A resource for finding Federal grants to fund youth programs has been shared with our team.  You can find information on the http://youth.gov website.

In September 2017, we told the story of Agnes Gund, the banking heiress who sold a Roy Lichtenstein masterpiece for $165 million and donated the proceeds to the Art for Justice Fund she founded. The purpose was to “do something about” the mass incarceration of minor drug offenders that filled American jails with 2.3 million people and distinguished the U.S. as the jailor of more of its citizens than any other country on earth.

The Martin Luther King housing projects in Harlem are less than a mile from the wealthiest zip code in America. The apartments along Fifth Avenue facing Central Park from 59th to 89th street sell for $3 million to $30 million. Agnes Gund, a banking heiress and president emerita of the Museum of Modern Art, lives in one of those apartments. Agnes is a renowned collector of modern art who recently surprised the art world by selling the Roy Lichtenstein masterpiece that long hung over the mantle in her Manhattan apartment for $162 million, one of the 15 highest prices ever paid for artwork. She then further shocked the nonprofit world by donating $100 million from the sale to create the Art for Justice Fund, which on its website calls itself a movement to end mass incarceration. “I thought I should do something about something that to me is so wrong about our system,” Gund said. With that simple statement, Agnes Gund recognized the plight of the poor community that lived a universe away from her posh surroundings but only a half mile from her front door.

Congress enacted the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act in 1974 and ushered in a new era of enlightenment in juvenile justice.  The original law provided for the deinstitutionalization of status offenders requiring that youth who are runaways, truants, or curfew violators cannot be detained in juvenile detention facilities or adult jails.

Child Welfare

Every year we take a look at the national statistics compiled by the Department of Health and Human Services on the state of childcare across the country. These statistics are used to evaluate whether the risk factors affecting the welfare of America’s children are increasing or diminishing.

Whorl Inside a Loop portrays one of the most creative and effective approaches developed by social workers. The characters in Whorl Inside a Loop, utilize creative arts therapy as an avenue to self-love, accountability, achievement, and freedom. This is “corrections” at its best.

Good Practice | Ethics | Law 

A THORNY ISSUE 

The ethical standards in many areas of social work are still being worked through the legal system. A particularly compelling example of evolving standards concerns social workers’ response to parents’ request to examine their children’s counseling records. At the beginning of the social worker-client relationship, social workers routinely discuss with minor clients and their parents the minors’ right to confidentiality and possible exceptions. Nonetheless, in many cases social workers encounter ethical challenges when parents ask to examine their child’s records because of their curiosity or because of their relevance to legal disputes. 

What's in a Name? 

That Which We Call a Rose 

By Any Other Name 

Would Smell as Sweet 

-William Shakespeare 

I recently conducted a phone interview with the new director of a Child Protective Services program in a state out west. I was surprised at the turn our conversation took.