A Special Evening at HCSSW to Honor Group WorkHunter College School of Social Work celebrates its 50^th anniversary this year, and as part of ongoing celebrations the GW Sequence is holding an event on Friday, October 24, titled Diversity Honors Group Work ∞ Group Work Honors Diversity: The Relevance of Group Work Practice Yesterday, Today, & Tomorrow.  A cocktail hour will open the evening at 5PM followed by a leisurely dinner beginning at 6PM that will be sprinkled throughout with speakers and festivities.

Co-coordinators include Mary Bitel (alum, long-term adjunct faculty, and current doctoral candidate), who will serve as Mistress of Ceremonies; Kyle McGee (alum, faculty, and Faculty Advisor to One Year Residency students), coordinator of autographed publications; and Maria Picon (administrative staff), who is devoting countless hours to outreach and organizational support. 

 Our roster of speakers is impressive indeed, each having been invited because of his or her unique ability to speak on a given topic in combination with a long and close connection to the School.  After welcoming remarks by Dean Jacqueline Mondros, Robert Salmon (on faculty and former Acting Dean and Associate Dean) will present a profile of the incredible diversity in the student body of GW majors at HCSSW over the last 50 years.  Alex Gitterman (distinguished alum, on faculty at the University of Connecticut SSW, and recent winner of the CSWE Lifetime Achievement Award) will talk about the accomplishments in GW education, theory, and scholarship over the last 50 years.  Andrew Malekoff (Executive Director and CEO of the North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center in Roslyn, NY, and editor of Social Work With Groups) will talk about the diversity we know to exist in the GW of today (people, places, and purposes).  Harriet Goodman (on faculty; Deputy Director of the Doctoral Program; and former Chair of the GW Sequence) will cap the evening with her vision of GW in the future -- which we hope, of course, will be longer than 50 years!   

A heartfelt thank you to co-sponsors – to the people and organizations who have joined HCSSW in helping us to honor this professional method we so love and who, by doing so, once again prove that it is through diversity that the “art of the possible” comes to life.  Thank you  AASWG, AASWG-Southern California Chapter, Ann Bergart and the 31^st AASWG Symposium planning team, Mark Doel, David Whiting, Whiting and Birch, Taylor and Francis, The Haworth Press, and the many authors who are contributing autographed publications.

 As you see, this special evening in honor of group work looks to be splendid!  Email invitations recently went out to AASWG membership, but if we somehow missed you and you would like to join us, you are most welcome.  Please email Maria Picon at mpicon@hunter.cuny.edu, or call her at (212) 452-7021.  I hope to see you there.

Dominique Moyse Steinberg, Group Work Sequence Chair, Hunter College SSW