New jail report released

Dean Betsy Farmer, Daniel Lee, Christina Huerta, and Amanda Cruce recently completed a study that collected surveys from 1,418 people who were incarcerated at the Allegheny County Jail. The study, requested by the Inmate Welfare Fund of the Jail Oversight Board and funded by the Inmate Welfare Fund and Allegheny County DHS focused on jail residents' experiences and views on a variety of issues, with an intent to provide point-in-time data that could drive change and provide a baseline for annual surveys in the jail. Read the recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article about the report.

New findings for the SPIN Project

Acting Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and Associate Professor Jaime Booth is the PI of the Spaces and People in Neighborhoods (SPIN) Project, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), that seeks to understand Black youths’ experiences of supportive and stressful microspaces in their neighborhood, with the goal of designing interventions that may mitigate race-based health and well-being disparities. Her new article in Youth & Society reported on the latest results of the SPIN Project and found community features like collective efficacy protect Black youth from stress and substance use in their home neighborhood. However, when Black youth are outside their home neighborhood, these same community features may be experienced as stressful and are related to subsequent substance use. Read "Examination of the Relationship Between Daily Perceptions of Collective Efficacy and Marijuana Use Among Black Youth: Does the Location of the Perception Matters?".

Two new certificates available this year

Social workers in training with the Community Organizing and Social Practice (COSA) specialization will find two new certificates to expand their skills. Students working in a community organizing setting can complete the COSA Community Organizing and Practice Certificate, where they can practice skills that have become increasingly important to the careers and advancement of professionals in the field.

Meanwhile, the COSA Gerontology Certificate is designed to increase students’ understanding of the aging process and to provide skills to practice with organizations and communities and to advance advocacy on behalf of older adults and their families.

Read more.

Doctoral student lands new position at Pitt

Doctoral student Soobin Kim was selected as a teaching fellow for the University Center for Teaching and Learning Graduate Student Teaching Initiative (Graduate Student Teaching Initiative – University Center for Teaching and Learning (pitt.edu). She will be working there for this academic year (2022/23). Her role will be providing support for teaching assistants/fellows as well as graduate/professional students generally interested in pedagogy, and working with the Teaching Center’s staff to implement and improve services for graduate student teaching at the University.

Dr. Anthony Silvestre, Long-Time Pitt Men’s Study Co-Investigator, Has Passed Away

Doctoral alumnus Dr. Anthony Silvestre, the long-time co-investigator at Pitt Men’s Study researching HIV/AIDS, passed away peacefully last week at his home in Vermont where he lived with his husband Michael Sutherland for the past five years. Dr. Silvestre’s research with the Pitt Men’s Study impacted countless in the LGBTQ Community not only in Pittsburgh but around the world. Read more.

Alumna named 40 under 40

MSW alumna Miracle Jones, Director of Advocacy and Policy at 1Hood Media Academy, has been named one of Pittsburgh Magazine's 40 under 40 for 2022. See full list here.

Pets: The Unsung Pandemic Heroes

University of Pittsburgh rising sophomore biology major Sahana Sridar worked with Dr. Mary Beth Rauktis this summer on her pet research and penned an article for the Latham Letters (see pages 12-16).

ICYMI: Orientation 2022 and August Graduation photos

Check out all of the photos from Orientation 2022 and August 2022 graduation on the School of Social Work Flickr page.