VCU School of Social Work

Attention BSW Juniors:

Field Orientation for all BSW Juniors beginning field in Spring 2010 on Tuesday, December 1st from 1-2 pm in the Raleigh Building Room 112.

Dr. Karen Rotabi; SSW alumna Abby (Torres) Dini (MSW '09); BSW student Priscilla Witwer; and, alumna Janett Forte (MSW '92), director, VCU Institute for Women's Health and assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry recently visited Washington, D.C., to brief the Obama administration and members of Virginia's Congressional delegation on violence against women in Guatemala.

Read the full VCU View article online at:
http://www.news.vcu.edu/vcu_view/pages.aspx?nid=3133

On October 19th, Nana Ryosho defended her proposal entitled Job resources and demands and their effects on job satisfaction and job search behavior among certified nursing assistants (CNAs) working in nursing homes. The project is chaired by Dr. Ellen Netting with support from Drs. Pam Kovacs, Sarah Kye Price, and outside member, Connie Coogle, who is with the VCU Center on Aging. Nana's IRB proposal has already been submitted and she is on her way to a timely completion.

On November 5th, Jessica Jagger, who just passed her comprehensive exam last month, successfully defended her proposal, Emergency management policy intent and experiences for people with disabilities: A comparative policy analysis in the US and Jamaica. Dr. Netting is also chairing this dissertation, this time with the support of Drs. Mary Katherine O'Connor, Sarah Kye Price, and outside member, Fred Orelove of the VCU Partnership for People with Disabilities. Jess is leaving today for her related Fulbright experience in Jamaica.

Congratulations to Dr. Geraldine L. Meeks, who successfully defended her dissertation at VCU's School of Social Work on October 26, 2009. Dr. Meeks' title is Environmental and organizational factors influencing similarities and differences between nonprofit human service providers that are faith-based and those with no religious affiliation. Dr. Patrick Dattalo chaired the dissertation with support from committee members, Drs. Ellen Netting, Mary Katherine O'Connor and Kevin Allison, of the College of Humanities and Sciences. Dr. Meeks relied on Resource Dependence Theory and Neo-Institutional Theory to aid her analysis in hopes of building a conceptual model for understanding similarities and differences in faith-based versus non-affiliated service providers. Specifically she used data from a cross-sectional survey with 121 nonprofits in the Richmond area. Findings show that the most important differences are expected differences in funding sources: congregational/religious funding for faith-based organizations and government/contracts for non-affiliated organizations. She concludes that, as in previous research, "similarities outweigh differences, " and that instead of dialogue and decisions that place emphasis on which type of provider provides the most effective service, more attention should be paid to their community service delivery capacities, which she suggests would move organizations from competition to collaboration.

Gerry was one of our first Council on Social Work Education Minority Fellows, and in 2006 received the Graduate School's Jesse Hibbs scholarship. Her dissertation was in part supported by a SAMHRP Dissertation Award. A former administrator with the local YWCA, Gerry received two previous degrees from VCU, an MSW and a MPA, and is now employed in a research coordinator position in VCU's new department of Social & Behavioral Health.

Dr. Geraldine L. Meeks and Dissertation Chair, Dr. Patrick Dattalo

Dr. Meeks with dissertation committee members, Drs. Kevin Allison, Ellen Netting, Mary Katherine O'Connor and Pat Dattalo

The Evangelische Hochschule für Soziale Arbeit & Diakonie in Hamburg, also known as Das Rauhe Haus, established a Hans Falck Lectureship. Every year a renowned scholar in social work will deliver this lecture. The first lecture was given by Prof. Timm Kunstreich, a dear friend of Hans who has promoted and expanded Hans's Membership Perspective in Germany. The title of the lecture was "Membership und Dialogisches Prinzip als Basis einer partizipativen Sozialen Arbeit."
Timm made an attempt to bring Hans's ideas together with some of Martin Buber's thoughts. Hans received a standing ovation and for a short while there he was his old self again - what a gift for everyone.

Read the full article here:

http://pd.startribune.com/sp?aff=3&keywords=baby%20broker