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November 21, 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SMITH SCHOOL FOR SOCIAL WORK RECEIVES
LARGEST GRANT IN ITS HISTORY

$680,000 Contract From Annie E. Casey Foundation Will Fund Study Of
Seven Innovative Family Support Centers On The East Coast

NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- With the help of a $680,000 grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a prestigious national foundation dedicated to improving the lives of disadvantaged children and families in the United States, the Smith College School for Social Work (SCSSW) and Casey Family Services has embarked on an innovative partnership. (Casey Family Services is the direct service arm of the Annie E. Casey Foundation.)

The joint project, a three-year study of Casey Family Services' pioneering Family Resource Centers (FRCs), is expected to both improve the delivery of services to children and families and influence the future direction of social work practice and scholarship.


Under the leadership of principal investigators Joyce Everett, an expert in child welfare services, and Jim Drisko, a child therapist and clinical researcher, SCSSW researchers will observe the development and effectiveness of seven of the FRCs, which range in location from Maryland to Vermont.


The centers are noted for their fluid, situation-based approach, in which social workers collaborate with families and local officials to develop resources, such as counseling, day care, pregnancy prevention and educational support services, that are specific to the community's needs. The collaboration between SCSSW and Casey Family Services will provide the first research-based analysis of whether ­ and how ­ this model of social service delivery succeeds.


As researchers studying the evolution of the FRCs, Everett and Drisko will examine "how decisions were made, why they were made and how they influenced the development of specific centers," Drisko explains.


In visits to FRC sites, the researchers will also investigate "the types of challenges each center has experienced and the strategies that were used to address those challenges," says Everett. "Another major area we'll be examining is each of the centers' efforts to engage in community building-how they get the community to participate and become interested in the centers themselves.


"One reason we are interested in this study is that the FRCs will have an important impact on the way social services are provided," Everett continues. "And that has implications for what we teach future social workers. What we learn will be fed directly back into the School for Social Work curriculum."


Affiliating with leading agencies and foundations is a key goal of the SCSSW's Center for Innovative Practice. Director Georgina Lucas, who facilitated the grant proposal, sees the project as "a wonderful partnership for the school."


"This is the largest grant that the School for Social Work has ever received," Lucas notes. "The fact that it represents an affiliation with an agency of such national reputation is very consistent with Smith's interest in continuing to be a leader in social work education."


Lucas sees the project as an opportunity for scholarship among the SCSSW faculty, as a means of gaining new knowledge of community-based practice and, significantly, as "a vehicle for enhancing the training of doctoral students, who will be the scholars and educators of the future."


The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private, charitable organization dedicated to helping build better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. Its primary mission is to improve public policies and systems and foster community support to meet the needs of vulnerable children and families.


Now in its 25th year, Casey Family Services provides a wide array of comprehensive programs and services for vulnerable children and families. Through divisions in Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, Casey operates programs in foster care, post-adoption services, family preservation, family reunification, family advocacy and support, and provides services for teen parents, young families and families affected by HIV/AIDS.


Founded in 1918, the Smith College School for Social Work offers master's and doctoral degrees in social work with a concentration in clinical practice. It is one of the oldest and most distinguished schools for clinical social work in the United States.

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