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• Call for Workshop Proposals

  • Start
    05/01/2022
  • End
    08/30/2023

  Register

  Each year MSSWA hosts conference trainings to meet the unique learning and licensing needs of school social workers. MSSWA welcomes RFPs for potential workshops.
  

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• MSSWA Mini Grant January 2023

  • Start
    01/03/2023
  • End
    06/15/2023

  Registration is closed

  Opportunity for MSSW Members - 

  Two Opportunities:  Deadline January 1st and June 15th 

  Twice each year, MSSWA Mini-Grants will provide two awards,

  a $500 prize and a $750 prize,

  to support projects conducted by any Regular MSSWA member**

  in the schools where they work.  

  Good luck and be sure to get your applications in by the deadline!

  
  

  
  

  **the grants are not available to Affiliate or Student Members.  They are intended for licensed school social workers employed in a school setting

  
  

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• MSSWA 2023 Virtual Spring Conference

  • When
    02/06/2023
  •  
    8:15 AM - 3:45 PM
  • Location
    Virtual via Zoom

  Register

  2023 MSSWA Virtual Spring Conference   

  Monday, February 6th, 2023

  8:15am to 3:45pm     

  
  

  Full day training on Narrative Therapy -

  "Narrative Therapy and the School Social Worker: Meeting Today’s Complex Challenges"

  John Stillman, MSW, LICSW & Liz Crubaugh, MSW, LICSW

  The Spring Conference will be recorded and registrants will have 30 days post conference to view the recording and still receive the CEU's, so if you can't attend the day of the conference, you can still attend on your own time!

  
  

  **Click HERE for 2023 Virtual Spring Conference Brochure**

  
  

  "Narrative Therapy and the School Social Worker: Meeting Today’s Complex Challenges"

  The job of a school social worker fits the broadest definition of a mental healthcare provider. Children of all ages, facing stressors and mental health conditions of every sort, arrive at school with the expectation of sitting in a classroom and learning. Much of this challenge falls on teachers and in turn, teachers rely on social workers to address the largest difficulties. Their education did not prepare social workers for this level of diverse challenge, and no cookie cutter approach to mental health will help address the complexities that the social worker experiences. They need a framework, a framework that will help support them when everything is coming at them at once, a framework that is nuanced and flexible, allowing them to think and adapt to the specific situation. One that gives guidance on how to think through challenges and meet them head on. That framework can be found in Narrative Therapy. Its principles provide a guide, while its practices supply options for moving an issue forward.

  Key concepts of narrative, such as “the person is not the problem, the problem is the problem”, help the student to see their challenges in a new light. Both the social worker and the student feel empowered as they move through this process together. This workshop will teach the basic tenets of narrative and will show how these can be beneficial right away to school social workers. 

  Participants will be able to:

  • 1.    Ask questions from a position of not knowing/ curiosity which centers the conversation on the student.
  • 2.    Ask questions that separate the problem from the student, allowing greater perspective and more options for action.
  • 3.    Ask questions that support a student’s personal agency, their ability to make decisions for their life, taking into account what they articulate is important to them.
  • 4.    Inquire about supportive relationships that allow the student to stand against the problem while helping the student challenge relationships that do the opposite.
  • 5.    Ask questions that examine cultural and societal influences and norms, allowing the student to position themselves with the ideas from society that are the most useful while minimizing the influence of the rest.

  
  

  
  

  John Stillman (he/him) is a co-founder and licensed clinical social worker at Caspersen Therapy and Training Center in Golden Valley, Minnesota, where he practices narrative therapy with children, adolescents, and adults. As Director of Caspersen Training Center, he provides narrative therapy training to professionals from multiple disciplines. In 2002, he was a member of the first diplomate program taught by Michael White at the Dulwich Centre in Adelaide, Australia, and is an international narrative therapy trainer. He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with his wife and two sons, two dogs, and raises chickens and keeps bees.

  Liz Crubaugh (she/her) completed her Master of Social Work at Augsburg University. She is licensed through the state of Minnesota as a licensed independent clinical social worker and a school social worker. Liz feels strongly about working with youth and young adults and has over ten years experience in doing so in a variety of different settings. She utilizes a person-centered approach to therapy, incorporating Narrative Therapy techniques, a strengths-based perspective, and consideration of the whole person (bio-psycho-social-spiritual-historical).

  Liz feels it important to challenge herself to ask difficult questions of what is commonly thought of as social work, especially in schools. She believes in the importance of being an anti-racist provider in a white-dominated profession, considering all aspects of someone’s life, and deconstructing peoples' stories as an intervention to be used as prevention and a tool of empowerment. All peoples’ experiences are their own and Liz does not claim to be an expert in any of them. She sees it as her role to ask the right questions and help participants find their own answers; to (re)write their own story. Liz strives to make everyone feel comfortable, respected, and open in her presence. She wants to provide the time and space for everyone to be themselves, unapologetically, and Narrative Therapy has aligned incredibly well to make this a reality

  
  

  
  6.5 Clinical CEU hours have been approved by the MN Board of Social Work.
  

  Conference Questions?

