The Fine Art of Building Community

When Mary and I set out to create LGBTSocialWork.com, we did so with several purposes in mind:

1. To create a learning community where the excellence of knowledge and experience was held in the community; not by one or two people but with the belief that the domains of learning would all increase by the very presence of the community.
2. To empower social workers and other students and professionals in the human service fields with the information to best serve their clients.
3. To engage in advocacy for changing what social work education looks like in serving LGBTQ people.

Our work continues on the website and we are hopeful to have it launched by the end of January.  We continue to work on our "brand" for what this looks like.  Here is our new logo, created by an amazing artist, Dayanara, who recently joined the Office of Diversity Initiatives as a program assistant.  She also has an amazing portfolio of her work as an artist. 

Look for that soon.

So what do you think??  I think it will make some great shirts and other items.

Our journey begins...

Creating a Better World for All of Us

Happy New Year 2012 and welcome to the launch of the LGBT Social Work blog.  We are pleased to finally bring our dream of this blog and our website, LGBTSocialWork.com to reality.  


Our goal in creating both the website and blog is to support LGBTQ people across the life span by building a comprehensive collection of resources, research, evidence-based practices, education and training to those individuals and agencies providing services and addressing environmental factors at micro, mezzo, and macro levels. The core values guiding our purpose and perspective are; service, importance of human relationships, social justice, integrity, dignity and worth of the person and competence. 


Our intention for this blog is to create a process for members of our knowledge community to engage in critical thinking, problem solving, and cultural competence development to better serve our LGBTQ community.  We also recognize the vital role allies play in the support of this often marginalized population.


We will post current events, questions, relevant articles, and case studies to engage each other in the potential micro, mezzo, and macro implications of each.  We will also discuss their impact to social work practice, public policy, advocacy, as well as social work education.


We also believe the collective brilliance of any learning community is far superior to that of any one individual member.  So we invite you to participate in the learning and creating, that will benefit us, as social workers and helping professionals, our profession, and most importantly, the clients we are committed in serving.


If you have questions, suggestions for bettering our knowledge community, areas of exploration and research, materials to contribute or challenges you've encountered, do not hesitate to let us know.  You can contact us at: LGBTSocialWork@gmail.com.  We also have a brand new facebook page at LGBTSocialWork and follow us on Twitter @LGBTSocialWork.


Happy new year and welcome to our learning community.

It's all about the journey, 


Mary Mann, MSW
Michael A. Freeman, MSW Candidate (2012)


2011 was a year filled with many gains for the LGBTQ community.  Many have referenced Hillary Clinton's "Free and Equal in Dignity and Rights"speech as the "greatest moment for the LGBTQ community"of 2011.  Her term, "gay rights are human rights" has become the mantra for activists, LGBTQ people and their allies in defining participation in the benefits afforded by this country as full citizens.  Here is Secretary Clinton's full speech.

"Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter"

-Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.-