Julea Ward. Photo courtesy of the Alliance Defense Fund.

Jeers to the Detroit Free Press for a headline identifying an anti-gay Eastern Michigan University graduate student as an aspiring social worker. (To read the article click here).

U.S. District Judge George Steeh dismissed a lawsuit filed by Julea Ward, a graduate student who refused to counsel a gay client because it conflicted with her beliefs.

The headline of the article identifed Ward as a “social-work student.” However, she was enrolled in the counseling program, which is part of the College of Education, according to university spokesman Walter Kraft.

 Ward was kicked out of the graduate program when she asked that a gay client be assigned to another counselor. The Alliance Defense Fund, a national religious liberty group, said they will appeal the judge’s dismissal of Ward’s case.

The National Association of Social Workers  supports equal treatment for all, including members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender community. To find out more click here to visit the association’s Diversity and Equity Web page.

Pepe was addicted to PCP for two decades but went on to earn a master’s degree in social work from Widener University. She just opened Myra’s Place in a former tavern. Myra’s Place, which was named after a friend who disappeared in 1983, is a place where women can go for help dealing with addiction or violence at home.

“Everyone should have a safe place to come to,” Pepe said.

To learn more about how social workers help people grappling with drug and alcohol dependency visit the National Association of Social Workers “Help Starts Here” Addiction Web page by clicking here. Social workers also help women and men escape from domestic violence. Click here to read more on “Help Starts Here.”

Mental health workers working with Haitian earthquake survivors. Photo courtesy of Huffington Post.

The devastating, deadly Haitian earthquake occurred six months ago but survivors are still suffering the physical and psychological effects of the disaster.

Cheers to the Huffington Post for this article about a team of Haitian counselors who help survivors deal with post traumatic stress disorder.  The program was started in April by the Aristide Foundation for Democracy, in cooperation with a group of social workers and doctoral students from the University of Michigan.

Social worker and doctoral candidate Leah James, who specializes in post traumatic stress disorder, trained the 10 Haitian counselors.

Pawloski is working toward a master’s degree in social work from California State University, Bakersfield. He is also  artistic director of the Late Night Show at The Empty Space, a live theater in Bakersfield. Pawloski, who works for the county, tries to incorporate his love for social work with theater.

The theater recently ran “Mr. Marmalade,” a play about domestic violence, and “Dear Harvey,” a biography of gay rights activist Harvey Milk. The theater donated $500 from “Dear Harvey” to a lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights organization.

“It’s changed the type of plays I do,”  Pawloski said of social work. ”I used to do fluffy, silly kind of stuff; now I’m more into dark comedy. And I want to do plays that make people think, that educate people.”

Social worker Sari Greene visits Eddye Williams, reportedly Washington, D.C.'s oldest resident. Photo courtesy of the Washington Post.

Cheers to the Washington Post for this article about Eddye Williams, who at age 110 is reportedly the oldest resident of Washington, D.C., and her 85-year-old daughter Edythe Simmons.

Simmons was hospitalized for a long time but became part of a Washington Hospital Center program to care for very sick elderly people in their homes. As a result she was recently reunited with her mother in a home they shared after living in a nursing home for three years.

The article said the home health care program also provided a social worker for Simmons and Williams. Social worker Sari Greene makes regular visits and coordinated Simmons move back to the residence.

The article is a good example of how social workers are an important part of the American health care system and provide valuable services to our nation’s rapidly growing elder population.

To learn more about how social workers such as Greene help the elderly visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Seniors & Aging Web page by clicking here.

Alex Karam. Photo courtesy of Connection newspapers.

Cheers to the Connection newspapers in Virginia for this article on social worker, lawyer and volunteer Alex Karam.

Karam, 33, who got his master’s degree in social work from Columbia University, is the only male volunteer at  Doorways for Women and Families, an Arlington nonprofit that provides services to victims of domestic violence and/or homelessness.

Karam said he is used to being the only male because there are fewer men in the social work profession. But he encouraged more males to volunteer at organizations that serve women.

“We have an opportunity to show women who have been abused, whether physically, emotionally or sexually … that we are there to help, that we’re not looking for anything else and to start building the idea that the relationships with men don’t have to be the way they have experienced,” Karam said.

Q: Eight out of 10 licensed social workers was female in 2004, according to this report from the Center for Health Workforce Studies and the National Association of Social Workers Center for Workforce Studies. What can be done to attract more men to the profession?

