CSW General

“Ever since I can remember, whenever I would think about college I would think about studying abroad,” BSW student Breanna Kim reflected. “It’s something I always wanted to do.” Breanna started her spring semester of 2014 at Griffith University in South Port, Australia rather than on FSU’s main campus in Tallahassee. Spending her first few days in a youth hostel, she then landed a room in a shared house with two Australian girls and one New Zealander in Arundle, a suburb of South Port.

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 who made these scholarships possible were honored.

The Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR), a leading academic and research organization in the field of social welfare announced the winners of the 2015 award for the “Best Scholarly Book in Social Work Published in the last three years.” FSU College of Social Work Associate Professor Dr. Tomi Gomory’s book Mad Science: Coercion, Diagnosis, and Drugs received one of the two honorable mention awards.

Dear friends,

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 16^th 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.

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.