School of Social Welfare tackles 'Grand Challenges for Social Work' with 2022-2023 series
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare’s Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration will again host a series of interactive panels highlighting current school research and community practice in areas related to the Grand Challenges for Social Work, beginning in October.
The Grand Challenges highlighted in these events align with major scholarship initiatives within the School of Social Welfare and critical concerns facing society: building healthy relationships to end family violence and closing the health gap. These events will be held virtually to facilitate access for KU alumni and partners across the country and to highlight the collaborative scholarship. Participants will be able to receive 1.5 hours CEUs for attending each free event.
“As social workers, we are committed to advancing justice and building capacity to meet the ‘Grand Challenges’ our society faces. Within the school, scholars, students and our community partners are pursuing scholarship and innovating practice to address these critical issues in this especially crucial moment. These events give us opportunities to consider together — as scholars, practitioners and allies — where we are today and what we must bring to the future,” said Melinda Lewis, associate director, Center for Community Engagement & Collaboration.
The first event, from noon to 1:30 p.m. Oct. 20, highlights the Quality Improvement Center on Domestic Violence in Child Welfare. Juliana Carlson, associate professor of social welfare, led an evaluation of the QIC, which works across multiple sectors to advance an adult and child survivor-centered approach. Carlson will be joined by her partners, Lonna Davis, Futures Without Violence; Gary Taylor, independent consultant and child welfare expert; and Ruby White Starr, Latinos United for Peace & Equity, to share their collaboration and the practice implications of their findings. Participants will learn about how changes in the child welfare system and in organizations that serve survivors of domestic violence can integrate practice wisdom and research from each and from the science of trauma and resilience, to respond to survivors’ unique needs, address behaviors of the person who caused harm and create safer contexts for everyone. Event registration is now open.
In spring 2023, KU Research Project Director Cheryl Holmes will share her work to center rural perspectives in public health agendas — including in the crucial decisions required to respond to the evolving COVID-19 emergency. From noon to 1:30 p.m. April 20, 2023, Holmes and her partners — Elizabeth Reid, Migrant Farmworkers Assistance Fund, and Darrel Box, Lafayette Regional Health Center — will introduce participants to the communities in rural Missouri that were part of this investigation. The panel will consider how the lessons learned in this participatory research can be incorporated into patient-centered research, policy and practice, to help close the health gap with a greater focus on rural needs and perspectives. Event registration is now open.
Amy Mendenhall, associate dean for research in the social welfare school, said that the Grand Challenges for Social Work series would likely continue in fall 2023.
“For social work, the Grand Challenges have served to focus our profession on the contributions we already make to address unmet needs, as well as the considerable distance that remains on our journey to social, economic, racial and environmental justice,” she said. “Our school’s scholars, practicum agencies, students and community partners doing important work to address the Grand Challenges, and we are honored to use the CCEC platform to elevate their stories.”