In this edition readers will find:
- What Are They Thinking? The Mindset of the Class of 2012
- Red Cross Expands Disaster Mental Health Team Eligibility
- Worth Reading: Counseling the Evolving U.S. Middle Class
- Relevant Research: The Volunteer Explosion
- Advocacy Matters: Educating the Public About Professional Counseling
- Sign of the Times: Four Day Week for Schools of the Future?
- Conference Clipping: Summer Registration Discount Ends
August 31 - Fast Fact: Number of Childless Women in the U.S. Growing
- Watch Your Mailbox for New ACA Publications Catalog
- Important Dates: ACES Regional, AACE and Nebraska Conferences
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What Are They Thinking? The Mindset of the Class of 2012
As students at every educational level, from pre-K to graduate school, head back to classrooms all across America, the views, understandings and attitudes they possess become relevant to the counselors serving them in educational settings and the world they will enter after their schooling. Each August for the past 11 years, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List, an in-depth examination of the cultural milestones that shape the lives of the freshman students starting college. While a few things (e.g., economical uncertainty, rising fuel costs) have remained constant throughout their lives, a significant number of social and cultural conditions are quite unique.
Red Cross Expands Disaster Mental Health Team Eligibility
Since it became a formal component of American Red Cross Disaster Services in 1992, the Disaster Mental Health (DMH) team has relied upon the efforts of licensed mental health professionals drawn from the fields of counseling, social work, psychiatry, psychology, psychiatric nursing, and marital/family therapy. The DMH Eligibility Advisory Group recently has developed consensus recommendations for expanding the eligibility criteria for joining the DMH activity. This recommendation includes state-licensed or state-certified school counselors and state-licensed or state-certified school psychologists.
ACA's Chief Professional Officer David Kaplan commented about the expanded eligibility: "As a Red Cross partner, ACA is so pleased that ARC has recognized the expert training of school counselors. We know that school counselors will make a major contribution to the Red Cross disaster mental health program." For answers to questions about this eligibility expansion, please contact the DMH leadership team, headed by Rob Yin at DMHtemp@usa.redcross.org
Members interested in participating in the American Red Cross Disaster Mental Health Services free training at the ACA Conference in Charlotte, NC should mark their calendars for Friday, March 20, 2009. Licensed and certified counselors can obtain registration materials from Debbie Beales at 703-823-9800, Ext. 306 or dbeales@counseling.org
Worth Reading: Counseling the Evolving U.S. Middle Class
The Top of the Class, the Satisfied Middle, the Anxious Middle and the Struggling Middle -- what unites and divides the majority of Americans who call themselves "middle class." Definitions of the new four part American middle class and the people who comprise these various sectors were the subject of a Pew Research Institute report released this summer.
Relevant Research: The Volunteer Explosion
Countless professional counselors are included among the 61 million Americans who serve various institutions, agencies and organizations as volunteers. Similarly, counselors in varied practice settings work alongside volunteers performing adjunct and supportive roles. In the most comprehensive research it has conducted to date on the state of volunteerism in the U.S., the Corporation for Community and National Service has learned the who, what, why and how of this burgeoning phenomenon.
Advocacy Matters: Educating the Public About Professional Counseling
How do ACA members educate the public about counselors, the services they provide and the needs they meet? Building such public awareness has been an ongoing challenge for the counseling profession and it's one that the ACA Foundation has addressed in recent years through the co-sponsorship of a weekly newspaper column, "The Counseling Corner." Today, approximately 275 publications, reaching more than 10 million readers, carry this weekly ACA column offering advice and insight on a variety of issues related to the counseling profession. Recent columns have addressed issues such as coping with anger, improving parent-teen communications, helping elderly relatives, handling stress and similar issues related to modern life. The Counseling Corner columns are published on the ACA web site.
Members across the country are invited to help with placement of these columns in their local papers (there is no cost or obligation to the editors or papers for the use of the columns). Editors or counselors can contact Debra Bass at dbass@counseling.org for additional information.
Sign of the Times: Four Day Week for Schools of the Future?
How much impact have rising fuel costs and the general economic condition of the country had on school budgets and calendars? A summer survey by the American Association of School Administrators found that three percent of respondents have actually gone to a four day school week and another 17 percent have such a calendar under consideration. The AASA release identified staffing, field trips, athletic programs and other items on the "hit list" for schools seeking to eliminate, reduce or contain costs.
