News Archive
Opinion
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The USC School of Social Work’s Field Education department has received a $1.4 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration to train students in specific areas of behavioral health in an effort to address gun violence.
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The dampness just wouldn’t go away.
“We spent three and a half days in a typhoon. You couldn’t see 10 feet in front of you,” said Marleen Wong, clinical professor and associate dean of field education at the USC School of Social Work. “The air was so full of moisture that my shoes never dried out, and the linens in our rooms were moist.”
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Gerardo Reynoso joined the Army because he wanted adventure and prestige. He signed up while still in high school during peacetime and was captivated by the idea of escaping his Southern California neighborhood and living in Europe, where the most danger he could possibly see would be in Bosnia.
But two days before graduating from boot camp, the plan changed. It was Sept. 11, 2001.
“I didn’t even realize it happened,” Reynoso said.
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The recent publication of "America's Youngest Outcasts" by the National Center on Family Homelessness reports a staggering 2.5 million homeless children under the age of 18. Justifiably, this news has people in an uproar.
As someone who has conducted extensive research with homeless teens and young adults for more than a decade, I am glad to see the problem making headlines and spurring discussion.
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As veterans return from war, how ready are we for them? Are we doing enough to help with that transition? What more can and should we be doing to streamline assistance to veterans and their families?
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California is home to nearly 1.8 million veterans, with more than 325,000 living in Los Angeles. But as troops leave the nation's longest-running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and service members complete their tours of duty, another 12,000 new veterans are expected to be added to our local population annually.
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In the weeks before Veterans Day, one of the assignments I give my USC graduate students who are preparing to become school social workers is to organize an activity that involves schools in honoring those who have served our country. The Military Child Education Coalition estimates that close to four million children of veteran and military families are currently in our public schools.
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It’s safe to say Marilyn Flynn is in esteemed company.
The dean of the USC School of Social Work is among six individuals with distinguished and successful careers in social work who were inducted into the California Social Work Hall of Distinction during a recent ceremony that recognized their exceptional contributions to social justice and social welfare.
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As the wife of a disabled veteran, Krystal Lerner knows first-hand the struggles many veterans face and the impact that can have on those closest to them.
Lerner remembers the frustration she personally experienced going through the Veterans Affairs system trying to get her husband connected with services.
“I made three pages worth of phone calls to people, and everyone kept referring me to someone else,” she said.
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In the sweltering summer heat of California’s Central Valley, with the low throb of a swamp cooler rumbling through the frame of her grandmother’s Victorian house, Marleen Wong learned a secret that would change the course of her life.