Monday, January 20, 2014

Grainne Rhuad is still waiting for you to join Twitter...

 
Top corners image
     
 
   
 
 
 

Grainne Rhuad is still waiting for you to join Twitter...

 
 
Accept invitation
 
     

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Grainne Rhuad sent you an invitation

 
Top corners image
     
 
   
 
 
 

Grainne Rhuad has invited you to join Twitter!

 
 
Accept invitation
 
     

Grainne Rhuad sent you an invitation

 
Top corners image
     
 
   
 
 
 

Grainne Rhuad has invited you to join Twitter!

 
 
Accept invitation
 
     

Monday, June 11, 2012

My Social Work battle cry for this year.

Every time I hear or play the song "I Hear Them All" by Old Crow Medicine Show it reminds me of the reasons I got involved in social work in the first place. It brings out the social activist in me much like listening to Woody Guthrie   or Joe Strummer (of the Clash) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800099/  does.

I reminds me to use my skills to amplify the voice of those who's voices are muffled by bureaucracies, power brokers and others who oppress. Thank you Old Crow Medicine Show.




Thursday, June 7, 2012

Tending your garden



Like Monet tended his garden so exquisitely so must we tend our garden. Paying attention to details yet not loosing our bigger perspective. Monet used what he had available to him to tend his garden. Learning from his mistakes. Making changes, trying something new that fits better into the overall scheme of his vision. What a wonderful metaphor for us in our efforts to tend our whole self. Dig in the dirt and get your hands dirty.  Build your soil to feed your plants. Let them blossom with their beauty and inspiration.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Closing of Hull House

Hull House 1891-1894


By Janlee Wong, MSW

Usually March Social Work

Month is a time to laud the

accomplishments of professional

social work and inspire us to rise up to

the many challenges that continue to

exist in an unjust society.

At the beginning of this Social Work

Month, we have sad news to report that

the Hull House programs and services

(not the museum) in Chicago closed

down in the last days of January. We

don’t know the whole story as to why,

but financial difficulties were certainly

one of the problems.

After 120 years of Hull House, life

has indeed come full circle. Hull House

started with no money, a generous donor

who rented the house for $1, and the

incredible dedication of Jane Addams,

Ellen Gates Starr and many others.

The closure of Hull House allows us to

rethink that same origin that our modern

founders started with.

Will we see the demise of publicly

funded services with deficit and budget

hawks unrelenting? Probably not,

because the social welfare system that

has been built over the last 120 years isn’t

going away. All of Hull House’s accomplishments

and its ideas for a just and

humane society have spread throughout

the country to the modern welfare state

that we have today.

What Hull House’s closure does tell

us that while some of us in the nonprofit

and government sectors might feel we’re

starting off where Jane was 120 years

with no money, we still have a large array

of services that she didn’t have. What it

means for social workers is that we have

a chance to rethink and reinvent what we

are doing.

Jane and her contemporaries had to

learn what worked and what didn’t. After

120 years, professional social workers

have the benefit of research, higher education

and experience. Along the way we

have become more sophisticated and scientific

about our approach.

Hull House’s legacy is not programs

and services, it’s us; it’s professional

social work. Thank you Jane and happy

Social Work Month.
 
Jane Addams
Jane Addams c.1934 ((JAMC 58)
Photo Credits: University of Illinois at Chicago, University Library, Department of Special Collections, Jane Addams Memorial Collection


reprinted with permission.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

Song Sat.- It's been a long hard week...and...does anyone read blogs anymore?

Or maybe just not mine.

Actually I know you do you just don't comment. Is it because you have nothing to say? Or because you're thinking...hmmm?

Anyway, I noticed when I took my blog from social networking sites interaction on my blog-ishness dropped. I'm a little sad about that, I liked hearing from people and yet, the places I was before like Multiply, just became abandoned...ghost towns, castle gardens with aeolian harps.

"There is this thing that's like Talking except you don't Talk."- The Dresden Dolls

It's been a strange week. Winter finally set in which I love. I truly do it makes me feel warm and cozy. It makes me want to bake and cook and create. It makes me dream. Real dreams that must be saved for stories.

Read the rest and hear the song @ http://grainnerhuad.blogspot.com/