Commitment to Community: Insights on Engaging in Meaningful Dialogue across Difficult Divisions from the Local to the Global
Total Credits: 1 including 1 Category II CEs
- Categories:
- 200 Adults, Couples & Families | Daniel Thursz Lecture | Global Learning Program | Special Offers
- Instructors:
- Joerg Fischer, Dr.Phil | Jody K. Olsen, PhD | Caroline Harmon-Darrow, PhD, LMSW | Dr. Dassi Postan-Aizik
- Duration:
- 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Description
Social work centers dialogue as one of its founding tenets and educational mission. However, our profession often struggles to act in alignment with this core value. In today’s polarized world, social work students, faculty, and practitioners struggle to engage in meaningful dialogue across difference. Jane Addams, one of our founding foremothers, famously urged us to pursue social work not for self-comfort, but to examine our shortcomings, sit with discomfort, and grow in community with others.
This roundtable explores how social workers sustain connection, hope, and critical reflection while remaining committed to shared work within deeply divided communities. The participants—seasoned social workers with macro, meso, and micro experience in both local and global contexts—will share principles and practical insights drawn from their diverse practice backgrounds.
Dr. Olsen will discuss her wide-ranging experiences across multiple Peace Corps roles, from Volunteer to Director. These include facilitating cross-cultural dialogue at the international diplomatic level as the Peace Corps enters countries (e.g., Vietnam), exits countries (e.g., China), navigates coups and natural disasters, and coordinates worldwide Volunteer evacuations (COVID-19). Her work highlights the complexities of supporting Volunteers as they adjust to and collaborate within communities marked by linguistic, cultural, and traditional differences; often requiring negotiated and context-sensitive outcomes. Dr. Olsen will share strategies for dialogue and relationship-building rooted in global, national, and community needs and goals.
As a German researcher and political advisor, Prof. Dr. Fischer examines the relationship between politics and social work, particularly in international contexts. He emphasizes that societal conflict exists not only in authoritarian systems but also within democracies, where social pressures can challenge both professional identity and personal values. His work focuses on social work responses to right-wing extremism and the ongoing effects of a divided Germany—reunified in 1991 yet still shaped by long-term structural and cultural differences.
Dr. Harmon-Darrow will offer insights from 27 years as a Baltimore community mediator, working with neighbors, families, coworkers, and businesses. A macro social worker and former mediation center director, she trains, mentors, and evaluates community-based mediators—residents from diverse backgrounds who volunteer to mediate disputes within their own communities. She will discuss representative cases, the six-step inclusive mediation model, and the four components of inclusive listening—a judgment-free approach that prioritizes understanding. She will also address how mediators navigate competing cultural expectations within criminal-legal diversion partnerships.
Dr. Postan-Aizik will draw from her experience as a community social worker, researcher, and educator working with divided communities in Israel. She will examine how diverse groups collaborate to address shared social and environmental challenges, highlighting neighborhood and environmental initiatives in Jewish and Arab-Palestinian shared spaces, academy-community partnerships advancing LGBTQ rights, and intercultural pedagogical approaches promoting social and environmental justice in contested settings. Against a backdrop of intensifying polarization, she will share perspectives on how social workers in both community practice and academia can cultivate connection and allyship amid conflict—building bridges even as others attempt to burn them.
Instructor
Joerg Fischer, Dr.Phil Related Seminars and Products
Joerg Fischer is a social work practitioner and social researcher with extensive experience in youth welfare, debt counseling, and social policy in Germany and internationally. His practice experience includes serving as Coordinator of the pilot project Creation of a Network of Preventive Debt Counselling for Young People at the Debt Counselling Association Jena, as well as holding leadership roles within public welfare systems, including Head of the Youth Welfare and Social Welfare Department at the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt County Office. He also coordinated large-scale laboratory and development projects focused on employment and public welfare through the Paritätischer Wohlfahrtsverband Thüringen.
Dr. Fischer’s research and academic work spans multiple countries and institutions. He has held DAAD scholarships in Russia and Kyrgyzstan and served as a scientific co-worker and visiting professor at Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena. He was also a Visiting Researcher at Temple University’s School of Social Work in Philadelphia.
Jody K. Olsen, PhD Related Seminars and Products
Retired
Josephine (Jody) Olsen served as Peace Corps Director, 2018 – 2021. In March, 2020, because of the COVID pandemic, she led the successful nine-day evacuation of all 7,000 Peace Corps Volunteers from 61 countries to the US, never done before. Jody was a Peace Corps Volunteer, Tunisia, 1966-1968, and has served the agency in five other senior positions, including Country Director (Togo), Regional Director (Europe and Asia) and Deputy Director. Her memoir about her decades of Peace Corps service, A Million Miles, My Peace Corps Journey, is available through the U of U Press and Amazon.
