From the Director I love May. It’s my favorite month — a month of rebirth and sunshine. I especially like the concept of May Day where people around the world celebrate the coming of spring. But there is another meaning for May Day. Mayday is an international distress signal that derives from the French “venez m’aider” which means “come help me.” It is the equivalent of a Morse code for SOS, and it is always said three times in succession so there can be no mistaking the intent of the message. This spring, I believe we need a universal distress signal for women’s health and reproductive rig...

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Natasha Houston, a social worker certified in military sexual trauma, was one of the first people former U.S. Marine Paul Schinker went to for treatment of MST, after three decades of suffering, according to an article in the Billings Gazette. The article says Schinker came from an abusive and dysfunctional home and he saw the Marine Corps as a way to escape and create a new life that was as far away as possible from his Montana hometown. Once in the Marines, Schinker excelled in boot camp training and graduated in the top five of his group, after which he was deployed to Okinawa, Japan, on assignment. It was during his deployment that Sc...

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Students from the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University and NASW Ohio Chapter Associate Director Danielle Smith were offered the opportunity to meet with President Barack Obama and his senior staff at the White House in 2011. Young Americans Colleen Dempsey, Emily Panzeri, Sarah Tarrant and Ohio Chapter Executive Director Danielle Smith found themselves on their way to Washington, D.C., last year after receiving an invitation to participate in the White House Young Americans initiative. The program provides a starting platform for students and young people with a passion for a cause to have the opportunity to brainstorm wit...

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Social worker Paula Wilson was appointed president and CEO of The Joint Commission Resources and Joint Commission International in 2011. According to a statement from the Joint Commission, JCR is the commission’s official publisher and educator. JCI extends the commission’s goal worldwide by helping to improve the quality of patient care through international accreditation, consultation, publications and education programs. JCI assists international health care organizations, public health agencies, health ministries and others in more than 60 countries. Wilson was appointed temporary president and CEO of JCR and JCI in June 2...

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Beth Davalos raising awareness of homeless children and youth through media. Thanks to two appearances this year on the long-running news magazine 60 Minutes on CBS, Florida social worker Beth Davalos has become one of the most visible advocates of an often overlooked and invisible population in the United States — homeless children and youth. “Media is a very powerful source for change,” said Davalos, who is coordinator for the Seminole County Public Schools’ Families in Transition Program, which helps homeless children in economically struggling central Florida. “I’m going to continue using it to increa...

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NASW is proud to announce the four individuals chosen as part of its annual national awards program. The NASW 2011 National Awards were given for Lifetime Achievement, Official of the Year, Public Citizen of the Year and Social Worker of the Year. Anne Coyne received the Lifetime Achievement National award. Coyne, a professor of social work at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and a consultant for the Nebraska State Foster Care Review Board, is recognized for her contributions in Nebraska and abroad. Coyne developed the Foster Care Review Board, which continues to protect children in Nebraska, and she established a sister relationship wi...

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LGBT values revisited Having been embarrassed and angry with the last two letters to the editor regarding values and LGBT families, I re-thought the issue and directed my feelings toward the real culprit: NASW. By promoting a culture of advocacy at the expense of civil discourse and scholarship, NASW has created a climate in which dogmatism flourishes on both sides of the aisle and many professional constituents become alienated. I have a solution. Embrace science, debate and philosophical discussion, and the belief that nobody has the final word on how social work values are manifested. Maybe then we can quit squabbling over who has the...

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Through the work of the Legal Defense Fund, NASW has joined two amicus briefs filed in the U.S. Supreme Court case Department of Health and Human Services v. the State of Florida, which challenges the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that was passed into law in 2010. The first brief addresses the issue of the individual mandate to purchase health insurance. It notes that beginning in 2014, the minimum coverage provision of the law will require nonexempted individuals to maintain a minimum level of health insurance or pay a tax penalty. NASW’s brief, filed by a large coalition of women’s rights groups led by the National Wo...

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The Hull House Museum in Chicago, shown above, was not affected by the closure of the Hull House Association in January. The museum is located in two of the original Hull House settlement buildings founded by Jane Addams (below) in 1889. The Hull House agency in Chicago made national headlines in January when it abruptly closed its doors after more than 120 years. The social services organization, founded by social work pioneer and Nobel Peace Prize winner Jane Addams, ran out of money after struggling to raise funds and reduce operating costs for several years in a down economy. About 300 employees lost their jobs and 60,000 people lost...

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Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick is cheered on as he signs the Transgender Equal Rights Bill into law in January. Members of the NASW LGBT Shared Interest Group testified at state hearings in favor of the legislation. Advances for the equal rights of the LGBT community at the state and federal levels have been made in recent months, and NASW has played a role in these matters. In California, a federal appeals panel in San Francisco ruled in February that California’s ban on same-sex marriage violates the constitutional right to equal protection (Perry v. Brown, 2012). Through the work of the Legal Defense Fund, NASW and its Califor...

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