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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH FLORIDA
School Website: http://socialwork.cbcs.usf.edu/
(Updated 11/7/17)
Dr. Sondra J. Fogel presented at the 2017 Council on Social Work Education conference in Dallas, TX. Her presentation was on the partnership work she is doing with others in the Florida to highlight social work practice with those who are homeless. Also, Families in Society, of which Dr. Fogel is Editor-in –Chief, recently published Vol 98, issue 4. The collection of articles cover a range of issues important to social worker scholars, educators, and students in diverse fields of practice.
(Updated 10/2/17)
Dr. Fogel, a member of the Social Work Homeless Initiative, and as liaison for the USF School of Social Work to the National Center on Excellence in Homeless Services has formed a Work Group to support and strengthen social work leadership and services for homeless adults and children. Members of this task group include social workers across the state. One of the goals of this Work Group is to focus on promoting opportunities for faculty to build their familiarity with homeless issues and promote and support student interest to learn about homelessness. If you are interested in learning more about this statewide initiative, please email Dr. Fogel at sfogel@usf.edu.
(Updated 9/5/17)
We are very happy to announce the arrival of our new Director of the School of Social Work, Michiel (Riaan) van Zyl, PhD. He is a national and international scholar with extensive experience in higher education, research and administration. Please Read More. . . ..
We are excited to share Alicia Stinson-Mendoza, PhD, LCSW has been appointed Associate Director of the School of Social Work. Dr. Stinson-Mendoza also serves as the MSW Program Chair and as an Instructor.
The USF School of Social Work Advanced Standing MSW Online Program was successfully launched this summer. We are grateful to have Melissa Thompson, LCSW, Visiting Instructor, serving as the Online MSW Field Coordinator.
Ariel Fisher, current MSW student, received a master fellowship from the CSWE Minority Fellowship Program for the 2017-2018 academic year.
Dr. Iraida V. Carrion and the Hispanic Services Council Community-University LEER (which means, “to read” in Spanish) Collaborative Project, is a newly funded project in CBCS by the Sociological Foundation Initiative. It began this summer in the North Tampa and Wimauma communities. Prior to school ending, the team carefully purchased culturally relevant, age-appropriate bilingual books for children and their parents. During the summer, the collaboration conducted outreach with the assistance of community parent leaders, including interviews with parents and teachers about the role of reading among Latino children and families. Throughout the summer, community parent leaders engaged children and parents in a discussion regarding the previous week’s book while also reviewing vocabulary words and introducing the upcoming book for the week.
Dr. Rahill and Dr. Joshi are now the proud recipients of the first pilot grant funded by the CBCS HIV RIG Special Funding Opportunity. The proposal targets female victims of non-partner sexual violence in Haiti’s Cité Soleil, who are at high risk for HIV. Building on long-term engagement with partners at OREZON, a social service organization in Cité Soleil, they will assess the feasibility and acceptability of adapting an evidence-based intervention for HIV called RESPECT, pairing it with OraQuick®, a RAPID HIV test. Among the primary objectives are to enhance Victims’ awareness of risk, offer a RAPID HIV test to screen for antibodies, and provide risk reduction counseling in order to reduce the risk of HIV in future, consensual sexual liaisons. Another focus in that context is to mitigate trauma symptoms endorsed by victims in a previous study, as these symptoms may be obstacles to the uptake of RESPECT. Trauma-Informed Care principles will be introduced to victims and local health providers via a psychoeducational model. If successful, Dr. Joshi and Dr. Rahill will produce a Haitian Kreyὁl draft of RESPECT that will avail HIV prevention and testing and risk reduction counseling to an at-risk population with limited HIV testing resources, and who live in a neighborhood that is disproportionately impacted by non-partner sexual violence, in a country with a high HIV prevalence. Thus, they will be well-positioned to implement RESPECT in Haiti, in keeping with the Division of AIDS Research of NIMH’s cross-cutting priority to develop its capacity, through “research, evaluation, and collaboration…to help close the gap between…research-tested interventions and their widespread use by those most in need”. They received favorable reviews internally from the CBCS Scientific Committee and externally from Dr. Caron Zlotnick, a highly respected and veteran researcher who has been funded by NIH several times, including for adapting RESPECT for victims of intimate partner violence.
BSW Program Chair Lori Rogovin, MSW, ACSW, was selected to participate in the inaugural USF Service-Learning Boot Camp.