  Contact

  Tony Porter

  612-803-2722

  mplstonyjoel@gmail.com

  or

  Dan Porter

  danpporter@msn.com

  www.msswa.org

   

  Show details
• MSSWA Day at the Hill 2023

  • When
    03/08/2023
  •  
    8:00 AM - 3:30 PM
  • Location
    Education Minnesota, 41 Sherburne Ave, St Paul, MN 55103

  Register

   

     

  
  

  The 20th Annual

  MSSWA Day at the Hill

  Virtual & In Person

  Wednesday, March 8th, 2023

   at

  Education Minnesota, 41 Sherburne Ave, St Paul, MN 55103
  

  **Click here for Day on the Hill Brochure**

     

   

  What is Day on the Hill?  Day at the Hill provides an opportunity for school social workers to come together to educate state lawmakers about how we address student barriers to academic success in cost effective ways. 

  Up to 6.5 CEUs awarded (Virtual Participants earn 4 CEU's). This is a staff development/Board of Social Work approved opportunity, not a political lobby day. 

  Who should attend? 

  • Current or past school social workers 

  • Students interested in the field of school social work 

  • Friends and supporters of school social work and public education 

  Agenda: 

  7:45-8:15 Registration

  8:15-9:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks - Christy McCoy MSSWA Legislative Chair

  9:00-10:15 Keynote Presentation -

  Saida Abdi clinical social worker, Professor of Social Work Practice University of MN and an expert in refugee trauma and resilience. Her area of focus is building individual, family and community resilience along with improving the responsiveness of systems of care to the needs of refugee and immigrant communities. 

  10:15-10:30 Break

  10:30-11:00  Legislative Priorities from EDMN Lobbyist, MSSWA Lobbyist Brad Lundell and Christy McCoy

  11:00-12:00 Networking discussions centered on strengthening the impact of our advocacy at the micro, mezzo and macro levels to ensure educational equity & Preparing for visits with Legislators. 

  12:00-12:30 Lunch and Large Group Share Out

  12:30-3pm Visits with Legislators

   

  Cost: The cost for in-person is $40.00 for members and $65.00 nonmembers which includes breakfast and lunch. Cost for virtual $25.00 members and $50.00 for nonmembers. All who register will receive a Day on the Hill T-Shirt. 

  School social workers play a critical role in advocating, promoting and impacting the realization of educational equity and social justice for all! Day on the Hill is one avenue in which all of us can engage as true change agents on a macro level! REGISTER TODAY!!!! 

  
  

  Christy McCoy MSW LICSW

  SSWAA President and MSSWA Legislative Chair

  School Social Worker

  Como Park Senior High School

  Register here  Or complete hard copy registration in the brochure. 

  Make checks payable to MSSWA and mail to* :

  MSSWA/Attn: Susanne Schroeder

  28 3rd Street N, Unit 231

  Faribault, MN 55021

  
  * No cancellations or refunds after 3/5/23
  Register by March 5th, 2023

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• 2023 MSSWA Summer Institute

  • Start
    06/12/2023
  •  
    8:00 AM
  • End
    06/14/2023
  •  
    12:00 PM
  • Location
    Chase on the Lake, 502 Cleveland Blvd W, Walker, MN 56484

  Register

      

  The 21st Annual Minnesota School Social Workers Association Summer Institute 

  June 12—14, 2023

  IN-PERSON!

  Chase on the Lake, Walker, MN

  Only 

  Register Online today

  at: http://msswa.org/event-4640233

  
  

  Featuring a Full Day Session with Dr. Anne Gearity (Details below)

  
  

  Full conference schedule with session information coming soon.

  
  

  
  

  Full Day session on Tuesday, June 13th, 2023

  with Dr. Anne Gearity

  "WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT…SCHOOLS ARE CHANGING.  AND WE MUST TOO"

  Description:  Education has been remarkably stable for over 100 years and is built on a model that fit the industrial needs of our nation: workers who acquired skills that fit the work needs of a given community.  Sometime in the later 20th century the needs shifted from more physical labor to increasing access to knowledge-based skills.  But COVID exposed how faulty our current approaches to learning have become.  Not all children learn in the same way, and at the same pace.  There is decreasing need to memorize facts (thank you. google search). Technology is not the enemy but a core tool.  Critical and even innovative thinking is much more critical than compliant performance.  Specialization may happen sooner than later.   Artificial intelligence, and is there a need anymore for the humanities?  Diversity of experiences is more and more essential, even as some parts of the larger community wish that wasn’t so; this diversity demands that students and teachers appreciate divergent points of view and divergent needs.

  And in this changing culture, teachers are increasingly scarce.  COVID burnout took a toll but maybe there is more to understand about what teachers need to be effective and satisfied. 

  So how will school special workers be useful, even essential, in this changing landscape of education?  How do our models of learning, and adaptation, fit with the demands ahead?

  This workshop is a chance to be visionary, to be reflective and to be brave.  Rather than remain secondary citizens within schools, what if social workers became leaders, able to provide direction and support for change?

  
  

  
  

  Conference Questions?

  Contact

  Tony Porter

  612-803-2722

  mplstonyjoel@gmail.com

  or

  Dan Porter

  danpporter@msn.com

  www.msswa.org

  Show details