CSW General

When Dewayne Knight was 15, he was angry. He had been in foster care for six years and had watched numerous case workers come and go. His grades were failing. He skipped school all the time. If someone said the wrong thing, he’d explode.

So when he found out the court had appointed him a guardian ad litem — a supporter who would look out for his interests — he was hostile. He said he didn’t want one.

But Karima Anderson was undeterred. She had wanted to be a guardian since she was 17. Now at 21 — the legal age to become a volunteer — she was ready for her first case.

Letter to the editor

Re: “Holocaust education offers timeless lessons” (My View, Feb 10)

Holocaust education teaches critical lessons of tolerance, justice, and human rights, as Ashira Morris demonstrated in her recent column. These lessons merit legislative funding — and community engagement — because genocidal violence, with its roots in discrimination and intolerance, is still occurring in places such as South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The rate of diagnosis for autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is the same among all racial groups — one in 110, according to current estimates. However, a study by a Florida State University researcher has found that African-American children tend to be diagnosed later than white children, which results in a longer and more intensive intervention.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – A Florida State university professor is spearheading a new outreach program to  mentor disadvantaged youth in the Big Bend on careers in residential construction.

Florida State University College of Social Work Professor Eyitayo Onifade is the leader of the new  program, which is called Construction-Coaching Opportunities to Reach Employment (C-CORE).

The program, which is a partnership between the college and the Home Builders Institute, is set to launch in mid-March.

The FSU College of Social Work proudly announces the launch of its new magazine, Communitas.

“Social work is a shared story, and Communitas is the shared vision of our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends to strengthen our College’s community,” Dean Nicholas Mazza said.

On March 30, Mark Courtney visited the FSU College of Social Work and gave two well-received presentations on the area of child welfare, including:

College of Social Work MSW student, John Sheetz was awarded the Center for Global Engagement’s Global Citizen Award on April 3, 2012.  The award is presented annually to two students that exemplify global citizenship by building relationships across cultures and fostering global awareness and mutual understanding on the FSU campus.

Alumni, students, faculty and staff from the College of Social Work joined together with members of the Florida State family to commemorate 50 years of integration at FSU.

For the last several months, at local schools, social service agencies, senior citizen centers, art galleries and even ice cream shops, Tallahassee residents have made human-figure bones out of clay: fingers, legs, skulls, arms, spines, feet, etc. On Saturday, they will display their handiwork to the community — which they hope will join them in protesting international genocide.

The FSU College of Social Work hosted its inaugural Research Exposition, April 10, 2012 in the University Center’s Futch Ballroom. The College shared a rich array of research topics with professors and students of the broader Florida State campus and members of the Tallahassee social services community.  The Exhibition, spearheaded by Professors Jean Munn, Stephen Tripodi, and the College’s Research Committee, renamed and restructured the College’s Research Showcase into a larger, broader annual public event.