May 2021
From the Director
MFP Alumni Collaborate to Build and Share Insights
What does #StopAsianHate Mean for Social Work Education?
Social Work’s Role in the Incarceration of Japanese Americans
MFP Spotlights
MSWs in the Making: MFP Master's Graduates 2021
2022 EPAS Feedback Due May 18
Job Announcements
Professional Development
CSWE Spark!
From the DirectorDear Fellows and Alumni, |
MFP Alumni Collaborate to Build and Share Insights
MFP is spotlighting a collaborative study that four alumni completed and published earlier this year in the Journal of Women in Social Work on the “long, global history to today’s anti-Asian bias and violence.”
Hear author Sameena Azhar’s take on the experiences of working on a publication with fellow MFP alumni and Asian/Pacific Islander social workers, seeing their research come to life in the midst of #StopAsianHate, and envisioning a path forward.
What does #StopAsianHate Mean for Social Work Education?
In observance of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, MFP Director Dr. Duy Nguyen wrote a piece that provides context to the Asian Americans’ present experience and highlights this community’s collective resilience. He shares his role supporting MFP fellows from diverse backgrounds as they contend with the racism and discrimination they encounter, ending by issuing a call to action for social work educators. See an excerpt taken from the CSWE Blog, below.
As social work educators, we cannot ignore the fact that racism, discrimination, and sexism infiltrate our classrooms, faculties, and universities with negative personal and professional consequences for our students, colleagues, and communities. As McCoy and Lee (2021) describe, the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the demands on BIPOC faculty members, who deal with institutionalized racism within the academy while bearing witness to the wanton disregard for Black and Brown lives in the world around us.
As the MFP director, I have the privilege and honor to engage in conversations with master’s and doctoral students from a range of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds. I support students as they contend with the subtle discrimination and overt racism in their programs, racism and discrimination that chips away at their self-worth. Through it all, I seek to validate their experiences, value them as individuals, and help them map out pathways to meaningful career goals.
Building from Social Work’s Call to Action Against Pandemic Othering and Anti-Asian Racism, to see substantive change in an antiracist context, all social work educators—especially administration, tenure line faculty members, adjunct faculty members, and field instructors—must engage in the difficult work to dismantle the racism around us.
McCoy, H., & Lee, M. Y. (2021, March 15). Minority academics face dual pandemics of Covid-19 and racism. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/minority-academics-face-dual-pandemics-covid-19-and-racism
See the full blog post here!
Social Work’s Role in the Incarceration of Japanese Americans
During World War II, the United States forcibly removed and incarcerated nearly the whole of the nation’s Japanese American population. Social workers were complicit in facilitating this injustice and were integral cogs in every aspect of this program of racial profiling en masse. Dr. Yoosun Park, associate professor in the School for Social Work at Smith College, discusses her research on this topic with Dr. Tanya Smith Brice, CSWE vice president of education. Watch this Critical Conversation about the profession’s problematic past.
MFP Spotlights
Jamie Vo
Jamie Vo is a current master’s MFP fellow and Seattle University master’s student who is interested in supporting trauma-informed culturally relevant cognitive behavioral therapy among the Asian/Pacific Islander (API) community in King County, Washington. Presently she does so through her field placement with Asian Counseling and Referral Services, a community mental health agency that provides culturally relevant health care and other services to API and other marginalized communities in King County. She is passionate about providing anti-oppressive mental health care to this underserved population, and following the completion of her master’s program she has her sights set on delivering mental health services to API refugees and immigrants in King County. “Many residents who identify as API often have difficulty with receiving mental health care and face significant risk of misdiagnosis” states Vo. “Thus, I wish to help fill this gap and provide adequate care.”
Tabari Zahir
Current fellow Tabari Zahir is pursuing his MSW at California State University, San Bernardino. In his current role with the Anti-Recidivism Coalition (ARC), Zahir provides mental health/substance abuse services to ARC clients and participates in legal policy development for the California legislature. After graduation he intends to continue working with several populations: the formerly incarcerated (who are approximately 75% Black and Latino) and Arab and Southeast Asian communities. He plans to immediately apply for his clinical licensure and work with an organization that serves the above-stated minority groups while he obtains the 3,200 hours required for licensure. In addition, he will work toward becoming a licensed advanced alcohol and drug counselor.
MSWs in the Making: MFP Master's Graduates 2021
The MFP is proud to share “MSWs in the Making,” a booklet that highlights the experience, interests, and career ambitions of our current cohort of master’s fellows. These 42 fellows are poised to make lasting impacts on individuals, groups, and communities through their post-MSW practice. As you explore their background information, please take a moment to consider ways in which fellows’ experiences and goals align with professional opportunities in your sphere.
2022 EPAS Feedback Due May 18
CSWE is seeking your feedback on the next iteration of social work educational policy and standards to advance social work education and prepare graduates for the future of social work practice.
CSWE’s Commission on Educational Policy and Commission on Accreditation have developed a full draft of the 2022 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS). We are inviting members and stakeholders to review the proposed draft and revisions and complete the survey with recommendations and feedback.
Please complete this brief feedback survey of the 2022 EPAS first draft by May 18, 2021. The survey provides you with a summary of the proposed revisions made to each section of EPAS. The feedback from this survey will be incorporated into the second draft of EPAS, which will be released in fall 2021. For more information, including implementation dates, visit the CSWE website.