Social Work E-News 
  Issue #157, December 10, 2013
SOCIAL WORK E-NEWS
 
 
REMINDERS:
 
 
Editor's Eye
Hello --

Welcome to Issue #157 of the Social Work E-News! Thank you for subscribing to receive this e-mail newsletter, which is brought to you by the publisher of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine, SocialWorker.com, SocialWorkJobBank.com, and other social work publications.
 
December is a time of many celebrations. I would like to personally wish each and every one of you a very happy and meaningful season, whichever traditions you observe and celebrate. Holidays can also be a difficult time for some, and for all who are experiencing this, I wish you comfort and peace.
 
Also, I would like to congratulate all December social work graduates—welcome to the profession! And to all of our readers, THANK YOU for reading in 2013!
 
The world lost a great leader and fighter for social justice last week, Nelson Mandela. I think it is especially fitting to remember this Nelson Mandela quote:
 
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”
 
As I announced in the last edition of the E-News, THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER launched the all-new version of its website in late October! The site is still at http://www.socialworker.com. I am really loving the new site and the great response we have gotten to it. The site now allows you, our readers, to comment on articles, to “like” and share on Facebook, to submit your own events to our social work calendar, and more. Please check out the new site and let us know what you think!
 
A quick reminder: the URLs (addresses) of all pages on our site have changed. So, please update any existing links to THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER that you have in syllabi, websites, bookmarks, or other documents. The front page of the site is http://www.socialworker.com
 
The process for downloading the free digital edition of the magazine changed with the site update. You can now find the digital editions at http://www.socialworker.com/magazine/digital-edition/the_new_social_worker_digital_issues

I also want to remind you that we recently published Ogden Rogers’ new book, Beginnings, Middles, & Ends: Sideways Stories on the Art & Soul of Social Work. I decided to publish this book because I absolutely love it and wanted social workers to read it. I think it is especially suitable as a gift book for any social worker or social work student. Hear two excerpts, read by the author! The first is Why not Why, a story about a first session with a client. The other is Killing Brendan, a story of becoming aware of one’s own ability to go to “dark” places, along with the ability to decide whether to act on those dark thoughts. This book is available on Amazon in print and Kindle editions.
 
We will be posting the Winter 2014 issue soon! In the meantime, the Fall 2013 issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER is still available at http://www.socialworker.com! Highlights of the Fall issue include supervision, public housing, resiliency in early career social workers, student advocacy and service projects, mandated reporting, and more. It also features some poetry, including an audio feature—social worker and poet Mozart Guerrier reads his poem inspired by his work as a housing social worker. Please listen—it is powerful.
 
 

I have also added Jonathan Singer’s Social Work Podcast interviews with our ethics columnist, Allan Barsky, on our new audio page at http://www.socialworker.com/extras/audio. One podcast is about social work values and ethics, and the other is about social workers in court. Check out all of our audio and video features in the Extras section of our website.
 
You can find information about THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER print and digital editions at the new page at http://www.socialworker.com/magazine.
 
Don't forget--THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER is available in a print edition at http://newsocialworker.magcloud.com. You can also purchase all four issues from 2011, 2012, or 2013 in one perfect-bound volume. They are available at:
 
December marks several observances, including but not limited to: World AIDS Day (December 1), International Survivors of Suicide Day (December 23), and more.
 
Coming in January: National Mentoring Month, National Birth Defects Prevention Month, Cervical Health Awareness Month, National Stalking Awareness Month, National Drug Facts Week (starts January 28), Martin Luther King Day (celebrated January 20, 2014), and more.
 
You can go to http://www.socialworker.com/Subscribe_to_The_New_Social_Worker and subscribe (free) to receive an e-mail reminder and table of contents of each issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine when it is available. If you are a subscriber to the E-News (which you are reading now), this does NOT mean that you are automatically subscribed to THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine. They are two different publications. Subscribe to both to get the most advantage.
 
The Social Work E-News now has 32,000+ subscribers, and thousands of social workers (and people interested in social work) visit our Web sites. If you like our Web sites, The New Social Worker, and the Social Work E-News, please help us spread the word by using the "Share" button on the right side of this newsletter to share the newsletter with your friends and contacts. Tell your friends, students, or colleagues to visit us at http://www.socialworker.com, where they can download a free PDF copy of the magazine, become one of our 31,000+ fans on Facebook, and more. If you have a social work-related Web site, please feel free to link to us (www.socialworker.com) and let me know about your site, too, so I can check it out.
 
