Dear Reader,

I haven't had much time these days to write on this blog. With the hot weather here is Chicago the last few weeks, my Internet connection has not been the most reliable. Last night, we even had a blackout! So when I am lucky enough to get a solid hour online, I tend to edit the other areas of the Social Work Cafe. I'll surely get back on the quest for links about children with chronically ill parents, when the weather breaks.

For now, I want to thank the Social Work Cafe users who I have had the pleasure of chatting with through chat utilities like MSN Messenger and MySpace IM. (On both services I can be found by searching for my e-mail address, bshane@hotmail.com). I was thinking of incorporating SWC user's chat nicknames on the global e-mail list. 

Another way I plan to help SWC users make connections is to publish a quarterly newsletter. I hope to have the first issue written and sent out by the end of this week. It will introduce new features on the SWC, and have commentary on the expanding SWC community.

Oh, and the official rollout of the Mentor Match program is just around the corner! I'm so lucky to have almost 20 volunteer mentors to help fulfill requests from new social workers and college students!

Well, I better go and continue my work! Have fun exploring the Social Work Cafe!