In June 2011, the Tampere University of
Applied Sciences (TAMK) received 15 students and three teachers from Michigan
State University as part of Summer School in International Social Welfare
Policies and Practice programme. In return, six social service students and two
instructors flew from Finland to the USA at the end of September 2011. Our
mission was to get to know how social welfare system works in the States. This
collaboration started a few years ago and, hopefully, it will continue long
into the future. (See: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Finland-Study-Abroad-MSU-School-of-SW-TAMK/253931167966741)
 |
A visit to Grand Haven
|
Our trip started from Chicago where we
spent a couple of days. Our first visit was to the Juvenile Detenion
Alternative Initiatives programme (http://www.aecf.org/majorinitiatives/juveniledetentionalternativesinitiative.aspx).
This national programme focuses on finding alternative solutions to confinement
and securing children a healthy and productive life.
We can highly recommend other visitors to
stop by at the John Hancock Observatory. There you can enjoy magnificent views
over the city.
 |
A
view from John Hancock Observatory
|
In Chicago, we also visited the Hull-House
Museum (http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/hull_house.html).
The social settlement, founded in 1889 by Jane Addams and her companions, grew
into a significant contributor in the community. Its services included, for
example, a kindergarten, art and music classes and support for immigrants.
From Chicago we took the train to East
Lansing, Michigan. The train was clean, comfortable and on time, and it is
definitely worth it to spend a few hours on the train where you can enjoy the
beautiful scenery.
In East Lansing, we visited a retirement
community called Burcham Hills, Office on Aging, and Department of Human
Services. Burcham Hills (http://www.burchamhills.com)
offers assisted living and skilled nursing services for the elderly. The
facilities were fantastic, but we were quite shocked to hear the cost of living
there: 3000 – 7000 dollars a month.
The Office on Aging (http://www.tcoa.org)
provides services for the elderly as well. One of its goals is to find likely
candidates for a nursing home and give them the opportunity to make the choice
to stay in their own home. Its most famous programme is Meals On Wheels and the
services are no or low cost.
We visited Ingham County Department of
Human Services. We were told about child protective services as well as adult
protective services. One of the striking differences between the Amrican and
Finnish child welfare systems is that in the USA parental rights can be
terminated. If the parents do not show enough progress or willingness to make
improvements, their parental rights can be terminated and their children are
adopted.
 |
Michael
Patton lecturing
|
We also had the chance to attend
Utilization-Focused Evaluation Workshop in East Lansing. The instructor at the
workshop was Michael Quinn Patton, a famous evaluation consultant and writer.
Evidence-based evaluation is stressed much more in the US than in Finland.
Service providers need to defend their work and show results to funders – and
what could be more compelling than hard-core data and facts.
In general, we
noticed that the USA is a country of litigation. Much of the decision-making
done by the Finnish social workers goes to the court in the States. From our
point of view, US attorneys and judges hold a great deal of power, considering
how little they sometimes know about their clients.
Against that
background, it was interesting to visit Chance at Childhood (http://chanceatchildhood.msu.edu),
a collaboration between social work students and law students at MSU. Student
teams mainly handle custody cases. This gives law students a chance to get to
know the social aspect of custody cases, and social work students get familiar
with the legal issues and the jargon, which can often seem intimidating.
We spent the last three days of our journey
in Grand Rapids where we visited Bethany Christian Services (http://www.bethany.org)
and Hope Network (http://www.hopenetwork.org),
services founded upon Christian values. Bethany Christian Services handles
foster care and adoption issues and provides trauma therapy for families. Hope
Network provides residential care for people with brain injury and
developmental disabilities.
 |
Hope
Center
|
During the course of our stay, we met
amazing people who were so generous with their time and effort. We were just
overwhelmed with the hospitality of our hosts. As we Finns know, the Americans
love their cars, but our group now knows why. The distances are much longer,
especially in the countryside, and public transportation is not as effective as
in Finland. Luckily, our hosts from the MSU (Karen, Amanda and Marcia) were our
designated drivers and we got around beautifully in our van.
Our trip ended
with a lovely visit to Grand Haven where we spent the day at the beach in warm
weather (80F/26C). Some of us even got a little sunburned (in October!). We
were all left with fond memories, a lot of information and new friends. Thank
you to our fantastic group and hosts!
Text: Hannakaisa Hänninen, second-year Social Services student
Photos:
Ulla-Maija Koivula
0 comments:
Post a Comment