Grand Challenges for Social Work Events Spotlight Progress on Complex Social Issues

The KU School of Social Welfare envisions a world in which individuals and families have the support they need to thrive, where we see an end to chronic social problems like homelessness, where justice and equity are the norm. As scholars and instructors and students, social workers in the School aim their individual and collective efforts toward these urgent imperatives, the Grand Challenges that face our society.

As part of this wide-scale and ambitious effort led by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, social work researchers and practitioners from across the country are focused on making measurable change in some of the most complex and daunting issues facing our society. The initiative, launched nearly a decade ago, is focused on making measurable progress in 13 areas. Though they are interconnected, the challenges are grouped into three main categories: Individual and Family Well-Being, Stronger Social Fabric and Just Society.

The School has answered this national call to action and is actively engaged in addressing the Grand Challenges on a number of frontsa. Through  series of Grand Challenges for Social Work events, it is spotlighting the work of KU faculty and the progress they are making with their community partners toward the Grand Challenges.

Offered through the School’s Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration (CCEC), these events feature interactive panels of faculty members and community partners who discuss the substantive findings of their work and the process through which it was catalyzed, inviting participants into the progress around the Grand Challenge.

The events are free, open to the public and offered virtually to broaden access to more participants, who can receive professional and continuing education credit for attending.

“We know our faculty and scholars and students and staff are doing valuable work that addresses these Grand Challenges every day, so we organized the Grand Challenges series to lift up that work, invite others to partner with it and with us, and to sustain our vision of change along the fronts the Grand Challenges represent,” said Melinda Lewis, LMSW, associate professor of practice and the CCEC’s associate director of capacity building and community evaluation.

To date, the events have highlighted areas such as anti-racist approaches in child welfare policy and practice, the role of integrated healthcare to help close the health gap, and work being done to build healthy relationships to end violence by advancing adult and child survivor-centered interventions to support child welfare-involved families experiencing domestic violence.

“The Grand Challenges remind social workers of the long-term impact possible through our collective efforts. Elevating the large and serious issues our society faces — and underscoring our professions’ responsibilities to contribute to solving them — takes us beyond the busy schedules and weighty daily tasks that can otherwise cloud our vision of the horizon,” Lewis says. “They serve to connect us to a shared purpose, inspire and reaffirm our passion for social justice, and sustain us in the long road toward change.”

The Grand Challenges for Social Work

The School of Social Welfare has answered the call from the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare to address the 13 Grand Challenges for Social Work:

Individual and Family Well-being

• Ensure healthy development for youth
• Close the health gap
• Build healthy relationships to end violence
• Advance long and productive lives

Stronger Social Fabric

• Eradicate social isolation
• End homelessness
• Create social responses to a changing environment
• Harness technology for social good

Just Society

• Eliminate racism
• Promote smart decarceration
• Build financial capability and assets for all
• Reduce extreme economic inequality
• Achieve equal opportunity and justice

Coming Event: CCEC Grand Challenges for Social Work: Close the Health Gap

The next Grand Challenges for Social Work event will focus on the School’s work to help close the health gap. KU research project director Cheryl Holmes, MPA, whose work focuses on health disparities in rural and frontier areas and with engaging community members including migrant and seasonal agricultural workers, will be joined in this panel discussion by Elizabeth Reid of the Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund and Darrel Box of the Lafayette Regional Health Center.

“It is important for the KU School of Social Welfare to be engaged in addressing the Grand Challenges because it is well positioned to help convene multi-system partners who can recognize real world needs and discover practical solutions,” Holmes explains. For example, she says, “Our panel brings together seasoned partners involved with different aspects of rural healthcare. We will share our experiences and lessons learned about outreach, engagement and service delivery in rural communities.”

In partnership with key community partners, Holmes’ work is focused on rural research, policy and practice.

The discussion will include:

• Information from community-level perspectives and the benefits that can occur when multiple sectors come together.
• Insights about working in rural environments during COVID-19, with a particular emphasis on the needs, challenges and successes of working with essential employees, including migrant and seasonal farmworkers.
• Lessons learned from collaborative partnerships and ideas for engaging multiple perspectives to inform policy and research needs, including views from those who are often not at the decision-making table.