Jennifer Lunden is a member:
Fugitive Justice
Longreads
When you remove the social safety net, people get desperate. When you take away the last things of the people who have the least, well, even if no one wants to hear what they have to say, they will find a way to speak. I had been a clinical social worker for 13 years, and I was tired. My clients were in pain, I was in pain, and it seemed as though the world was broken. I was suffering from compassion fatigue, an occupational hazard of my profession, also known as vicarious trauma. I was emotionally exhausted. My well had run nearly dry.

Make Baltimore a trauma-informed city, but make sure it has the resources to make it successful
The Baltimore Sun
Some institutions within the city have already independently taken this approach. The school system has ramped up its hiring of social workers, and several schools turn to “restorative justice” before suspending a student. Under former Health Commissioner Leana Wen, the city made addressing trauma an underlying component of its effort to address Baltimore’s health inequalities.

Kimberly Spader is a member:
[Audio] Council Candidate Kimberly Spader Wants Wilmington To Listen To Residents
WHQR
Kimberly Spader is running for Wilmington City Council. She works as a licensed clinical social worker, and wants to use her listening skills to create open dialogue between city council and residents. Spader wants to create more affordable housing in the city by clearly defining it as no more than 30 percent of a person’s income.  She says she’d push for tax incentives for homeowners who rent their properties below market value.  And she wants to expand Wave Transit to more New Hanover County neighborhoods outside of Wilmington, and change the current bus schedule from every hour, to every 15 minutes.

Chase (Charles) Holleman and Melissa Floyd-Pickard are members:
The church and the opioid crisis: ‘The stigma is still there, but more and more people are seeing it as a disease that needs treatment, instead of a moral failure’
News & Record (Greensboro, NC)
“The main thing we want to do is reduce opioid-related fatalities,” said GCSTOP’s program manager Chase Holleman, a former opioid user who works directly with overdose survivors. “We steer people toward any positive change, and we celebrate that.”… Church member Melissa Floyd-Pickard, chairwoman of the social work department at UNCG and a former substance abuse therapist, had heard that initially another congregation had turned the group down.

Sallee Purcell was a member:
Sallee Purcell, Oct. 16, 1941 — Sept. 5, 2019
Columbia Missourian
In 1981, Sallee took a position as a clinical social worker on the psychiatric unit at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia. She got involved in lobbying the state legislature to pass a law recognizing the Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) certification, receiving an LCSW as soon as the certificate became available. She went on to become a diplomate of Clinical Social Work. Eventually, Sallee became the clinical coordinator on the BHC psychiatric care unit.

Kevin Polky is a member:
[Video] World Suicide Prevention Day sparks conversation
WIFR (Rockford, IL)
“Suicide in itself is complex because suicide is the result of a handful of different factors that may have lead to this darkness,” said Licensed Clinical Social Worker Kevin Polky. According to Polky, suicide rates increased by 33% in the past 20 years and he says social media is a factor. “Technology has changed how we socialize, interact, how I find my information d and how accurate that is,” Polky said.

Tamara Hurst is a member:
Social Work Professor Named to Lead Human Trafficking Council Subcommittee
The University of Southern Mississippi
Dr. Tamara Hurst, a University of Southern Mississippi (USM) School of Social Work faculty member, has been chosen to chair a subcommittee of the new Mississippi Human Trafficking Council. Dr. Hurst will head the Council’s Strategic Planning and Trafficking Protocol Subcommittee to aid its overall mission of preventing trafficking, protecting victims, and prosecuting criminals engaged in the practice by using a victim-centered, collaborative and multi-disciplinary model.

Danita LeBlanc is a member:
Graffiti in Treme sends grim message; concerned citizen says city should remove it now
nola.com
Danita LeBlanc is a clinical social worker who serves as Louisiana’s suicide prevention coordinator. She said Kight’s apprehensions are justified. “Nothing I can say or do will make you kill yourself,” LeBlanc said. “But on the other hand, for someone who is vulnerable, (already) thinking about it, it could be a trigger.” The statistics LeBlanc provided are chilling. A Youth Risk Behavioral Survey in 2017 found that almost 18 percent of young people in Louisiana said they have seriously considered suicide, she said. Another study determined that 22 percent of children 10 to 14 years old who died from fatal injuries killed themselves.

Paulina Ospina- Mallarino is a member:
Young eastern Coachella Valley Latinos document their experience as journalists, storytellers
Desert Sun
Paulina Ospina-Mallarino, a licensed clinical social worker, said her involvement with ¡Que Madre! has allowed her to guide the young women, who sometimes struggle explaining their lives to their parents. Ospina-Mallarino, who is from Colombia, said young Latinas in the U.S. whose parents are immigrants have unique challenges that benefit from access to culturally competent therapists. “They don’t grow up the same as their parents did,” she explained. “They have more information. They have a lot more access to resources and a lot more opportunities and that faces them with parents that have values that are very different.”