NASW- Michigan Returning to Cuba in the Fall of 2015.

NASW-Michigan in collaboration with the Eco Cuba Network is pleased to announce another trip to Cuba is in the works!  This trip will take place Oct 31-Nov 8, 2015 and is available for 40 CECs!!!  In the fall of 2013, 12 Michigan NASW members as well as some of their friends and partners ventured on our first trip and universally gave the experience glowing feedback.  Some of the evaluation comments which best describe the experience include:

This was a tremendous program-it was highly stimulating professionally. Cuba’s integrated health/mental health system is an inspirational model for the world.

This experience was structured as a mobile conference where the participants went to the agencies and communities of the presenters. This provided knowledge of the bio-psycho-social context that went beyond any other conference which I have attended. In every way this trip was an extraordinary opportunity for cultural and social work understanding.

I am excited to again be leading this group and returning to Cuba for the fourth time! Each time I return to Cuba I am newly invigorated by the communitarian spirit and the commitments to health and education that give the Cuban people a remarkable quality of life despite living with the consequences of a US embargo for the past half century.

For more information about the trip and how to register go to the Eco Cuba website:

http://www.ecocubanetwork.net/socialwelfare2015/

I am also happy to talk to you about the trip. Contact me at mziefert@emich.edu

Articles from NASW-Michigan 2013 Cuba trip:

An Adventure of a Lifetime. Michigan Social Workers Explore Human Services in Cuba. - Picture a community in which the strengths of all members are valued. Think about what it would be like to have 100% literacy among all citizens. Contemplate everyone having free, high quality healthcare. Ponder what it would mean for there to be no homelessness.  Imagine a family doctor whose mission is family wellness. Envision that education was free to all through college, and beyond. Imagine a country in which all mothers get prenatal care. Consider what a country would look like with these and other such life affirming attributes. A group of 12 Michigan social workers – and a few of their friends and relatives -got to see firsthand what such a country is like when we traveled to Cuba for an 8 day CE adventure, sponsored by NASW Michigan, to discover what human services in Cuba are like.

Moving Out of Isolation:  Integration of a Cuban-American Identity - This study offers a first-person account of family reunification taking place 50 years after a family arrived in the United States from Cuba.  It uses the case of Maria, who was four years old at the time of immigration, to demonstrate the intersection of policy and practice.  The U.S. embargo of Cuba contributed to Maria’s lack of social supports to deal with separation, loss and grief, and the integration of a culturally-integrated personal identity. The experience gained on an NASW-Michigan sponsored research trip to Cuba provides a model of courage and hope as Maria returns to her country of origin and reconnects with her extended family.  Implications for practice are presented based on research techniques using direct scribing and narrative therapy techniques with a single subject.  The narrative focuses on three distinct time periods – before the trip, during the trip and after the trip, in accordance with Maria’s sense of shifting identity.