Otis interviewed social worker Ellen Hurd, LCSW.

 “Social workers … believe in social justice, they believe in fairness, they believe in assisting people in finding the resources they need … whatever those resources might be,” Hurd said. “Most people who come into social work have this kind of perspective on society and on their work.”

Interested in becoming a social worker? Visit the National Association of Social Workers’ BeASocialWorker.org Web site to learn more.

Children read books donated by Read Seed. Photo by Mark Dolejs of the Herald-Sun.

Cheers to the Herald-Sun newspaper in Durham, NC for this article on former social worker and sociology instructor Adelaide Banks.

Banks created the Read Seed program in 2001 to bring books to low-income children in her area.  “I found that many young children did not own books,” she said. “They were also not doing very well in school.”

Despite its meagre budget Read Seed is expected to give out 15,000 books this year, more than double the number donated in 2006.

The only issue we have is the article identified Banks as a former social worker. Many in this profession say once a social worker, always a social worker.

To learn more about how social workers help young people visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Schools and Communities Web pages by clicking here.

Jourdan specializes in finding the right families to adopt children and become foster parents. She practices what she preaches. Jourdan and husband have adopted three children — 20-year-old Cynthia, Julian, aged six, and Julian’s two-year cousin Adrian.

“If you have any sort of concern or question or problem going on, and she has any way of figuring out information for you, she will go and keep hunting until she can hand you something that will help,” said Jenny Vial, a friend of Jourdan who also adopted a child.

To learn more about how social workers such as Jourdan participate in the adoption process and help foster children, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web page by clicking here.

Social worker Judith Schagrin greets camper William Atkinson at Camp Connect. Photo by Karl Merton Ferron of the Baltimore Sun.

Cheers to the Baltimore Sun for this article on Camp Connect, which reunites foster children with their siblings.

According to the article, 75 percent of children in foster care live apart from their siblings. The weeklong camp helps these children bond again. It is run by the Baltimore County Department of Social Services in Maryland.

“This is not a forced visit, where these kids can talk to each other for a few hours,” said social worker Judith Schagrin, MSW, camp director and an assistant director for children’s services at the Department of Social Services. “Here the children go through the day doing things together. They are bonding here and building memories for a lifetime. Who doesn’t remember the fun vacations of childhood?”

And before we forget to mention, Schagrin was 2004 Social Worker of the Year!

To learn more about how social workers such as Schagrin help foster children vist the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web page by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Monmouth University School of Social Work.

Cheers to New Jersey’s Atlanticville newspaper for posting this online article  that quotes National Association of Social Workers member Carolyn Bradley.

Bradley and others at the Monmouth University School of Social Work created the Coming Home Project to provide services to homecoming veterans. Whitaker noted that active duty servicemen have access to assistance that National Guard and reservists returning to the civilian world do not.

“How prepared are social workers, who might see these returning combat veterans in community- practice situations, to really deal with their needs?,” she asked.

To learn more about how social workers help military service members, visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Veterans Affairs Web page by clicking here.

Social workers in the United Kingdom have taken a lot of public criticism related to several child murders. However, Turner explained why he returned to social work in Wales after serving for four years as the head of safeguarding and child protection at the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre.

What he wrote can apply to social workers in the United States. Here is an excerpt:

“They often work under considerable pressure with minimal resources, but are rarely given the recognition they deserve for turning round chaotic, dysfunctional family lives and for helping vulnerable children break free from the cycle of abuse and neglect.”

Interested in becoming a social worker? Click here to visit the National Association of Social Workers’ BeASocialWorker.orgWeb site.

Dan Coyne and Myra De La Vega. Photo courtesy of NBC Chicago.

Three months ago social worker Dan Coyne garnered national acclaim when he donated a kidney to Myra De La Vega, a worker at a convenience store he frequented.

Now Coyne could lose his job at Pershing East Magnet School because he lives in Evanston and not Chicago, a violation of a school system residency rule. He must move to Chicago by July 31.

Coyne said he will move to meet the deadline and keep his job, even if it means taking a rented room and sleeping away from his wife and children. The Chicago Teachers Union and even the principal of Coyne’s school said they are against the residency rule.

To learn more read this Huffington Post article.

Today SocialWorkersSpeak.org it sending a big jeer to Chicago Public Schools for being  insensitive to a great man and social worker!

