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News and Events


Publications and Grants


College Wins Grant for Child Welfare Traineeships


The Jane Addams College of Social Work has been selected as one of only nine social work programs in the United States -- and the only one in Illinois -- to receive a five-year $537,892 grant from the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute to administer a new Child Welfare Traineeship Project.

The project will help ensure that professionally educated social workers are prepared for child welfare work.

"Research shows that people who have social work degrees stay longer in the field," says Alan Dettlaff, principal investigator and assistant professor in the college.

The highly competitive award will provide a $9,000 stipend to select students in the final year of the master of social work program who are committed to a career in child welfare. It also enables the college to create a five-year Jane Addams Child Welfare Traineeship Project for students who want to enter the field of child welfare.

In addition to financial assistance, students will participate in an educational program designed to provide the knowledge and skills necessary to address the complex needs of children and families in Illinois who come to the attention of the child welfare system.

The Jane Addams Child Welfare Traineeship Project is a collaboration of the Jane Addams College of Social Work at UIC, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), ChildServ, Jane Addams Hull House Association, the Illinois African American Family Commission, and the Child Care Association of Illinois. Through this collaboration, students who are accepted into the program will receive enhanced training in specially developed field units in DCFS, Jane Addams Hull House Association, or ChildServ.

These field units will provide specialized training that reinforces the curriculum and provides opportunities for students to develop and practice their skills. Each of the community partners will also participate in a steering committee that oversees the process of selecting students and identifying curricular improvements in order to be responsive to emerging needs and issues facing children and families in Illinois.

The Jane Addams Child Welfare Traineeship Project is funded by the National Child Welfare Workforce Institute, a service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children & Families, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services.

Other recent Publications and Grants

Events


Student Representatives Needed - Child and Family Concentration Curriculum Committee


The Child and Family Concentration Curriculum committee needs student representatives. The committee is responsible for the design and ongoing refinement of the Child and Family Concentration curriculum. Faculty members include Jim Gleeson (Chairperson), Alan Dettlaff, Faith Johnson Bonecutter, and Chedgzsey Smith-McKeever. Student representatives provide the student view as the committee conducts ongoing evaluation and refinement of the curriculum. It would be good to have two student representatives, to ensure that at least one student rep can attend each Concentration meeting. The student representatives need to be in their final year in the MSW program and currently enrolled in the Child and Family concentration.

Please contact Jim Gleeson (jimglee@uic.edu) if you are interested in serving as a student representative.

Our first meeting of the year is next Tuesday, October 13, from 11AM to 1PM. It would be great if student representatives could attend. If this is too short of notice, no problem. We will schedule meetings on Tuesdays or Thursdays between 11AM and 1PM. We usually meet once a month, though there are sometimes additional meetings for particular purposes.

PhD Program Information Sessions


October 14, 2009; 3pm, EPASW, Room 4013. Please contact Candace Stoakley at cstoakl@uic.edu or 312-996-4928.

Conference Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Passage of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child


United Nations Convention on the Rights of a the Child Conference, Friday, November 20, 2009, University of Illinois at Chicago, UIC Forum, 725 West Roosevelt Road, Chicago, IL 60608. Registration is required. Seating is limited. It will be first-come, first serve basis. If you have questions, call Lilah Handler at (312)491-8161 x 21. Click here for more infomation.

2010 Commencement


Commencement for the Jane Addams College of Social Work will take place on Friday, May 7, 2010 at the UIC Pavilion at 9am. Graduates may invite as many guests as they wish; tickets are not needed for the event. Further information and details will be provided during the spring 2010 semester. Please call Wynter Spears at 312-996-3034 for additional information.


Presentations & Workshops


Dean Creasie Finney Hairston will assist a new state commission

Dean Creasie Finney Hairston will assist a new state commission founded to study the impact of Illinois drug laws on minority communities. The commission's operations will be managed by the Center on Criminal Justice at TASC and Jane Addams College of Social Work.

Dean Creasie Finney Hairston and Patricia O'Brien at the College co-sponsored conference "Re-Framing Re-Entry: Workforce Solutions in an Uncertain Economy" held at UIC

The College co-sponsored, along with Goodwill Industries of Metropolitan Chicago and UIC Department of Criminology, Law & Justice, the conference "Re-Framing Re-Entry: Workforce Solutions in an Uncertain Economy" held at UIC. The conference featured keynote speaker Chef Jeff Henderson, award-winning chef and host of the television program The Chef Jeff Project on Food Network. Dean Creasie Finney Hairston provided welcome and closing remarks. Associate Professor Patricia O'Brien served as a panelist on the topic of the progress and future of re-entry services. The conference was followed by an exhibition featuring photographs taken by ex-offenders.

MSW student, Erendira Morales, received a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship

Erendira Morales, MSW student in the Child and Family concentration, received a Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Scholarship Awards Luncheon on Friday, January 16, 2009 at the Student Services Building.

The 15th Karen Honig Memorial Lecture - Deferred Dreams after Katrina: A Current Look at the Vulnerable Children and Families of Louisiana.” by Dr. Monteic A. Sizer

“Now is truly the time for forward thinking and forward planning.”
--Dr. Montiec A. Sizer

Nearly four years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, residents are still enduring serious health and safety problems, according to Montiec A. Sizer, Ph.D.

Sizer, president and CEO of the Louisiana Family Recovery Corps, presented the 15th Annual Karen Honig Memorial Lecture to a packed room of nearly 200 attendees including social work practitioners, mental health and social service agents, and students, faculty, and staff from UIC and other area universities. The talk, “Deferred Dreams after Katrina: A Current Look at the Vulnerable Children and Families of Louisiana,” vividly described the effects of the “broken public aid system” on children and families as well as others in need.

Sizer conveyed some disturbing statistics about Louisiana:

• It is 49th out of 50 U.S. states in crime statistics
• It leads the U.S. in murders and incarcerations
• It is ranked 50 in a ranking of overall health among U.S. states
• It is highest in the nation in homelessness

“These kinds of things should not be happening to American citizens,” said Sizer. He blamed poor planning, lack of coordination, and no oversight in the use of recovery funds, as well as “scattered, chaotic rhetoric with no coordinated endgame.”
Sizer called for amending the Stafford Act, which provides federal disaster relief and emergency assistance, to ensure financial transparency in recovery spending. “The same professional accountability we are demanding of the auto industry and banking systems should apply to the recovery effort,” he said.

The Louisiana Family Recovery Corps provides programs and services for families affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and engages in policy advocacy, research, and community education related to disasters and human recovery issues.

The Karen Honig lecture is made possible by a gift from George Honig, MD, professor emeritus and former head of pediatrics at the UIC College of Medicine. The lecture was established by the family and friends of the late Karen Honig, a graduate of the Jane Addams College of Social Work, to honor her memory and commitments to inner-city youth and their families.



Faculty In the News


Carol Massat - Awarded the UIC Award for Excellence in Teaching for the 2008-09 academic year

Associate Professor Carol Massat has been awarded the UIC Award for Excellence in Teaching for the 2008-09 academic year. Dr. Massat joins a select group of faculty acknowledged as UIC's most dedicated and outstanding teachers.

Alan Dettlaff - Appointed to the Child Welfare League of America's National Advisory Committee

Alan Dettlaff has been appointed to the Child Welfare League of America's National Advisory Committee on Cultural Competence and Disproportionality.