For a decade, Jody was Visiting Professor at the University of Maryland-Baltimore and director of the Center for Global Engagement. In the 90’s, she was Director of the organization that manages the Fulbright Senior Scholar Program. Today she co-chairs Women of Peace Corps Legacy (WPCL), and is chair of the Peace Corps Commemorative Foundation Park Advisory Committee and the Univ. of MD, College of Education Board of Visitors, and is on the Maryland Governor’s Commission for Service and Volunteerism. Jody received a BS from the University of Utah, and a Master’s and PhD from the University of Maryland. Her many awards include University of Maryland President’s Award, University of Utah’s alumni of the year award, and three honorary doctorates. She has also been a Resident Fellow at the IOP Harvard Kennedy School.
Caroline Harmon-Darrow, PhD, LMSW Related Seminars and Products
Caroline Harmon-Darrow is committed to violence prevention, criminal justice diversion, conflict resolution and restorative justice interventions, and the prevention of human trafficking. Dr. Harmon-Darrow’s mixed method dissertation “Comparing the impact of community-based mediation vs. prosecution on assault recidivism among adults” represents her longstanding commitment to criminal justice diversion and decarceration, and the craft of community-based mediation, and led to the creation of a statewide working group on intimate partner violence screening in criminal cases. She has authored and co-authored nine manuscripts in peer-reviewed journals, including Trauma, Violence, and Abuse. Her research has been funded by the Maryland Judiciary, and she has assisted with research studies funded by DOJ-OVC, HHS-AFC, NIH-SAMHSA and NIH-NIDA.
Dr. Dassi Postan-Aizik Related Seminars and Products
Dr. Dassi Postan-Aizik is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Social Work at Yezreel Valley College, Israel. Her scholarship focuses on community and environmental social work and community–academy partnerships, particularly in contexts of diversity and division. Her work examines how spatial, ecological, and intersectional inequalities shape marginalization, exclusion, and solidarity. Grounded in social and environmental justice perspectives, her research and pedagogy employ participatory, community-based methodologies that center lived experience and the co-production of knowledge. Dassi is a former postdoctoral fellow at the University of Maryland School of Social Work and a long-time collaborator in the international Social Justice Seminar.
Learning Objectives
Attendees will:
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Identify and explain the ways in which open dialogue and conflict management are foundational to the social work profession.
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Evaluate strategies for maintaining connection, hope, and critical reflection amid polarized communities.
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Apply principles and insights shared by experienced practitioners to real-world scenarios involving conflict, fragmentation, or community divisions.
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Compare and contrast approaches to dialogue and collaborative practice across global and local contexts within social work.
Bibliography & References
BIBLIOGRAPHY & REFERENCES
Duffy, J., Campbell, J., Tosone, C., Tosone, C., Campbell, J., Duffy, J., Duffy, J., Campbell, J., & Tosone, C. (2020). The Northern Irish study: Voices of Social Work through the Troubles. In International Perspectives on Social Work and Political Conflict (1st ed., pp. 38–49). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315150833-5
NASW Code of Ethics: https://www.socialworkers.org/About/Ethics/Code-of-Ethics/Code-of-Ethics-English
Olsen, J. (2024). A million miles: My Peace Corps journey. University of Utah Press. https://uofupress.com/books/a-million-miles/
Postan-Aizik, D., Shdaimah, C. S., & Strier, R. (2020). Positioning social justice: Reclaiming social work’s organising value. The British Journal of Social Work, 50(6), 1652-1668.
Strömbom, L., Björkdahl, A., Strömbom, L., Björkdahl, A., Lisa, S., & Annika, B. (2015). Introduction: Governing contested issues in divided cities. In Divided Cities (pp. 15-). Nordic Academic Press, Sweden.
Late Fees and Refunds
The base price is $10, and CEs are $20.
Late Fee: On February 20, 2026, a non-refundable late fee of $20 is added to the base price. Late fees cannot be refunded or applied to account credit.
Please note that this event is non-refundable.
For more information, please read the general policies on our website.
Target Audience
Social Workers, LCPCs, and Psychologists
We welcome anyone interested in the topic!
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Code of Conduct
The Office of Continuing Professional Education at the University of Maryland School of Social Work adheres to the NASW Code of Ethics. This policy is to ensure that the training environment for social work professionals remains respectful, productive, and conducive to learning. Disruptive behavior that interferes with the learning process, disrupts the training experience for others, or undermines the integrity of the program will not be tolerated.
Expectations for Participant Engagement:
In alignment with the NASW Code of Ethics and the University of Maryland Baltimore Code of Conduct, participants are expected to demonstrate professionalism, which includes respecting confidentiality, maintaining a collaborative and respectful tone, and contributing positively to the group dynamic. Disclosures made during the training (e.g., case studies or personal reflections) must be handled with care and in accordance with ethical and legal guidelines.
All participants in the training program are expected to:
- Engage actively in the learning process and show respect for the opinions and contributions of others.
- Demonstrate professionalism in both attitude and behavior, maintaining respect for instructors, peers, and the training environment.
- Maintain open communication by expressing concerns or disagreements constructively and respectfully.
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- Support a collaborative learning environment where all participants feel valued and safe to contribute.
Instructors and CPE staff reserve the right to dismiss participants who do not adhere to ethical/professional principles and standards. If removed, CEs will be adjusted to reflect the time attended, unless otherwise specified.
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