Grand Challenges For Social Work Research Articles

An Introduction to the Special Section on Grand Challenges for Social Work

AbstractThis article introduces readers to four invited articles comprising a special section on implementing the Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative. We highlight key contributions made by the authors of each article, which collectively explore implications of the grand challenges initiative for social work education, science, campus leadership, and campus–community collaboration. We describe how substantive points raised in the special section connect to the rapidly growing interdisciplinary literature on the implementation of grand challenges.

Color-Blind Racial Attitudes and Their Implications for Achieving Race-Related Grand Challenges

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare established 12 social work grand challenges to address critical social problems in America. Some of these social problems include health disparities, income inequality, and the lack of social justice, among others. These social problems are deep and daunting especially for people of color. Tackling these challenges would require a focus on the racial attitudes in society, such as color-blind racial attitudes, that maintain the power structure that fuels inequality. This article introduces color-blind racial attitudes and discusses their impact on social work practice and policy. Lastly, it presents strategies for addressing color-blind racial attitudes related to the grand challenges.

Social Work Grand Challenges and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: Linking Social Work and Women’s Health

The health of women is a crucial component to family and community wellbeing. However, social work scholars have not been very engaged in research pertaining to the health needs of women. With the Grand Challenges of Social Work becoming a major element for national discussion and with the revision of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SGD) in 2015, we wondered how connected the 12 Grand Challenges and the 17 SDGs were. We searched the social work literature from 2005 to present to identify what salient publications were available about women’s health and then connected them to the current themes of the Grand Challenges and SDGs. There are no more articles to review in the social work literature. Using a feminist social work framework, we summarize the topics covered in these articles and define a call to action for more scholarly work on women’s health in the context of current national and global conversations about this social justice issue.

Responding to the Grand Challenge to End Homelessness: The National Homelessness Social Work Initiative

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare adopted ending homelessness as one of its 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work. The National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services supports this Grand Challenge through its National Homelessness Social Work Initiative. This initiative is being carried out through a consortium of schools of social work nationally, emphasizing workforce development and policy advocacy. This major, multiyear initiative applies innovative strategies to service and policy design and social work education. This article describes the overall mission of the Homelessness Initiative and key activities used to strengthen social work curriculum, expand homelessness-related field placement opportunities for students, and impact services through the policy advocacy and dissemination of best practices.

Grand Challenges for Social Work: Research, Practice, and Education.

Grand Challenges for Social Work: Research, Practice, and Education.

Marshaling Social Responses to Environmental Changes

At the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) 2016 conference, the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW) will officially announce the 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work (GCSW). AASWSW did a soft rollout of a preliminary set of Grand Challenges at the SSWR 2015 conference. After the 2015 preliminary rollout, additional adjustments were conducted and additional feedback was incorporated in preparation for the official announcement. The introduction of GCSW has the potential to be a watershed event for social work. I previously discussed them in an editorial on the unification and defining of the profession (Williams, 2015). GCSW are committed to developing a scientific base for our profession that supports social resolutions for positive change in several important areas of need (AASWSW, n.d.). Recently, the United Nations (UN) released its goals for 2030 in Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015). In reviewing the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development, the reader will notice that many of the UN goals overlap with GCSW (AASWSW, n.d.). This would suggest that the profession is on the right path in developing a comprehensive set of challenges where social work can focus its fiscal and intellectual resources to transform our systems. In this editorial, I would like to highlight one of the GCSW—creating social responses to a changing environment (AASWSW, n.d.). There are three goals in the UN 2030 agenda for sustainable development directly related to this challenge: (1) take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts; (2) conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development; and (3) protect, restore, and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems; sustainably manage forests; combat desertification; and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss (UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2015). Climate change, sustainable use of ecosystems, and biodiversity loss are not generally considered to be areas in which social workers have the skills, knowledge, and abilities to make a significant impact. However, there is a growing literature in social work and social science on sustainable development, biodiversity, and the environment ( Jones & Williams, 2011; Kemp et al., 2015; Kumssa, Jones, & Williams, 2009; Kumssa, Williams, Jones, & Des Marais, 2014; Miller & Hayward, 2014; Peeters, 2012; Swim, Clayton, & Howard, 2011). Creating social responses to environmental changes is one area in which social work can make tremendous impact.

Social Work Grand Challenges: An Opportunity to Increase Student Success

Social Work Grand Challenges: An Opportunity to Increase Student Success

Grand Challenges for Social Work

This invited article introduces the concept of grand challenges—ambitious yet achievable goals for society that mobilize the profession, capture the public’s imagination, and require innovation and breakthroughs in science and practice to achieve (Kalil, 2012). We call for broad and deep participation of social work scientists and practitioners in the Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative, which will be coordinated by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.