Until next time,
Linda Grobman, ACSW, LSW
Publisher/Editor
THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER®
 
Networking:
(Be sure to click the “like” button on Facebook or “follow” on Twitter.)
LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com (search for “The New Social Worker Magazine” under Groups)
 
 
 
 
Words From Our Sponsors
Beginnings, Middles, & Ends
 
FOR YOUR HOLIDAY/GRADUATION WISH LIST...
 
HOT NEW RELEASE: What does a life in social work look like? You might look at it as a series of “sideways” stories! “If life were black and white, we’d have no need for social work.” Read Ogden Rogers’ new collection, Beginnings, Middles, & Ends: Sideways Stories on the Art & Soul of Social Work. Read reviews and interviews with the author at Social Justice Solutions and Social Work Career Development. Listen to an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio. Now available on Amazon.com (print and Kindle), Google Play (ebook), directly from the publisher, and other bookstores. Do you know a social worker or social work student who loves to read? This book is a welcome retreat from academic textbooks and makes the perfect gift for holidays, graduation, and other occasions.
 
 
 
 
THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER Magazine’s Back-to-School Guide for Social Work Students, edited by Linda May Grobman and Karen Zgoda, is available now! Get this e-book at:  http://www.amazon.com/WORKER%C2%AE-Magazines--School-Students-ebook/dp/B00EZAXVJ8 (Kindle format) or http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/355823 (ePub and other formats). Only $4.99.
 
Check out all of our social work and nonprofit books, social work greeting cards, social work buttons, and more. All of our books and products are available through our secure online store at: http://shop.whitehatcommunications.com.
 
 
You can also download our catalog in PDF format.
 
 
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**Get your textbooks!** Support The New Social Worker while you shop. Follow this link to Amazon.com for all your textbook and other supply needs.
 
Job Corner
Nebraska Families Collaborative
 
Nebraska Families Collaborative is seeking enthusiastic, skilled individuals who have the heart and desire to help children and families through direct case management.   Bachelor’s degree required, Human Services fields preferred. Experience in case management preferred. A reliable vehicle and valid driver’s license are required. You must pass a thorough background check.  
 
Apply online at: www.nebraskafc.org  
 
Equal Opportunity Employer-Affirmative Action W/M/D/V  
 
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Find jobs for new grads and experienced social work practitioners at http://www.socialworkjobbank.com, THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER’s online job board and career center. Post your confidential résumé at http://jobs.socialworkjobbank.com/c/resumes/resumes.cfm?site_id=122
 
 
If you or your agency are hiring social workers, don’t forget to post your jobs on SocialWorkJobBank.com. Please check the SocialWorkJobBank “products/pricing” page at http://jobs.socialworkjobbank.com/r/jobs/post/index.cfm?site_id=122 for job posting options and SPECIAL offers.  Our audience of professional social workers is active and engaged in the job search, receiving more than 511,000 e-mail job alerts last year and actively applying to open positions. Your jobs will gain additional exposure to our social networks on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.  Also, please note that SocialWorkJobBank.com is part of the Nonprofit Job Board Network. You can post your job to SocialWorkJobBank and get exposure on other network sites for a reasonable additional fee.
 
Job seeker services are FREE—including searching current job openings, posting your confidential résumé/profile, and receiving e-mail job alerts. Please let employers know that you saw their listings in the SOCIAL WORK E-NEWS and at SocialWorkJobBank.com.
 
There are 1,097 jobs currently posted on SocialWorkJobBank.com. Check it out today.
Featured Excerpt
Building Strength and Resilience: Tools for Early-Career Social Workers
by Marilyn Lammert, ScD, LCSW-C
 
Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the Fall 2013 issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER. Read the full article at:

Ours is a rewarding profession—and a stressful one. It can be hard to stay positive, because problems are what we are expected (and expect ourselves) to solve. These expectations take a toll and sometimes result in a process of gradual exhaustion, cynicism, and loss of commitment.
I believe there are ways to become more resilient and flourish.
 
Acknowledging vulnerability and using strength-based approaches are important tools. I hope to identify resources, creative tools, and skills early-career social workers can use. In fact, some of what we know to be helpful to clients can also be helpful to us.
 
