At the end of July, Dr. Beverly Atkeson will retire from her position as the director of the College of Social Work’s Louise R. Goldhagen Evaluation and Consulting Center (The Multidisciplinary Center or MDC). Dr. Atkeson joined the MDC in 1983 as a psychologist after serving as an assistant professor at the University of Georgia. She became the director of the MDC in 1996.
In June 2014, Governor Rick Scott signed Senate Bill 1666 that aims to strengthen laws and improve resources to protect children from abuse or neglect. An important component of this legislation created the Florida Institute for Child Welfare at the FSU College of Social Work.
Through her work with the FSU MeasureUp program, social work doctoral candidate Annelise Mennicke along with Principle Investigator (PI) Rick Howell and fellow co-PI Kori Pruett received a $5,000 Avon Campus Grant to Activate Bystanders to Reduce Sexual Assault, Dating Abuse and Stalking from the Avon Foundation for Women through its Speak Out Against Domestic Violence initiative.
Florida State University’s College of Social Work Institute for Family Violence Studies and the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council sponsored “Behind the Door,” an event to help end the silence surrounding domestic violence on September 24, 2014. The event was free, open to the public and featured a rallying march followed by speakers and dinner.
Five alumni of the Florida State University College of Social Work were honored for exceptional commitment and dedication to social work service, research and practice at the college’s annual Student Scholarship and Distinguished Alumni Dinner on Thursday, October 16, 2014. Sixty-six social work scholarship recipients and the donors that made these scholarships possible were also be honored (click here for the program list of scholarship recipients and donor names).
After months of reports about problems in Florida’s child-welfare system, lawmakers this year approved a sweeping reform bill that included establishing an institute to guide state leaders, in part, by evaluating the success of their policies.
Now, as the Florida Institute for Child Welfare at Florida State University prepares its first report to Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature, people responsible for improving the lot of the state’s children hope the institute will provide important perspective.
Beginning in 2015, the FSU College of Social Work will partner with the Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregiving to offer the program Operation Family Caregiver (OFC)to military caregivers. Offering free, confidential support to family and friends of service members and veterans, the OFC program aids caregivers in managing difficult transitions and obstacles.
Kenisha Anthony entered the foster care system when she was 5 years old.
After she aged out at 18, she didn’t know where to go or what to do.
“When I aged out, I didn’t feel like my social worker had my best interest,” she said. “I wasn’t able to get independent living or any benefits. I didn’t know my rights. I got no help.”
Anthony wanted to keep that from happening to other foster children. She joined Florida Children’s First, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting foster children and other at-risk youth, in 2013.
The Florida State University College of Social Work was well represented at the 2015 Society for Social Work and Research annual conference in January in New Orleans, Louisiana. The College hosted a reception at the Galvez Restaurant on Friday, January 16th for alumni and friends in the French Quarter and had a booth in the conference exhibit hall. Some of the highlights of the SSWR conference for the College included the recognition of Drs. Tomi Gomory and Jeffrey Lacasse along with Ph.D. candidate Jane McPherson.
A new report from the Florida Institute for Child Welfare — created last year as part of a wide-ranging reform law — calls for state leaders to go well beyond their previous efforts to fix the state’s troubled child-protection system.
The 50-page report, submitted Friday to Gov. Rick Scott, Senate President Andy Gardiner and House Speaker Steve Crisafulli, focused on “the need for a statewide, system-wide child welfare strategic plan” that pulls together the disparate parts of Florida’s response to the abuse and neglect of children.
