Pictured is President Joseph Shepard and IRSR Director Bob Rickle holding a check of monies that were raised at the National Institute for Social Work and Human Services conference.

Silver City, NM - Social workers are all about helping others and in 2012 an institute was created to help extend the reach and impact of the social work community in Grant County.

The Institute for Rural Social Work (IRSR) was created by Dr. Bob Rickle, professor of Social Work at Western New Mexico University. Since its inception, the institute has partnered with several organizations to provide training and to gather information on local communities.

Last summer, IRSR was a major sponsor of the 39th annual National Institute for Social Work and Human Services, which took place in July at the Silver City campus.

"IRSR is dedicated to providing research, evaluation and technical assistance to rural social service agencies to build and sustain community capacity," said Rickle. "An important aspect of the IRSR mission is to give back to the communities serviced by the organization in the form of student scholarships."

Scholarships were awarded in Lordsburg and Deming earlier this academic year. Recent activities by IRSR have been to provide training to the Board of Directors of the Silver Regional Assault Support Services, to computerize the client management system for the Silver City Gospel Mission and to provide program evaluation for the Boot Heel Youth Association.

IRSR activities are facilitated by Social Work professors and students. All services are provided at low cost to agencies.

"The faculty at WNMU is committed to providing substantial community service to the peoples of its catchment area at no cost," said Rickle. "The monies generated are allocated to pay School of Social Work student researchers."

Money raised at the summer conference on campus was donated to the Office of the President for helping sponsor the event. The money was then donated to the School of Social Work for future projects.