News Archive
Practice
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The Homelessness Policy Research Institute (HPRI) has appointed Ben Henwood as its new director, effective July 1, 2024. HPRI is a collaborative of over one hundred researchers, policymakers, service providers, and experts with lived experience of homelessness dedicated to accelerating equitable and culturally-informed solutions to homelessness in Los Angeles County.
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Tracie Kirkland, associate teaching professor in the Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) program at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work has been selected for induction into the Fellows of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (FAANP). Kirkland receives this prestigious honor on June 27 at the 2024 AANP National Conference in Nashville, Tennessee.
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Since she was 15 years old, Mayra Zaragoza, MSW ’24, has been helping youth find connection and a sense of belonging. Born and raised in the North San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, where gang life was prevalent within her community and in her own family, she is now a graduate of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work.
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In 2013, Robert Hernandez, assistant teaching professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, hosted a youth extravaganza working with community-based organizations to bring 125 youth to the USC campus, all of whom were on probation within the criminal justice system. While talking with them, he learned that most had grown up within a block or two of the campus but had never stepped foot on it.
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Los Angeles has more veterans experiencing homelessness than any other city in the United States. Nearly 3,500 individuals were identified as having served in a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces in the 2023 Greater Los Angeles Homeless Count report, approximately 10% of the total national population of veterans.
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On October 21, 2023, the California Social Work Hall of Distinction hosts its 21st annual induction ceremony, honoring individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the social work profession and social welfare throughout California. Inductees to the Hall of Distinction are visionaries who have made transformational contributions to practice, policy and research for the betterment of our communities.
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Margarita Artavia, professor of practicum education at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, has four primary tenets for life in which she strongly believes and have never failed her: respect, openness, curiosity and individual accountability. Since 2016, Artavia has held a joint appointment with the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at USC.
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In 2022, approximately 2.9 million Californians had a substance use disorder (SUD), yet only about 10% received treatment, driven in part by a statewide shortage of SUD counselors.
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A 20-person delegation of administrators, clinical supervisors and licensed social workers from the Taiwan Fund for Children and Families (TFCF), the private charitable organization that delivers child and family services for the government of Taiwan, joined faculty at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work for a three-week intensive training and cross-cultural exchange on the USC campus.
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USC has been steadily building a world-class program in the education of school social workers for decades. Social work in schools and educational settings is woven into the DNA of the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, with roots stretching back to the school’s first dean, Arlien Johnson, who led the school from 1939 to 1959 and authored one of the first books on social work in school settings, School Social Work: Its Contribution to Professional Education, in 1962.