Thursday, October 25, 2007

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!)

Thursday, October 18, 2007

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.

Monday, October 1, 2007

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.