Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative and Implementation Strategies

Richard P. Barth, PHD, MSW

University of Maryland School of Social Work

President, AASWSW

Pioneers Event

National Association of Social Workers

Women’s Democratic Club

Washington, DC

October 17, 2014

http://aaswsw.org/grand-challenges-initiative/

Mission of the Academy

The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (Academy) is an honorific society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the field of social work and social welfare through high impact work that advances social good. The Academy has been established to:

• Encourage and recognize outstanding research, scholarship, and practice that contribute to a sustainable, equitable, and just future.

• Inform social policy by serving as a frontline source of information for the social work profession as well as Congress and other government agencies and non-government entities charged with advancing the public good.

• Promote the examination of social policy and the application of research to test alternative policies, programs, and practices for their impact on society.

• Celebrate excellence in social work and social welfare research, education, and practice.

Background • Island Wood Meeting (hosted by USC, UW, in

Coordination with Brown School, U Chicago, AASWSW, and SSWR) – Science of Social Work discussion continued from SSWR

presentation by John Brekke and convening in summer of 2011

– Grand Challenges for SW discussion begun as a way to focus development of scientific impact

• Grand Challenges Roles – The American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare

(The Academy) would advance the Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative (GCI)

– The Grand Challenges Executive Committee would direct the Initiative, itself, subject to AASWSW Board review

The Anticipated Impact • Clarity About the Most Important and Compelling

Challenges Social Work Addresses

• Integration of Efforts

• New Scientific, Practice, Education, and Policy Approaches

• Widespread Impact on Society

• Lifting the View of Social Work as an Essential Element for Solving Important Challenges of Other Professions and Organizations

• Recruiting New Talent into the Profession

Additional Expected Outcomes

• Engaging the public in better understanding and supporting the enterprise of social work and social welfare

• Strengthening the collaboration of social work and allied disciplines in conquering the Grand Challenges

• Stimulating interest among potential applicants to educational programs and faculty and staff positions in social work

• Transforming social work education at all levels

GC Engineering Links:

Become an Engineer https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nLodC7Le8TM Why Be an Engineer? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1d2zSvPhAc For More Information: http://www.beanengineer.com/reasons-to-be-an-engineer

Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Executive Committee

John Brekke and Rowena Fong (Co-Chairs) Claudia Coulton

King Davis (Retired) Diana DiNitto Marilyn Flynn

J. David Hawkins James Lubben

Ron Mandersheid Yolanda Padilla

Michael Sherraden Eddie Uehara

Karina Walters James Herbert Williams

Staff: Sarah Butts, AASWSW and UM SSW

National Advisory Board (In Progress) • Darla Coffey, President, Council on Social Work Education

• Sarah Dewees, Senior Director of Research, Policy, and Asset-Building Programs, First Nations Development

• Jennie Chin Hansen, CEO, American Geriatrics Society

• Ron Haskins, Senior Fellow and Co-Director, Brookings Institution

• Eddie Lawlor, Dean, Washington University, Brown School

• Angelo McClain, CEO, National Association of Social Workers

• Risa Lavizzo Mourey, President and CEO, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

• Dedrick Muhammad, Senior Director of Economic Department and Executive Director of the Financial Freedom Center, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

• Chip Paucek, CEO, 2U, Inc.

• David Sanders, Executive Vice President, Casey Family Programs,

• Yannis Yortsos, Dean, USC Viterbi School of Engineering

Definite GCSWI Products

• A process that is open and fair and offers a high probability of achieving a compelling set of grand challenges

• A set of grand challenges that has supporting scholarship and meets established criteria: 1. Challenge must be big, important, and compelling. 2. Scientific evidence indicates that the challenge could be

solved. 3. Meaningful and measurable progress to address the

challenge can be made in a decade. 4. The challenge is likely to generate interdisciplinary or cross-

sector collaboration. 5. Solution to the challenge requires significant innovation.

Anticipated GCSWI Products

• An appealing array of presentations of these challenges using social media and other strategies that will help to recruit new social work applicants and investors to our cause

• First products are a (a) new website and (b) three working papers on: – Grand Accomplishments of Social Work – Context for Grand Challenges of Social Work – History of the Grand Challenges of Social Work

Initiative

GCSWI White Papers and Publications

Complete and Available on the Academy Website: • Grand Challenges for Social Work Impact Model

• Social is Fundamental: Introduction and Context for Grand Challenges for Social Work, Working Paper No. 1

• Grand Accomplishments in Social Work, Working Paper No. 2

• Identifying and Tackling Grand Challenges for Social Work

Published Papers • Barth, R. P., Gilmore, G. C., Flynn, M. S., Fraser, M. W., & Brekke, J. S. (2014). The American

Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare: History and grand challenges. Research on Social Work Practice, 24, 495-500. doi: 10.1177/1049731514527801

• Uehara, E., Flynn, M., Fong, R., Brekke, J., Barth, R.P., Coulton, C., Davis, K., DiNitto, D., Hawkins, J.D., Lubben, J., Manderscheid, R., Padilla, Y., Sherraden, M., Walters, K., (2013). New directions for social work in the 21st century. Journal of the Society for Social Work

and Research, 4, 165-170.

