Who are the Heroes

Jonathan R. Beard, MSW, LICSW
June 2007

Jonathan R. Beard has been recognized as a 2007 “Hero in the Fight” by the National Alliance on Mental Illness-Washington State Chapter.

Heroes in the Fight is a recognition partnership program established by Eli Lilly and Company. The program celebrates dignity, courage, hope, and recovery in the ongoing treatment of persons with serious mental illness. It recognizes “heroes” who provide care and support for persons with serious mental illness and their families in their fight for better mental health and better lives. Mr. Beard was honored in the Individual Allied Healthcare Professional category on May 19, at a luncheon following the annual NAMI Walk.

Mr. Beard holds an MSSW degree from the University of Texas at Arlington. He is a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker in Washington and operates his own business, Progressive Strategies, providing training and consultation mostly in community mental health settings. He serves on the Board of Directors for the Washington State Chapter of NASW.

If you know NASW Washington State Chapter social work members that have been honored, please send in the information to the NASW Washington State Chapter.

Faces of Social Work

Meet Janina Dinio, MSW, LICSW, Bremerton
October 2004

By Glee Palmer-Davis

Starting this fall, the Communication/Media Committee will regularly present a series of "Faces of Social Work" on the web site, to honor the work done by many of our members. The Committee would appreciate your nominations to feature future members in the upcoming months.

Our first "face" is Janina Dinio of Bremerton. Janina is currently a Clinical Social Worker at the Naval Hospital in Bremerton. Previously she worked as a Minority Mental Health Consultant and for the Peninsula Regional Mental Health Network. She has presented at numerous local and statewide programs and has been honored for her work in her community and most recently received the "Woman of Achievement" award from the Kitsap YWCA.

Angelito Daquiz, current president of the Fil-Am Charities Foundation, Kitsap County, wrote the following.

Janina has been active in the Asian community since 1991 when she moved here from upstate New York. Since that time, she has been actively promoting social service values in our ethnic communities. The Fil-Am organizations are primarily social and civic organizations and with time, she has introduced our local organizations to a social service orientation and set about instituting programs in collaboration with service organizations such as Division of Aging, Chuck Wagon and Kitsap Mental Health Services, Olympic College and many others. These programs were also inclusive and integrated different ethnic groups.

In 1995, The Filipino American community commemorated and celebrated, with the rest of the Kitsap community, Philippine Independence day with a series of events including cultural and historical exhibits and culminating in an educational and cultural program.

In the same year, she set up a teen support group based on self-empowerment, concepts which met needs in the community attracting teens and mentors of all races and continued for four years. Due to requests from former members, parents and social service organizations, Fil-Am Charities Foundation has written a grant to fund similar grass roots based programs supported by Department of Juvenile Justice, Prosecutors Office and professionals in the community.

In 1997, Janina requested and put together a grant application to set up the first Asian meal site in Kitsap County. This is now regularly serving about a hundred seniors who have become empowered and organized on their own. This meal site is now a model for the county providing meals, socialization, cultural program, dance, exercise, and a health component in cooperation with the Filipino Nurses Association. Moreover, we are proud to note it is also multi-generational and encourages and trains our youth to serve their elders during meals. This program now has two sites - Port Orchard and Silverdale.

During the formative years of Fil-Am Charities Association, she was instrumental in writing the charter to help us secure our 501c3 status, a status, which has helped us secure resources for our community.

Now as we move into Fil-Am's 83rd year in existence, she is actively developing with Fil-Am Officers, our long term corporate plans to guide our Association for the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years as we move into this new century.

A note from Janina:

My social service orientation started when I was in college at the University of the Philippines, St.  Theresa's College, when I was working with the masa or people during the Marcos regime. This social activism was not acceptable at the time and I was expelled from the liberal arts college run by Benedictine nuns I attended. I emigrated to the United State in 1988 although I was eligible to leave in 1976. I wanted to stay in the Philippines as I thought I would be too small a cog in wheel to make a difference or impact in this society. I moved to the US after the Philippine Revolution when my husband's company closed in the Philippines and he was moved to the US. When I left for the United States and studied for my MSW degree at the University of Washington, I learned that my activism was a field of study known as Community Organizing and that it is encouraged in this country. It is nice to know I can do community organizing now and not be thrown in jail for it.