Public Eye
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| Kathleen Borland |
After more than 20 years as a mediator with the Cook County
Circuit Court in Chicago, Ill., longtime NASW member Kathleen Borland has
turned her attention globally, according to an article in Chicago’s Skyline
newspaper.
Borland, LCSW, is retired from her position as mediator and
devotes her time to the social services program at Chicago Sister Cities
International, which she founded in 1960 and volunteers for as chairwoman.
Sister Cities International is a nonprofit organization that
works to globally strengthen social work network ties and partnerships between
the United States and communities in more than 136 countries.
As an NASW volunteer in the mid-1990s, Borland traveled to
Hamburg, Germany, where she saw aspects of a social welfare system that she
felt Chicago could learn from. In particular, she admired the emphasis on using
community issues as a way for individuals to change — a theory similar to the
one promoted by Jane Addams in the U.S. a century before, Borland says in the
Skyline article.
The trip served as Borland’s first inspiration for Sister
Cities. The social services program she created offers an exchange between
social worker delegates in Chicago and its 28 international ‘sister’ cities,
who travel to one another’s country’s to observe the social services systems at
local levels.
The program aims to expand social workers’ horizons and give
them the opportunity to learn how to apply what they observe abroad in their
own hometowns. Borland says in the article that the setup is an ideal learning
experience.
“You can go to a conference that teaches you and talks about
cultural diversity and being sensitive, but it can’t compare to be put in the
shoes of that other culture,” she says in the article.
The program differs from other cultural exchange programs in
that participants see both the good and bad sides of the countries’ social
services programs, she says.
“German delegates requested a tour of the Robert Taylor Homes
(a former housing project on the south side of Chicago), and we turned to them
and asked to see the concentration camp, and they put that [in the schedule],”
she said.
Borland says in the article that the program is successful
mainly because the delegates get a realistic view of the cities they visit.
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| Mariko Yamada |
California Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, D-Davis, has
introduced the Workplace Religious Freedom Act of 2012 (A.B. 1964), a bill that
promotes equal opportunity employment and is under consideration by the
California legislature, according to an article in Hyphen magazine.
The article describes the employment discrimination lawsuit of
Folsom, Calif., resident and Sikh American Trilochan Singh Oberoi, who was
denied employment as a corrections officer by the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation — unless he shaved off his beard, a trademark
for men of the Sikh religion. Although Oberoi successfully settled, CDCR did
not change its discrimination policy.
The case motivated Yamada to introduce A.B. 1964 in the state
of California. According to the article and supporters of the bill, A.B. 1964
will clarify any ambiguity for employers, stating that a request for religious
accommodation can be denied only if it imposes a “significant difficulty or
expense” on the employer.
If the bill passes, employees wearing religious head coverings
will be protected from employer segregation and they will be allowed to keep
their beards as it relates to their religion. However, any accommodation in
relation to religion will not be required if those allowances will interfere
with the civil rights of others, or with the health and safety requirements of
the job.
Yamada grew up in “the shadow of discrimination,” the article
says, as her family was one of many Japanese American families sent to
internment camps in the U.S. after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. They had to
start their lives over after their release.
“It was with this prism of racism and poverty that I found my
calling to stand up for social justice,” Yamada, an NASW member, says in the
article.
She noticed a parallel between what the Japanese faced in the
U.S. during WWII and the violence and discrimination many law abiding Sikh
Americans, Muslims, Arabs and South Asians deal with today after the events of
9/11. According to the article, the bill number of A.B. 1964 serves as a
commemoration of the Federal Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Yamada sees it as an
example of how Asian Americans are joining together across diverse communities,
building coalitions for the common good.
The article says the Sikh community in California, especially
in Sacramento, supports the bill and Yamada’s efforts.
“The collaboration and sense of unity among diverse
organizations in support of A.B .1964, regardless of race and religion, is
inspiring,” she says in the article. “What this bill underscores for every
community is the importance of civic engagement and coalition building.”
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| Robert Piccolo |
Gambling is a popular form of entertainment in Montana, and
many people casually enjoy it, according to an online MSNBC segment in
Beartooth, Mont. However, gambling can become a problem for some. Gambling
addictions affect 2 percent to 3 percent of the U.S. population, or
approximately 6 million to 9 million people.
NASW member Robert Piccolo, a gambling treatment provider and
LCSW, says in the segment that the state of Montana has a lot of casinos,
making it all too easy to gamble during a lunch hour or after work. A gambling
addiction can start innocently enough as fun, the segment says, but it can
quickly progress into a problem, because casinos are so accessible in the
business areas of Montana. And the drive to “win it all” can perpetuate a
gambling pattern.
Life stress can also contribute to a gambling addiction,
according to Piccolo, as people feel an increased need to find a way to escape
from their daily routine and struggles.
“Casinos provide kind of a nice relaxing atmosphere where
people feel welcome,” he said.
The segment concludes that recovering from addiction is about
changing the mental process.
In
memoriam: Annette Cardona
Known as Cha-Cha, Danny Zucko’s show-stealing dance partner in
the movie “Grease,” Annette Cardona was an NASW member who had devoted her
time as a professor of speech communication and public speaking in the Chicana
and Chicano Studies department at the Northridge campus of California State
University.
A newsletter from CSU’s College of Humanities says that
Cardona was a Los Angeles native. In the classroom, she applied her experiences
from the entertainment industry and her training as a clinical social worker,
reaching out to students and encouraging them to find their own voice.
“True actors are open, patient people — their skill set is not
unlike that of a good therapist,” Cardona, MSW, told the CSU campus newspaper,
The Sundial, in a January 2011 profile. “For me, speech communication is about
finding your voice and using it to enrich your life.”
Cardona was hospitalized for pneumonia in June 2012, and
diagnosed with stage-four nonsmokers lung cancer. She passed away Aug. 3.
For similar articles about social workers, visit the NASW
site www.socialworkerspeak.org
From October 2012 NASW News. © 2012 National
Association of Social Workers. All Rights Reserved. NASW News
articles may be copied for personal use, but proper notice of
copyright and credit to the NASW News must appear on all copies
made. This permission does not apply to reproduction for advertising,
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