Department of Social Work
Dr. Altman & MSW student Emilee Pakelee attend SSWR in San Francisco
Professor Julie Altman and MSW student Emilee Pakele recently attended the annual Society for Social Work and Research Conference (SSWR) in San Francisco. They presented “Exploring The Construct and Use of Hope with Involuntary Child Welfare Clients.” This year's conference theme was Ending Gender Based, Family and Community Violence. Their session featured other relational approaches to Child Welfare Practice. The focus of this session was to focus on how the child welfare system can enhance the relationships families bring with them, and how those relationships impact their pathway towards reunification and exiting the child welfare system. The strong, persistent endorsement of hope by involuntary child welfare clients in her previous mixed-method study of family reunification efforts prompted this more careful examination of the construct of hope. The paper they developed together was well received and will be submitted for publication. Their joint work was generously funded by a faculty support grant from CSUMB.