Military social work experts, educators and practitioners will gather at Saint Leo for the second national Military and Veteran Social Work Conference, June 6-7.

Col. Ann McCulliss Johnson, U.S. Army (ret), MSW, and Lt. Col. Nathan Keller, LCSW, PhD, nationally recognized experts on social work practice with service members, veterans and military families, and will be the keynote speakers at the second national Military and Veteran Social Work Conference. Johnson and Keller will address this year’s theme "Veterans in Transition," along with more than 50 speakers and presenters.

The only event of its kind in the United States dedicated solely to military social work, the 2014 conference is sponsored by Saint Leo University. It takes place Friday, June 6 through Saturday, June 7 at University Campus in St. Leo, Fla.

Helping neighbors as he was growing up and experiencing heartbreak while visiting a Romanian orphanage contributed to George Meara’s desire to become a social worker at 56.

George Meara’s interest in helping people and social work was instilled in him early. Growing up in Queens, N.Y., George remembers his mother giving him the task at age 11 to run to the grocery store each week to help a recently widowed neighbor.

“At the time I never thought much about it, but looking back it reinforces my belief that social work at the community level is effective. Neighbors know neighbors. If a neighbor’s husband passes away or has mobility issues, you can help your neighbors and take care of them.”

Saint Leo will host the only social work conference in the nation dedicated solely to military social work.

As the approximately 2.6 million troops deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since 9/11 continue to withdraw from war in the Middle East and return home, social work practitioners anticipate a burgeoning need for services to assist veterans with transitioning back to community life.

To provide an opportunity to explore the myriad issues related to the challenges these veterans will face, Saint Leo University’s Office of Veteran Student Services will host a Military and Veteran Social Work Conference, June 6-7, 2014 at the school’s University Campus in St. Leo, Fla. The theme of the conference is “Veterans in Transition.”

Dr. Jose Coll, director of Veteran Student Services and associate professor of social work at Saint Leo, is chair of the event. He says the conference is the only one of its kind in the United States – a conference dedicated solely to military social work – and this is only the second time it has been held.

Master of Social Work program offered to students in Florida, Georgia, and Virginia.

By Jo-Ann Johnston,
University Communications

The Master of Social Work (M.S.W.) program at Saint Leo University has received accreditation from the Commission on Accreditation of the Council on Social Work Education, just four years after the technologically innovative program was launched.

The program has been in candidacy for this important professional accreditation since it began enrolling students in 2009, so that all alumni of the program from previous years will be considered graduates of an accredited program, just as the new graduates will be.

For Tito Williams – a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, cancer survivor, dad, and student in Saint Leo University's online masters in social work program – the rigorous curriculum is preparing him for a career where he can use his courage and compassion to help others.

Tito Williams has learned the hard way how to face fear head on.

He faced fear as a child growing up as the oldest of five children in a small rural town in South Carolina in a single-parent home affected by domestic violence.

His faced fear as a U.S. Marine whose two combat tours in Iraq included numerous house raids at night in unfamiliar territory under the threat of enemy suicide attacks.

Social work is certainly not seen as a glamorous career.

Even Mariah Carey was not allowed a single swipe of eye shadow when she portrayed the empathetic, albeit dowdy, welfare caseworker in the award-winning film, Precious.

Maybe it has to do with the very nature of social workers, themselves: dedicated champions of society’s most vulnerable who place caring and compassion about glitz and glitter.

National Social Work Month in March celebrates the power of strengths and dreams. But what is social work really all about?

How do you define “hope?”

Somewhat ambivalent optimism? Uncertain expectation? Longing or desire?

One dictionary definition is: “the feeling that what is wanted can be had or that events will turn out for the best.”

Not just a wish, desire or expectation that things will get better. But a belief.

If you’re pursuing an on-campus or online social work degree, you’re probably doing so because you know that social work matters.

Social workers change lives for the better.

They deliver hope to those who need it most.