the globe are demanding that world leaders keep the promises they made in the year 2000 to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. The Goals are a set of 8 benchmarks to eradicate extreme poverty, achieve universal primary education, promote gender equality & empower women, reduce child mortality, improve maternal health, combat major diseases, ensure environmental sustainability and develop a global partnership for development by the year 2015.

Last year, more than 116 million people – nearly two percent of the people on earth – participated in “Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now,” breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest mobilization of human beings in recorded history.

“Stand Up, Take Action, End Poverty Now” is coordinated globally by the United Nations Millennium Campaign and Global Call to Action against Poverty (GCAP) in collaboration with a wide range of partners.

JOIN STAND UP!

On Oct. 16, 17th or 18th, please join Stand Up & Take Action wherever you are:

1. STAND UP: Gather in a group or community and intentionally “stand up” to urge action against global poverty. Raise a banner, attend a rally, meet with friends. Then, upload a photo of your “Stand Up Moment” so we can post it online. (To find an event, click on the world map of Stand Up event locations at www.standagainstpoverty.org )
2. TAKE ACTION: Read the Stand Up pledge, sign the Stand Up petition, hold food or blood drives, donate books, plant trees, meet with local or national leaders and much more.  For more ideas, look at this list (link to chart here)of possible activities you can organize.

Watch the Stand Up video, which features inspiring footage from people from around the world participating in last year’s mobilization. (3 min. 35 sec.)  http://www.youtube.com/mcampaign

For more information on the mobilization, visit www.standagainstpoverty.org.

For more information about the Millennium Development Goals,

visit www.endpoverty2015.org or www.un.org/millenniumgoals

From Social Justice and the First Lady - Newsweek

by Eleanor Clift - July 3, 2009

“They are the legacy of a failed social policy that began in the 1980’s with the de-institutionalization of people with mental illness on the assumption that communities with the help of pharmaceuticals would absorb their care. “And that didn’t happen,” says Schroeder Stribling, a licensed clinical social worker and deputy executive director at N Street. As she takes me through the facility, she introduces me to someone she proudly calls “the anchor,” a cheerful African-American woman who is eager to tell me all the classes she has taken from yoga to anger management. She’s been coming to N Street for nine years and Stribling counts her as a success story by the four measurements she uses: health, housing, income and employment. Tanya has been substance free for two years, she’s in subsidized housing, she gets disability, and during the day, she does classes. N Street does try to place people in jobs if possible, and they’ve started a pilot program with “supportive senior services,” what we used to call nursing homes, where they pay half the salary for the first year for people they place to encourage their hiring.”

NASW Social Work Journal - A Special Issue on Racial & Ethnic Minorities will be available for July 2009. NASW Press has not published a special issue on racial and ethnic minorities since 1982(Vol. 27, No.1). Since that issue, the theoretical knowledge base undergirding social work practice with racial and ethnic minorities has both expanded and diversified.

For information about an online subscription or a combination print and online subscription, please go to www.naswpressonline.org

Social Work is the premiere journal of the social work profession. Widely read by practitioners, faculty, and students, it is the official journal of NASW and is provided to all members as a membership benefit. Social Work is dedicated to improving practice and advancing knowledge in social work and social welfare. Its articles yield new insights into established practices, evaluate new techniques and research, examine current social problems, and bring serious critical analysis to bear on problems in the profession. Major emphasis is placed on social policy and the solutions to serious human problems.

Hallmark will debut “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” on Sunday April 19 at 9/8c. Based on the true story of a social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children during the German occupation of Poland, the movie examines how she risked her own life to save thousands of others. As a Catholic social worker, Sendler gained access to the Warsaw ghetto and was angry at the conditions and treatment she was witnessing. Hallmark documents that “at great personal risk she devised extraordinary schemes to sneak children by Nazi guards, bringing them out in ambulances, suitcases, and even wheelbarrows.”

Sendler created an underground network of helpers, mostly women, who were willing to risk death and imprisonment to save the lives of innocent children. She was eventually caught by the Gestapo and imprisoned for three months, but didn’t release any information about her secret life. Irena Sendler never sought recognition but was a hero and this film documents her passionate, dangerous, and unknown path to dramatically alter the course of many lives during the Holocaust.

NASW commends the Hallmark channel for providing an insightful and educational look into a social worker who few know about today, but who deserves recognition.

On March 12th, TIME Magazine included a feature on efforts to keep homeless children in one school despite moves around the city. NASW member and school social worker Cheryl Flugaur-Leavitt, SSW is featured in the article.

Keeping Homeless Kids in School
By Kathleen Kingsbury / Minneapolis
Thursday, Mar. 12, 2009

“When a second-grader at Longfellow Elementary School couldn’t stay awake during reading time, his teacher gently asked him why. “He told her that the rats and roaches were keeping him up,” says one of the school’s social workers, Cheryl Flugaur-Levitt. “We discovered he’d been sleeping on a relative’s floor, and he was scared to death about things crawling on him at night.” So she went to work on getting him at least a mattress to sleep on until his family could find a more permanent home.”