Cundari was a professional baseball pitcher for the Oakland A’s but an injury cut short his promising career. He went back to college and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work from Seton Hall University and master’s in psychiatric social work from Rutgers.

He is now a pitching coach at Seton Hall and in private practice.

“A lot of the young guys that I coach today, they find out sooner or later when they get to professional baseball that very little separates the talent from one guy to the next,” he said. “What’s between the ears and how you handle some of the stress, some of the pressure, some of the failure and your successes are really the key to guys moving on and making a career out of baseball.”

Are you interested in a social work career? To learn more visit the National Association of Social Workers’ Web site BeASocialWorker.org by clicking here.

Erika Washington. Photo courtesy of Seattle Times.

Cheers to the Seattle Times for this article on bus driver and aspiring social worker Erika Washington.

Washington decided to major in social work because she saw so many social problems while working her way through college as a bus driver.

“There is dignity in every person, whether they’re alcoholics or begging for money on the streets,” she said. “Something happened to get them to that point. Social workers can help intervene before they get to that point, or bring them back.”

Washington was scheduled to graduate from Seattle University on June 13. Her professors said he already has acquired a knack for taking the skills she learned in social work class and applying it to every day life.

Interested in becoming a social worker? Click here to visit the National Association of Social Workers’ BeASocialWorker.org Web site to learn more about the career and educational opportunities.

Kennedy exhorted Americans to volunteer and fight poverty back in the 1960′s. That call continues to be relevant today, considering many areas of New Orleans have not been rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina and an oil spill is wrecking the environment of the Gulf region, Horowitz said.

“It is easy to make excuses for not volunteering,” wrote Horowitz, MSW, an associate professor of social work and sociology at Northampton Community College. “We are all ‘too busy’ with our daily lives and routines. We think about ‘me’ instead of ‘we.’ Let’s change the paradigm. What can we do to help each other?”

Photo of Maria Esther Rodriguez courtesy of the New Haven Register.

Cheers to the New Haven Register for this article on National Association of Social Workers member Maria Esther Rodriguez, MSW.

Rodriguez, who lives in New Haven, Conn., is retiring after serving 35 years as a social worker, community activist and alderwoman. She is now a social worker at the Fair Haven School. Rodriguez said grown-up students still walk up to her sometimes and say what an inspiration she has been.

Rodriguez does not plan to give up social work after she retires. She plans to volunteer in her native Puerto Rico, Honduras, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic.

To learn more about how social workers help young people visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” Kids & Families Web pages by clicking here.

Social worker Katarina Jarrell was part of a group that helped arrange a funeral and military honors for veteran Scott Farley, who died from lung cancer. He was estranged from his family and no one claimed his body.

“I feel good that we are able to do this much for him,” Jarrell said. “Veterans don’t get enough credit. They have done so much for us, we need to give back to them every chance we get.”

To learn more about how social workers help veterans visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Veterans Affairs Web page by clicking here.

Rhanda Salameh and the toes of one of her clients. Photo courtesy of the Pioneer Press.

It never ceases to amaze SocialWorkersSpeak.org all the services social workers provide. Now we have found a social worker who helps clients by looking at their bare feet.

Licensed clinical social worker Rhanda Salameh in Illinois is a certified toe reader. The art originated in India and Salameh claims she uses the skill to help clients reflect on their past lives and help clear obstacles to a more fulfilling future.

To learn more about Salameh’s unusual practice click here to read a PioneerLocal.com article about her.

Michael Melendez. Photo courtesy of Simmons College.

Cheers to New England’s Bay Window newspaper for this article about AIDS activist, social worker and National Association of Social Workers member Michael Melendez.

Melendez, PHD, MSW, LICSW, a social work professor at Simmons College in Boston, for years has been at the forefront of educating the public about HIV/AIDS and providing medical and mental care for people afflicted with the disease.

Melendez was diagnosed with HIV 16 years ago. Although the disease is more manageable today it is not easy to live with, he said. People with HIV and AIDS must deal with not only physical ailments but the shock of discovering they are infected, depression, and rejection, he said.

“This fight is nowhere near over, not with 56,000 new infections every year,” he said.

NASW is committed to social justice for all. To learn more visit the NASW’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Issues Web page by clicking here. Social workers also help people with HIV/AIDS. To read more visit NASW’s “Help Starts Here” HIV/AIDS Web page by clicking here.