Muno walked a half-hour to school. She ate just two meals a day, on food that was delivered twice a month by the UN’s World Food Program.

By secondary school, a lot of classmates had dropped out. “Some couldn’t buy the books,” she explains. “Some had to get married for economic reasons. Some didn’t have enough support from home.” But Muno’s mother ran a small produce market to help pay school expenses.

Muno walked a half-hour to school. She ate just two meals a day, on food that was delivered twice a month by the UN’s World Food Program. And the school had limited resources for things like science.

Even so, she succeeded. She remembers waiting for the results of her final exams, which were written by every senior student in the country. “You wait for two months and I was very, very anxious, because if I didn’t get a scholarship, I would still be hanging around in the camp.” When the results arrived by text message, Muno says, she didn’t know whether to read them or not.

But she did well, winning a scholarship from the World University Service of Canada (WUSC).

She loved reading and wanted to be a writer. But she also wanted to work for a humanitarian agency after seeing agencies around the camp. So she applied for English and International Relations, and wound up at the University of Toronto.

“I considered myself very good in English, coming from an English school with a B+ in my final exam, but it was hard for everyone to understand me and for me to understand people,” she says. She could grasp textbooks, but writing exam questions based on lectures was difficult at first.

That made her rethink a writing career. “I didn’t do well in written English and what language was I going to write in?” she laughs. “And I learned that International Relations wasn’t humanitarian work. I didn’t know at first that it was Social Work I really wanted.”

But after a couple of years in Toronto, she transferred to Carleton’s Bachelor of Social Work program, registering here last fall. “I was very lucky to transfer all my credits,” she adds. And now she’s getting to practice outreach to others.

This term she’s in a required field placement, attached to the Somali Centre for Family Services four days a week. She helps out with language classes for seniors, teaches life skills to youth, and generally assists newcomers, such as helping them find jobs or accompanying them to appointments.

She also volunteers with the WUSC program at Carleton, as part of a group that welcomes new waves of students to campus from the world’s refugee camps. “We take them to the bank, show them where their classes are, show them how to use the website,” she says, adding that it has been a learning experience for her, too.

Therese Jennissen, professor of Social Work, willl develop a new graduate-level course on comparative social policy, to be offered in January, 2012.

Her new graduate course, Comparative Social Policy: Canada and the European Union, introduces a comparative approach to social policy by focusing first on particular initiatives in Canada and then comparing them to similar policies in selected countries of the European Union.

While people aren’t always aware that the study of social policy is important for social workers, it is one of the main streams of the MSW program at Carleton. “Social workers are at the interface of the policy and the grass roots community, that is, the people who rely on the policies,” says Jennissen. “For example, we see, firsthand, the devastating effects that cutbacks to social programs and services have on those who rely on these services.”

“Social workers have important insights into social issues,” Jennissen explains. “These insights can be central for innovating, designing, and implementing social programs and services that are responsive to the changing needs of the beneficiaries of the policies.”

These insights become particularly important in the context of today’s global economic instability. According to Jennissen, there is much to be learned by comparing Canada’s approach to social policy with that of other countries.

“Several countries in the European Union historically have had innovative, well-developed social policy infrastructures and it is important to examine how and what they are doing in current conditions,” says Jennissen. “Comparing and contrasting what is occurring in countries that are similar to ours is an important educational exercise.”

While the course will select specific policies from a broad menu of social policy issues as they relate to social work (long-term care for seniors, pensions, child care, health and mental health, youth programs, unemployment, immigration, poverty, post secondary education, among others) the course is not limited to, nor will it appeal only to, social work students. The course will also be of interest to students of European studies, political science, sociology, public administration, law, and Canadian studies. The course will be offered in January, 2012.

Those interested in learning more about the course are invited to contact Professor Jennissen at therese_jennissen@carleton.ca.

The book discusses the long-standing struggle of the Canadian Association of Social Workers and individual social workers to reconcile advancement of professional status with the promotion social action.

Organized chronologically, it provides a critical and compelling look at internal struggles and debates in the profession over the course of a century.

The book illustrates contradictions inherent in social work: the tensions existing in a profession which promotes social justice but still wants to be recognized in the established order.

“This book is essential reading for anyone interested in Canadian social policy,” says James Struthers, professor of the Canadian Studies Department at Trent University. “Through meticulous research, the authors provide the first comprehensive history of social work professionalization in Canada.”

Nearly a decade ago, the authors embarked on the project, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research council, because they were aware there was no such resource. Drawing on extensive research, the impressive work is based on original sources Jennissen and Lundy located by combing through secondary literature and the provincial, university and professional association archives, including two archives in the United States.

They provide strong evidence of an enduring profession that continues to advocate for a just society and a responsive social welfare state.

“This is a book of very sound scholarship,” says Alvin Finkel, author of “Social Policy and Practice in Canada: A History.” Because the book is thoroughly documented, it will serve for many years to come as the standard book in the social work field to trace and analyze the history of social workers in the 20^th century. But the writing is jargon-free and the book should serve equally well as an important work for anyone studying the evolution of social policy in Canada or the evolution of professions in the country.”

Background:
Prof. Jennissen teaches at Carleton’s School of Social Work in social policy and history. In addition to contemporary Canadian and international social policy issues, her areas of interest include social welfare, women and social policy, as well as health and safety in the workplace.

Prior to Carleton, Jennissen worked as a researcher in the political and social affairs branch of the Research Department at the Library of Parliament and the Royal Commission on New Reproductive Technologies.

She has published work on gender dimensions of occupational health and safety in the workplace, workers compensation in Canada, and women and social policy. With Colleen Lundy, she has published on the impact of economic transformations on women in Cuba and Russia.

Colleen Lundy is a social work professor at Carleton. Her book “Social Work and Social Justice: A Structural Approach to Practice” makes an important contribution to the understanding of social work from a social justice/human rights perspective. She is the editor of “Canadian Social Work” and the Canadian North America representative on the International Federation of Social Workers Human Rights Commission.

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For more information:
Therese Jennissen
Professor, Social Work
613-520-2600, ext. 4390
therese_jennissen@carleton.ca

Colleen Lundy
Professor, Social Work
613-520-2600, ext. 4399
colleen_lundy@carleton.ca

Amy Guest
Media Relations Officer
613-520-2600, ext. 8718
Amy_Guest@carleton.ca