Advancing the knowledge base for social work not only involves developing a deep understanding of social problems to inform social policites and practices. It also often times involves direct, tangible, "dirt under the fingernails" engagement with and service to those who are most vulnerable—carrying out a science of learning by doing.
The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS ) has new leadership in Richard H. Calica, A.M. ’73, who was named director in December. Calica and Mark Courtney, a professor at SSA , recently sat down to discuss Calica’s plans for DCFS and thoughts on its role, statewide standards and the importance of evidence-based practice.
A new study has found that adolescents from families with two biological parents enjoy significantly better physical health than adolescents from single-parent families, families with step-parents and families with cohabitating parents.
Child support used to be simpler. When current guidelines emerged in the 1980s they were envisioned for a couple divided by divorce. Most of the time the father paid the mother to support their children.
Concern about the abuse of children in state care has been growing. One study in Great Britain found that children in foster care are seven to eight times more likely than other children to be reported or assessed as maltreated, and children in residential care six times more likely.
The issue of children being bullied is a regular topic in the news these days, in part because it’s on the rise. The percentage of students aged 12 to 18 who reported being bullied at school increased 24.5 percent between 2003 and 2007, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and in 2009, one in five high school students reported being bullied in the previous 10 months.
Motivational Interviewing has gone far beyond its roots. Created in the early 1980s as a substance abuse treatment in the U.S., the therapy is being used today in the corrections system in Singapore, for HIV risk prevention in Northern Europe and Tanzania, for water purification in Zambia and Malawi, and more.
Poverty is more than just another word for “low-income.” The complex realities of living in poverty and the many issues that impact whether and how someone can rise out of poverty are much too complicated to be fit into a single frame.