A few years back, I offered a workshop for early-career social workers where I began by summarizing my 40-plus years as a social worker, noting that there were only three years I didn’t like what I did. Two of them were the first two years out of graduate school. The room of a dozen new social workers burst into laughter, one commenting that hearing this was worth the cost of the workshop. Although it’s now been more than two years since that day, I’ve heard from some attendees that my comment is still being talked about—because it gave them hope for the future. Early-career social workers in particular need more help than they are given in school—or as they’re leaving—with finding jobs and thriving in their first few years out.
 
They, as well as many who have been in the field for much longer, have concerns about competence, have difficulty managing self-doubt, or feel undervalued or helpless in the face of often intractable problems. At the beginning of the workshop, they clearly laid out for me what they needed and wanted:
 
  • to know they weren’t alone in feeling overwhelmed and questioning
  • a safe community in which to share these feelings and their values
  • support and help so as to have hope for the future
 
Burnout and Vulnerability

I first became interested in the phenomenon of burnout 45 years ago, although I didn’t have a name for it at the time. As I remember, I experienced it first, and most traumatically, at age 23, while working in a mid-1960s War on Poverty-funded settlement house in a midwestern city. At the time, I was idealistic but soon became disillusioned. I recall feeling helpless, but I didn’t recognize or couldn’t admit my vulnerability. I didn’t know how to take the next positive step. Like many drawn to social work, l liked the idea of fixing people and systems, but didn’t like the feelings about what I could not solve or fix.
 
Perhaps vulnerability is a no-no for helping professionals, a weakness okay for others—those we are trying to help—but not us. Are we good at giving help, but not so good about asking for the help we need? As a recent graduate told me a short time ago, calm is what is admired. If you’re sad, you can’t express it to your supervisor, and there’s no room for collective support for yourself or others. Pulling yourself up by your bootstraps is what is required.
 
We are trained to listen to clients and offer counsel and solutions. At the same time, we are human and therefore experience vulnerability—as true for us as for our clients. Still, we are expected to remain emotionally detached and to be altruistic and cool, whether dealing with clients or with colleagues.
 
I field-tested this sense of vulnerability recently in a survey of District of Columbia area social workers across the spectrum of experience, asking what was most difficult or stressful, personally and professionally, past or present. Here are a few responses:
 
  • The lack of clarity and confidence that I experience when clients are struggling with life questions or crises that are similar to mine.
  • The amount of time it took to feel like a competent and valuable professional.
  • I often feel there is more I could or should be doing and worry that my choices regarding what to focus on will not be most efficacious.
  • Am I where I belong? Is someone or somewhere else a better fit?
  • Being a (barely) “good enough” therapist while trying to recover my health and maintain “good enough” Mom status. I know I'm not unique! How the hell do other people manage to balance these?!
 
Read the rest of this article at:
 
Articles from the Fall 2013 issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER include (these are the NEW links on our new website):

...and much more!
 
Features
December 1: World AIDS Day
 
December 1, 2013, marked the 25th annual World AIDS Day. Social workers have been in the forefront of the fight against AIDS since the very beginning of the AIDS pandemic more than 30 years ago. I have put together this list of resources. I hope you find them useful!
 
 
 
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December 23: International Survivors of Suicide Day
 
Here are some links on social work and suicide:
 
News & Resources
 
Forty to None Network
 
The Forty to None Project, a program of the True Colors Fund, announces the launch of the Forty to None Network. The Network is a collective of individuals who are working to address or have the potential to impact the issue of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth homelessness.
 
“We created the Forty to None Network in response to the feedback we’ve received from people around the country working on LGBT youth homelessness – that there is a missing consolidated, national network to facilitate the sharing of ideas and action,” said Jama Shelton, Director of the Forty to None Project. “It is our hope that the network will build bridges across systems that impact LGBT youth, and keep everyone engaged in this critical work informed and working collaboratively.”
 
Forty to None Network membership benefits include first looks at best practices, research and fundraising resources, and legislative and policy updates. Members will be invited to help shape the content distributed through the Forty to None Network by sharing their experiences, providing feedback, and engaging in ongoing dialogue via Network facilitated online communication and in-person networking opportunities.
 
Those working in social services, public policy, research, and other related areas on the local, state, and national levels, or those whose work impacts the systems that serve LGBT homeless youth may sign up to join the network at www.fortytonone.org/network.  The Forty to None Network is made possible through the generosity of the Yambao family in memory of Norman Miller Yambao.
 
 
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NASW 2014 National Conference: Call for Proposals Now Open
 
The National Association of Social Workers (NASW) 2014 National Conference will be held July 23-26, 2014, in Washington, DC. The conference theme is “Social Work: Courage, Hope, and Leadership.” 
 
