You are here

Porter Cason Institute for the Family Accomplishments

We at the Tulane School of Social Work are so grateful for the funding of the Porter Cason Institute for the Family.

This year the funds have allowed us to reach hundreds of practitioners and students with current best practice methods in Mental Health, Addiction, and the Family. We have also spread the word of the importance of the family in any solution to our youth violence problems in New Orleans through all forms of media.

Mental Health, Addiction, and the Family Certificate

We graduated almost 50 students from 2014 - 2018. We plan to graduate 11 more in 2019.

We have held 10 Journal Club meetings since being established in 2014.

The Certificate in Mental Health, Addiction and the Family centers around the evidence that healing is the most robust in a relational context. This certificate is unique to Tulane University School of Social Work. Our program is a rigorous combination of coursework, certificate related field placements, and our signature Journal Club/ Community meetings component. The Journal Club/Community meetings component is designed to give the student opportunities to network and discuss certificate related topics.

The Certificate is affiliated and funded by the Porter Cason Institute (PCI). PCI is the result of a large private contribution from a Tulane MSW alumnus for the purpose of training. Funds from PCI allow us to augment training with lectures from local and national experts as well as provide advanced training of professionals in our community.

The culture of this certificate is developing creativity and courage in both your time at Tulane and in your career. Social work is both an art and a science. We teach the science and provide a place for you to come to understand and develop your own unique art within ethical and evidence based interventions. Throughout your career you will hone your understanding of the science, art and creativity required of an exceptional social worker. We view it as one of our primary objectives to give you the courage to be comfortable in uncomfortable moments and to give space for truth and healing that may emerge as you develop this comfort.

Training and Exposure to Evidence Based Clinical Family Practice

We have incorporated our work in evidenced based EFT couples therapy into the advanced methods class that all graduating MSW students take.

We conducted eight trainings for licensed professionals in conjunction with the Porter Cason Institute. We were able to subsidize all of these trainings so that New Orleans agencies that see multi-stressed families could receive training otherwise unaffordable.

Porter Cason Board Project Focuses

Appreciative Inquiry Study for Families: best practices utilizing the expertise of the multi stressed families and youth who have successfully raised children in areas of high violence.

Project with City of New Orleans around their NOLA FOR LIFE initiative.

The Cowen Institute Project

The Porter Cason Institute worked with the Cowen Institute to consult on family issues that come up in the Tulane Earn and Learn program

The Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Project has been very successful in training and community building. The Porter Cason Institute. Brought this method of therapy to the Deep South. We continue to build capacity for couples to receive therapy from trained therapists in EFT. We are providing training scholarships to agencies that see multi stressed families. We completed our 2nd year of the EFT training sequence. In the 12 day sequence , each participant is required to show a tape of their family work, and live sessions are used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method. We initiated and supported a statewide steering committee to build momentum for the EFT community.

We initiated and supported active study groups in three locations in the state. atten

Networking and Media Coverage

We completed 3 TV interviews, 3 Radio interviews and a Symposium on Restorative Justice at Dillard University. Our focus in these symposiums and media interviews has been to put emphasis on family at the center of ongoing community discussions. Topics include adolescents and social media, bullying, child abuse, violence, stress in family life, and family importance during re-entry after prison.