Conference Clipping: Summer Registration Discount Ends August 31
The best registration rates for the 2009 ACA Conference & Exposition in Charlotte will end this Sunday, August 31st. Now is the time to act. ACA members will receive an advance registration brochure, with complete program and lodging details, with the October issue of Counseling Today. But no need to wait: go online now to:
View Pre-Conference Learning Institutes...
Remember, by registering before August 31, 2008 you can save up to $170. Registration rates increase incrementally after September 1. Register online immediately or call 800-347-6647, Ext. 222
Fast Fact: Number of Childless Women in the U.S. Growing
A new Census Bureau report, using first ever data from the American Community Survey, shows that 20 percent of women 40 to 44 were childless in 2006, twice as high as the level 30 years earlier. Among other highlights, the report found:
- The majority of women with a recent birth (57 percent) were in the labor force.
- Of the 4.2 million women who had a birth in the previous 12 months, 36 percent were separated, widowed, divorced or never married at the time of the survey. Of these 1.5 million unmarried mothers, 190,000 were living with an unmarried partner.
- The highest levels of current fertility (67 births in the year prior to the survey per 1,000 women) were among those with a graduate or professional degree.
Watch your mailbox for new ACA Publications Catalog
The 2009 ACA Publications Catalog, featuring 20 new releases is mailing now to all ACA members.
Among the new books are several "back-to-school" titles: Solution-Focused Counseling in Schools, Suicide Prevention in the Schools: Guidelines for Middle and High School Settings, School Counselors Share their Favorite Group Activities: A Guide to Choosing, Planning, Conducting, and Processing, and Youth at Risk: A Prevention Resource for Counselors, Teachers, and Parents.
Watch your mailbox, or view it online (PDF).
Important Dates: ACES Regional, AACE and Nebraska Conferences
September 18-20, 2008
Event: Nebraska Counseling Association
Location: Kearney, NE
Details...
September 18-21
Event: North Atlantic Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
Location: Holiday Inn by the Bay, Portland, ME
Details...
September 19-20, 2008
Event: Association for Assessment in Counseling and Education National Conference
Location: Radisson Dallas East & Conference Center, Dallas, TX
Details...
October 2-5
Event: Rocky Mountain Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
Location: Great Divide Lodge, Breckenridge, CO
Details...
October 16-18
North Central Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
Location: Crown Plaza, Indianapolis, IN
Details...
October 22-25
Southern Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
Hilton-Post Oak, Houston, TX
Details...
November 6-9
Western Association for Counselor Education and Supervision
Doral Desert Princess Resort, Palm Springs, CA
Details...
ACA divisions, branches, and regions are valuable sources of learning and professional development. Information on events will be posted approximately eight weeks prior. This information is made available to ACAeNews via the ACA master calendar and the various organization web sites. Send calendar items to dwilliams@counseling.org. Please provide the sponsor, dates, site and contact person information. Information posted here is restricted to that sponsored by ACA divisions, branches, regions and related organizations.
ACAeNews will become a Members Only Service in September
Effective with the September 23rd edition, ACAeNews will only be disseminated to active members of the association. Non-members can join ACA by completing our application form at: https://www.counseling.org/Counselors/MemberJoin.aspx
ABOUT ACAeNews
ACAeNews is published biweekly by the American Counseling Association for the benefit of members and the counseling profession. Any reference to a product, service, activity or listing of a web site in ACAeNews does not imply endorsement by ACA. Any views and opinions are those of the sponsoring organization and may or may not be shared by ACA.
Direct comments, questions and submissions to fburtnett@counseling.org. All submissions will be subject to review by ACA for accuracy, timeliness and relevance to the readership and may be edited to meet space parameters.
Colleen Logan, President
clogan@argosy.edu
Richard Yep, CAE, Executive Director
ryep@counseling.org
Debra Bass, Interim Director of Marketing
dbass@counseling.org
Frank Burtnett, ACAeNews Editor
fburtnett@counseling.org
Don Kenneally, Internet Development / Production
dkenneally@counseling.org
ACA Web site: www.counseling.org
Copyright 2008, American Counseling Association, 5999 Stevenson Avenue, Alexandria, VA 22304. Telephone: 703/823-9800. Email: fburtnett@counseling.org. Permission is hereby granted to reproduce anything contained in this newsletter as long as the American Counseling Association is identified as the original source of the information.
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