The GRAND Criteria

1. Challenge must be big, important, compelling.

2. Scientific evidence indicates that the challenge can be completely or largely solved.

3. Meaningful and measurable progress to address the challenge can be made in a decade.

4. The challenge is likely to generate interdisciplinary or cross sector collaboration.

5. Solution to the challenge requires significant innovation.

Domain(s) of Social Work Affected

• The Achievement Of Basic Needs ( Food, Clothing And Shelter)

• Safety and Security

• Health

• Social Connectedness

• Human Potential

Final Grand Challenges Development and Selection (Current Timeline)

• Development of Grand Challenge Ideas and Call for Grand Challenge Concept Papers (May 2014)

• Submission of Concept Papers (June 30, 2014; possibly ongoing) – Linking similar challenges into more parsimonious and powerful

challenges – Giving encouragement and help to develop them

• Identifying the few first challenges (SSWR Conference 2015) • REVIEW METHOD: Peer reviewed process (September 2014)

– Looking for fit with grand accomplishments of social work, grand context of social work, and other initiatives in other fields

– Considering the diversity of affected SW domains – May also build on the interests of funding partners

• Planning Underway for Round Two: Second Call for Concept Papers

Output From GC Concept Paper Review

• 35 Concept Papers are Reviewed and Scored

• Top Scoring Papers are Identified and Prioritized as Promising GC Concepts

• A List of Themes or GC “Buckets” Emerges (Gaps Identified)

• Further Development of Selected Papers and Topics

Initial GC Themes 1. Strengthen social connectedness and reduce isolation 2. Violence Free Families 3. Financial security and capability for all 4. Productive engagement for all 5. Reduce the incarcerated population 6. Successful development from birth to adulthood 7. Strengthen social response to environmental challenges 8. Health equity and wellness 9. Provide a home for all 10. A secure society 11. Harnessing digital technology for social good

* Communications Experts Like You will be Engaged to Better Frame these Ideas

Select Examples of Interesting and Promising GC Concept Paper Topics

1. Behavioral Health for All: Preventing behavioral problems through age 24 2. Prevention of schizophrenia and severe mental illness 3. Increasing the productive engagement of older adults 4. Decarcerate America 5. Social isolation 6. Global environmental challenges 7. Re-entry is our next civil rights movement 8. Safe Children: Ending severe and fatal maltreatment of children 9. Relationships free from violence 10. The global mental health crisis 11. Healthier births 12. Financial capability for all 13. End Homelessness 14. Health Equity: Close the Health Gap in the U.S.

Round 2: Request for Additional Concept Papers

• In review of current paper submissions the Executive Committee realized that important topic areas were missing related to: underlying social processes, technological development, infrastructure, systems change, and policy invention

• New Criteria are being developed to support the additional round of GC paper submissions

• We seek GC’s that are innovative and address large-scale systems problems which likely have deeply entrenched constituencies, require bold solutions that may exceed current capacity, and require untried ideas as the foundation for action

• These papers and any GC’s that arise from them, will supplement GC’s already identified and are not intended to replace existing concepts

Development of Action Plans for Using the Grand Challenges

–Conferences (or Panels at Conference) on Grand Challenges?

– Special issues or sections of journals on GCSWI

– Special GCSWI grant announcements (need sponsoring funding partners)

–GCI policy briefs in support of GC’s

– Social media support

–Partnership with other allied funders

GCSWI Vanguard Schools

• A few schools (USC, UW, UCB, at least) are starting their own Grand Challenges projects

– These are already building a process that may be of use to the GCI

– Some will have completed this process and have challenges articulated by spring or summer

What’s the GCSWI is Not

1. Not about resources for the profession, per se

• Not explicitly about increasing our voice or our piece of the pie

2. About what we can do for society not what society can do for us

3. Not without risks: Rests on social work’s ability to generate great ideas, to innovate, and to partner effectively (not going it alone)

Dialogue: Question #1

1. What are Grand Challenge Tag Lines that you feel are catchy? (Examples: Be A Social Worker, Spread The Opportunity, Connect People, Prevent Mental Illness, Make Families Safer and Stronger)

Dialogue: Question #2

2. What ideas do you have about an important focus for a Grand Challenge for social work? How is it big, important, and compelling?

Dialogue: Question #3

3. What knowledge do you think we would need to address this challenge?

Dialogue: Question #4

4. What suggestions do you have for practitioners and researchers—in social work and other fields--to work together to address societal problems that are Grand Challenges for social work?

Dialogue Question #5a & 4b

5a. What other organizations can we help to achieve their goals (and thereby achieve ours)?

5b. That is, what partners do we need to achieve any goal you have in mind or the entire GCSWI’s goals?

Please Record Your Ideas

• We know that great movements sometimes start with back of the napkin drawings…

• We forgot the napkins but have scattered forms around for your use.

Please Give Us Your Communication Wisdom about the Grand Challenges

Please Stay Tuned and Involved ALL IDEAS MATTER

THANK YOU

Questions, Comments,

Recommendations?

Partial References

Collins, P. Y., Vikram, P., Joestl, S. S., March, D., Insel, T., & Daar, A. S. (2011). Grand challenges in global mental health. Nature 475 (7345), 27-30. doi:10.1038/475027a.

Grand Challenges Canada™. (January 2011). Bold Ideas for Humanity: The Grand Challenges Approach. Toronto, CA: Author.

http://grandchallengesgmh.nimh.nih.gov/Grand%20Challenges%20in%20Global%20Mental%20Health%20Supplementary%20Information.pdf