Blog:  Recent chats about licensing standards and title protection and scope of practice made me wonder, why social work?  Why do people choose to enter such a broad, almost amorphous career path, and then fight so hard to define it, instead of embracing the profession for its wide-spread appeal and wide-spread ability to help enact positive change?

For many of us it is part of who we are. We'd be doing "social work" regardless of our career path.

For some of us, it seems to be perhaps the pursuit of a shorter duration and somewhat less educationally demanding yet more interrelated-systems focused route to a clinical counseling career, or a desire to practice professional macro social work without having to sit for an exam and apply for licensed status. 

What do most people think of when they think of social workers?  Learn more.

Preventing Youth Violence:   Program Activities Guide 

Violent injury and death disproportionately affect adolescents and young adults in the United States. Although homicide rates have dropped in recent years, rates remain unacceptably high. The Preventing Youth Violence: Program Activities Guide describes CDC's public health activities and research to prevent youth violence. The guide outlines five categories of activities which are key to CDC's prevention work: monitoring and researching the problem, developing and evaluating prevention strategies, supporting and enhancing prevention programs, providing prevention resources, and encouraging research and development. Download Guide. 

Measuring Violence-Related Attitudes, Behaviors and Influences Among Youths:   A Compendium of Assessment Tools     

This CEP [Character Education Partnership] position paper argues that education in our nation is at a defining moment, one with the potential to reshape our national conversation about school improvement. Successful schools-ones that foster both academic excellence and ethics-have positive, effective school cultures. We define a positive school culture broadly to include the schoolwide ethos and the culture of individual classrooms, high expectations for learning and achievement, a safe and caring environment, shared values and relational trust, a powerful pedagogy and curriculum, high student motivation and engagement, a professional faculty culture, and partnerships with families and the community.  Read position paper.

Exhaustion Is Not a Status Symbol  

"To me, a leader is someone who holds her- or himself accountable for finding potential in people and processes. And so what I think is really important is sustainability. If it's crunch time and from Tuesday morning through Wednesday night all bets are off, then there should be some real boundary holding Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. When people just don't make themselves available, I think it's healthy, and I think it's smart."  So stated Dr. Brené Brown, professor at the University of Houston, during a recent conversation with Lillian Cunningham of the Washington Post. Read full interview.  

While educators and psychologists have said for decades that the effects of poverty interfere with students' academic achievement, new evidence from cognitive and neuroscience is showing exactly how adversity in childhood damages students' long-term learning and health.  Those studies show that stress forms the link between childhood adversity and poor academic achievement, but that not all adversity-or all stress-is bad for students.

"Children from their earliest life need to learn how to manage adversity," such as dealing with the first day of school, said Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff, the director of Harvard University's Center on the Developing Child, in Cambridge, Mass.  Complete article.

Study: Inclusion May Not Be Best After All 

Inclusion is often believed to be the best option for students with disabilities, but a new study calls into question whether or not the practice truly leads to better outcomes long term.

Researchers found that students with autism who spent 75 to 100 percent of their time in general education classrooms were no more likely to complete high school, go to college or see improvements in cognitive functioning than those who spent more time in segregated environments.

The results published . . . in a special supplement to the journal Pediatrics come from a study of nearly 500 young adults with autism who received special education services at public schools nationwide.  Read more.  Access study. 

The biennial Nestlé Very Best in Youth program was created to spotlight the best in youth leadership by identifying and honoring teenagers in the United States whose community service efforts are making a profound difference in the lives of others.  Nestlé seeks to help young people who want to make a difference realize their dreams by donating $1,000 in the name of each winner to the charity of his or her choice. Nestlé also awards the winner a trip to Los Angeles, California, for the Very Best in Youth awards ceremony. More. 

NEA Foundation-Nickelodean Big Help Grant