Homeless Speak at Lunch 'n Learn

On Wednesday, October 24, during our ongoing Lunchtime Learning series, a capacity crowd of Wurzweiler students, faculty and staff were joined by members of Picture the Homeless for a discussion about housing and homelessness in New York City. As Wurzweiler Associate Professor Stephen Pimpare said in his introduction,

When social workers and others think about experts to turn to for information about pressing policy issues, we often depend upon our agency heads or supervisors, or elected officials, or think tanks, or the work produced by scholars in books or peer reviewed academic journals. Too often, however, caseworkers and policy-makers alike fail to take seriously the sophisticated policy knowledge that can be found among people we think of merely as clients. But as our guests today will show, our "clients" have much to teach us -- and much to teach the "experts" who create and implement public policy.

PTH Member Rob Robinson and Housing Campaign Director Sam Miller discussed their recent census of abandoned buildings in Manhattan, which revealed that there are currently enough vacant units to house all homeless families, and their successes in getting the Manhattan Borough President and others to take it seriously. They reviewed the history and mission of PTH, showing how a small and "scrappy" organization can achieve real successes, against all odds. And they recounted their unique efforts to create change in New York with a combination of direct action, lobbying and legislative action, and trying to help the City understand the ways in which better coordination across agencies can improve their work.

In a spirited question-and-answer session, Rob discussed his own path from being homeless to being an activist, offered perspectives about how to think about panhandlers in a more three-dimensional way, and encouraged students to find ways for themselves to join PTH and other local activists in working toward making our city a little more humane and a little more just.

Said one student afterwards, "This really makes me think about homelessness and homeless people differently, and I hope we'll do more events like this."

Learn more about PTH by visiting their website at www.picturethehomeless.org, where you can view videos of their recent actions, download a copy of their report on vacant housing, "Homeless People Count," or read their new Blog, which has been recently reporting on new changes in NYC emergency shelter policy at the PATH site.

(Thanks to Stephen Pimpare for preparing this blog entree!)

Student Government Hosts Panel on Religious Law, Personal Values & Social Work

Students, faculty and administrators crowded into the 9th floor common room on Wednesday, October 17th, to hear a discussion about religious law, personal values and social work. Reverend Dr. Frederick J. Streets, a recent addition to the Wurzweiler faculty, and the former chaplain of Yale University, introduced the featured speaker, Gavriel Fagin, a therapist at Ohel, a New York agency that provides services for abandoned, neglected, abused, and disabled Jewish children, and a doctoral candidate at Wurzweiler.

Fagin, a stout, bearded young man with an expansive and welcoming manner, described two scenarios from his practice, one involving a pregnant adolescent seeking an abortion and a second about a woman considering marital infidelity, and then encouraged the audience to to identify their personal, religious and professional values, as identified in the social work code of ethics, about these dilemmas, and how they would proceed in their own practice.

Following his presentation, the discussion was opened to a panel which included Professor Lynn Levy, Rabbi Dr. Norman Linzer, and Reverend Dr. Streets. The ideas and opinions expressed became grist for class room discussions which continued throughout the afternoon.

This was the first of several "Lunch and Learn" programs scheduled for the semester.

Next Wednesday: a presentation about homelessness in NYC.

New Continuing Ed Classes, Movie Night

A new series of continuing ed classes from 4:00 to 6:00 PM on Mondays, will begin on October 15 and continuing on a weekly basis with a hiatus during winter and spring break. (Click here for a schedule.) Trauma, care-giving, elder-abuse, end of life care, social work ethics, cultural competency, and using the DSM IV are among the topics that will presented by Wurzweiler faculty.

The classes are free for current students, and $20 a class for non-students. Each session is a complete unit in itself, and a person can attend one session, a series, or more. For more information, call 212 960-0801. To register by mail, send your name, address, email, the names of the class(es) you plan to attend, and a check for the total amount ($20 x the number of classes = total) to:

Dr. J. Mellor
WSSW, Yeshiva University
2495 Amsterdam Ave.
NYC, New York 10033

Movies of the Month: Social Work & Cinema

This unusual film program was instituted out of a desire to show and discuss feature length films, both fiction and documentary, which seem to be of outstanding educational value to social work students.

