The Plain Dealer refers to and analyses data regarding "The Changing Face of Poverty," a Briefly Stated report by the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development, at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, at Case Western Reserve University.

The Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development at Case Western Reserve University released a report entitled The Changing Face of Poverty in Northeast Ohio which details the increase in poverty across the region.

On February 8, a researcher from Washington, D.C., will present her findings about the life of Elsa Leichter, an MSASS alum and Austrian refugee social worker whose American social work career started in Cleveland during WWII.

Researcher Barbara Reiterer, a Doctoral Fellow in Residence at the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., will discuss how Leichter found refuge as a social worker. The lecture, entitled, Elsa Leichter's Second Chance: Interruptions and Continuities in a Refugee Social Worker's Transatlantic Career, will be held on February 8 at 4:30 p.m. in Room 320 at the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences. Reiterer's talk is free and open to the public.

During World War II, American social work provided a professional refuge for Leichter, a Jewish exile from Vienna who came to the United States on the eve of World War II. Reiterer's research provides a history of Austrian and American social work in the mid-twentieth century and the experiences of Jewish women exiles in the United States.

Even though a cursory glance at Leichter’s biography may yield a neat and smooth narrative, interruptions complicated her life. After serving 12 years as a social worker for the Vienna city municipality, she had to start over when she came to the U.S. It was in Cleveland where she received her "big second chance," as she repeatedly said. Reiterer's discussion of Leichter will trace her complex, often difficult career path, for which her time at the Mandel School played a central role.

Leichter received her degree in social work from Case Western Reserve University in 1942. She went on to work for the Jewish Family Service in New York City where she earned distinction in the field of family therapy. Starting in the 1970s, she traveled to Europe to give lectures and workshops, thus contributing to the transatlantic circulation of knowledge in the applied social sciences. She died in 1997 at the age of 92.

According to Gilmore and other psychology researchers, the high-contrast, large bingo cards boost thinking and playing skills for people with cognitive difficulties and visual perception problems produced by Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). The findings were reported in the journal Aging, Neuropsychology, and Cognition. Learn more

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Haley Litzingers’ collages portray urban landscapes often scattered with dilapidated buildings, machinery, bridges, mountains, and human figures. The dark earth tones and images are embedded into the layered clear epoxy resin portray a multi dimensional forbidding and almost fantasy atmosphere. The works are moody but intriguing; the artist does not hesitate to portray uneasiness.

“I use a method of layering resin, drawings, found images, and various paints to create encapsulated three dimensional landscapes and scenes. The depth produced by the multiple layers of resin gives a "Cast block" feel to the collage, initiating engagement and creating a sensorial experience. The process of experimentation with materials, color, technique and composition is central when beginning a piece. I begin to have a constant, multi-dimensional process of self-exploration, self-reflection and learning. By arranging various images and manipulating their size, color, texture, position and relationship, I discover subjective new perceptions stimulated by the development of conscious and unconscious insight…” Haley Litzinger.

Dante Rodriguez mixed media paintings manipulate reality with mythical vignettes focusing on elusive human and non-human hybrid creatures. The compositions, bold colors, dripping paint, and the placement of the hybrids, create successful inquisitive paintings.

“My mixed media paintings are of a hybridization of humans, animals and abstract structures. They are my attempts to redefine our relationship with nature. At first glance, my characters have a mythological appearance that is both strange and grotesque as they struggle to find their identity in a world of homogenized thinking. I try to find the spiritual connection between man and animal in order discover a relationship that shows a calm coexistence that is lacking in our contemporary world.” Dante Rodriguez

The story of a Girl Scout troop in Austin, Texas, has a connection close to home, thanks to MSASS alumna Darlene Grant.

For 11 years, the 1984 MSSA grad from the Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences was in charge of the program evaluation for a therapeutic prison visitation involving girls with incarcerated mothers. The program was among several Girl Scouts Beyond Bars programs -- the only one that is designed around the social work ideal of providing wrap-around services to at-risk youth.

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In addition to trips scheduled in January, a whole new round of travel begins for students who want to immerse themselves in cross-cultural studies, social policy and mental health. Spring break opportunities are still available to those who want to travel to Guatemala, the Netherlands or Poland.

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"The depth of this recession has pushed people over the edge," said Dr Claudia Coulton, Co-Director of the Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development in "The new poor: Situational poverty on the rise locally" in The News-Messenger of Fremont, Ohio.

The story cites that according to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2010 saw the highest number of people living in poverty since the first reports were published over half a century ago and that 12.2 percent of residents of Sandusky County (where Fremont is the county seat) live at or below the poverty level. Suburbs and more rural areas are showing the fastest rise in poverty, according to the Brookings Institution, and many of these people have little experience in dealing with the situation.

Read the December 3, 2011 article and continue below.

Hodges, a native of Cleveland, arrived shortly before 1:30 p.m. to meet with students and MSASS faculty members Mark Chupp, Sonia Minnes and Debby Jacobson. Professor Chupp set up the visit through the Cleveland Council of World Affairs, where Hodges recently began as president.