The call for proposals is now open, with a deadline of January 15, 2014. See http://www.naswconference.org/ for details on submitting a proposal to present at the conference.
 
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Write for THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER
 
I am seeking articles for upcoming issues of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine and/or our website. I am especially interested in articles in the following categories:
 
  • field placement
  • practice specialties
  • what every new social worker needs to know about…
  • other topics of interest to social work students, new graduates, and seasoned professionals. Some popular topic examples include those related to getting into graduate school, becoming licensed in social work, private practice issues, advocacy, and social worker burnout.
 
Our style is conversational and educational, and articles typically run 1,500-2,000 words for feature articles (considerably shorter for news items).
 
I also welcome submissions of poetry, photographs, illustrations, artwork, videos, audio, and other creative work depicting social work and related topics.
 
Please contact Linda Grobman, editor/publisher of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER, at: lindagrobman@socialworker.com
On Our Web Site
The Fall issue of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER is available now! It is available to download in PDF format at:
 
 
THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER’s Web site at http://www.socialworker.com includes the full text of hundreds of articles from past issues of the magazine. The current issue is featured on the site’s main page. Articles in various categories, such as field placement, ethics, and technology, can be found by clicking on “Articles” in the top navigation of the site.
 
In addition to the free PDF and Web versions of the magazine, the magazine is available in PRINT at http://newsocialworker.magcloud.com! Order it today!
 
You can also purchase bound volumes for 2011, 2012, and 2013 at Amazon.com. Search for “The New Social Worker” (in quotes).
In Print
White Hat Communications, publisher of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER magazine and the Social Work E-News, has published several books about social work. These books make great gifts (for graduation, holidays, or other occasions) for yourself, or for your friends, students, and colleagues in social work!
 
Briefly, those currently in print are:
 
NEW--BEGINNINGS, MIDDLES, & ENDS: Sideways Stories on the Art & Soul of Social Work, by Ogden W. Rogers
 
DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS: 58 Professionals Tell Real-Life Stories From Social Work Practice (4th Edition), edited by Linda May Grobman
 
MORE DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS:35 Real-Life Stories of Advocacy, Outreach, and Other Intriguing Roles in Social Work Practice, edited by Linda May Grobman
 
DAYS IN THE LIVES OF GERONTOLOGICAL SOCIAL WORKERS: 44 Professionals Tell Stories From Real-Life Social Work Practice With Older Adults, edited by Linda May Grobman and Dara Bergel Bourassa.
 
RIDING THE MUTUAL AID BUS AND OTHER ADVENTURES IN GROUP WORK: A “DAYS IN THE LIVES OF SOCIAL WORKERS” COLLECTION, edited by Linda May Grobman and Jennifer Clements
 
IS IT ETHICAL? 101 SCENARIOS IN EVERYDAY SOCIAL WORK PRACTICE: A DISCUSSION WORKBOOK, by Thomas Horn
 
THE FIELD PLACEMENT SURVIVAL GUIDE: What You Need to Know to Get the Most From Your Social Work Practicum, 2nd Edition, edited by Linda May Grobman
 
THE SOCIAL WORK GRADUATE SCHOOL APPLICANT’S HANDBOOK: The Complete Guide to Selecting and Applying to MSW Programs, by Jesus Reyes
 
We also publish books on nonprofit management. Want to start your own agency? Check out THE NONPROFIT HANDBOOK: Everything You Need to Know to Start and Run Your Nonprofit Organization (6th Edition) and IMPROVING QUALITY AND PERFORMANCE IN YOUR NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION, by Gary M. Grobman.
 
 
HOW TO ORDER
 
All of our books are available through our secure online store at:
 
 
You can also download our catalog in PDF format.
VISIT OUR SITES

www.socialworker.com
 
 

IN THIS ISSUE
Words from Our Sponsors
Job Corner/Current Job Openings
Featured Excerpt
Features
News & Resources
On Our Web Site
In Print
Newsletter Necessities
NEWSLETTER NECESSITIES
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THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER® SOCIAL WORK E-NEWS is published by:
White Hat Communications (publisher of THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER® magazine and THE NEW SOCIAL WORKER® ONLINE)
P.O. Box 5390
Harrisburg, PA 17110-0390
Linda Grobman, Editor
linda.grobman@paonline.com
http://www.socialworker.com
 
 
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White Hat Communications, P.O. Box 5390, Harrisburg, PA 17110-0390 http://www.whitehatcommunications.com