The first of these films, My Name is Bill (1989) an HBO production, is an excellent film with James Woods and James Garner, about the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous. This film has been postponed because of a scheduling conflict but will be rescheduled. (Check the Wurzweiler website for the new date)

Movies will be shown from 4:00 to 6:00 on Wednesdays, and will be followed by a discussion group. These evenings are free and popcorn will be served at no charge.

Finding a Way: Ethnic and Cultural Aspects of Multi-Generational Caregiving

On June 6^th Yeshiva University students, alumni, educators, joined community agency staffs and administrators for the Annual Aging Conference on caregiving. As in past years, the consortium of sponsoring organizations included Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School, and the Washington Heights & Inwood Council on Aging and Bronx Regional Interagency Council on Aging.

Evelyn Laureano, PhD., a Wurzweiler alumna, emphasized the importance of caregiving in her opening remarks.

Caregiving has always been a universal experience… In this day and age, caregiving has become more than a personal family issue, it is a social cause, an essential element of out health and long-term care system and a concern to policymakers, politicians, employers, insurers, and health care providers.

A panel of experts, caregivers and care recipients spoke about their personal experiences and engaged in questions and dialogue with the conference participants.

Topics covered included

• cultural variations in providing and receiving care,
• the impact on nursing home placement on both giver and recipient of care,
• caregiving at a distance,
• and immigrant caregiving.

These and other topics continued to be discussed in small groups. (Watch for a follow-up on these discussions later in the summer).

Reverend Frederick J. Streets Joins Wurzweiler Faculty

Reverend Frederick J. Streets joins the Wurzweiler faculty following his service as chaplain of Yale University and senior pastor of the University Church at Yale, positions he held since 1992. Rev. Streets was the first African American and Baptist to hold this position.

He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Yale University and master’s and doctoral degrees in social work from Wurzweiler.

As a consultant to the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma and in conjunction with the mental health community of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Rev. Streets helped implement a model for the psychiatric and pastoral care of Bosnian citizens traumatized by war. He also traveled to Colombia to promote peace-making and to Argentina to help foster a greater understanding of the nonprofit sector’s relationship to higher education.

Dr. Lowengrub commented, “We are very fortunate to have recruited Rev. Dr. Streets to YU. His presence will significantly add to Wurzweiler’s ever-broadening base in the national and international arenas.”

50th Anniversary Alumni Event in Jerusalem

More than 140 alumni and friends attended a 50^th anniversary celebration at YU’s Gruss Campus in Jerusalem at which Sol Green and Naomi Abramowitz were recognized for their contributions to the schools growth and development.

Sol was one of the original faculty members of the school along with Mort Teicher, Chuck Levy and Everett Wilson. He retired in 1988 as Professor Emeritus. Naomi served as a faculty member from 1963 until 1974 when she moved to Israel and joined the faculty of Bar Ilan University which Sol helped establish in 1966.

The program featured a presentation on “Terror & Confidentiality by Norman Linzer who was introduced by Joyce Brenner ’76,’83, Sue Freedman’76 was the discussant. Sol was introduced by Stanley Schneider, ‘72

Wurzweiler Alums Take leadership Role at World Council of Jewish Communal Service

Wurzweiler Alumni played important leadership roles in the 11^th Quadrennial Conference of the World Council of Jewish Communal Service in Jerusalem, June 24-26, 2007.

Max Kleinman ’76, President of the World Council; Jacob Solomon, ’81 Program Chair; and Ted Comet, ’69 Executive Vice President of the Council are all alumni of Wurwzeiler's Program in Jewish Communal Service.

Dr. Norman Linzer ’60, a senior member of the Wurzweiler faculty, appeared on the program along with numerous other Wurzweiler Alumni.

Wurzweiler hosted a reception for the more than 700 Conference attendees from 32 countries, on the opening evening of the conference in honor of our 50^th anniversary.