CASSW Conference Preview

By S. Jolene Hui, LCSW, Membership Coordinator

On Friday, November 7^th, social workers will have the chance to engage in a packed day of workshops covering micro-to-macro school social work.

The California Association of School Social Workers (CASSW) annual conference will take place at The Centre at Sycamore Plaza in Lakewood, CA. Participants can earn up to 5.5 CEUs during the evidence-informed day of 16 workshops, plus a keynote address by Gordon Jackson, director of Coordinated Student Support Division.

Workshop topics include restorative justice, gang prevention in schools, foster youth, family/parent engagement, trauma-informed interventions, recovery and resilience, threat/risk assessment best practices, and Common Core and social emotional learning.

Last year the National School Social Work Association of America (SSWAA) held its annual conference in San Diego. This year marks the return of the CASSW annual conference – the first since 2009. Because of the economic downturn and a number of other factors, the conference has been on hiatus since then. Instead, the past handful of years has been focused instead on regional professional development activities.

Tory Cox, planning committee member and past CASSW president, explained that in 2013, “A significant piece of legislation called the local control funding formula (LCFF) was enacted that required districts to spend allocated funds on eight priority areas targeting the most needy students. At least three of these eight priority areas are firmly in the school social work job description and, as a result, many new school social work opportunities have become available.”

At this year’s conference, there will be many networking opportunities as the attendees and presenters come from many different areas of the field. School social workers, district administrators, university educators, and other CBOs that work with school communities will be in attendance. In addition, breakfast, lunch and an evening network reception are included in the cost of the conference.

Cox said, “2014 has seen an amazing surge in school social work opportunities due to the improving economy and the LCFF/LCAP legislation, which is the most relevant legislation to school social work to come out in some time. Job opportunities are consistently going out over our CASSW listserv and some districts continue to reach out for additional applicants.”

CASSW is supported by the NASW-CA School Social Work Council and both have worked together in the past regarding legislation advocacy, including collaborations for Lobby Days.  

The event will take place all day from 8am to 8pm. To register for the conference and make hotel reservations go to https://casswconference2014.eventbrite.com.

You may also visit the CASSW conference page at http://www.cassw.net for additional information.

Jolene Hui, LCSW, is NASW-CA’s membership coordinator and can be reached at jhui@naswca.org.