The Grand Challenges for Social Work is an initiative originally spearheaded by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. The challenges are modeled after a similar undertaking led by the National Academy of Engineering.Kalil, T. (2012, April 12). The Grand Challenges of the 21st century. Speech presented at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Washington, DC. Retrieved from https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/grandchallenges-speech-04122012.pdf Edwina Uehara from the University of Washington, School of Social Work, proposed the Grand Challenges approach to the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW). Then President of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (Richard Barth of the University of Maryland School of Social Work) presented the idea to the AASWSW Board, which approved it.
In 2013, the Grand Challenges for Social Work leadership invited national social work organizations, interest groups, and academic institutions to conceptualize and outline the Grand Challenges initiative. More than 80 suggestions for Grand Challenge topics were submitted online and in-person. From the ideas, the committee issued a call for concept papers and approximately 40 papers were submitted. As part of this work, the group commissioned several background papersSherraden, M., Barth, R. P., Brekke, J., Fraser, M., Mandersheid, R., & Padgett, D. (2014). Social is fundamental:Introduction and context for grand challenges for social work(Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 1). Baltimore, MD:American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.Sherraden, M., Stuart, P., Barth, R. P., Kemp, S., Lubben, J., Hawkins, J.D., Coulton, C., McRoy, R., Walters, K., Healy, L., Angell, B., Mahoney, K., Brekke, J., Padilla, Y., DiNitto, D., Padgett, D., Schroepfer, T., & Catalano, R., (2014).Grand accomplishments in social work(Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 2). Baltimore, MD: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.Uehara, E.S., Barth, R.P., Olson, S., Catalano, R.F., Hawkins, J.D., Kemp, S., Nurius, P.S., Padgett, D.K., & Sherraden, M. (2014). Identifying and tackling grand challenges for social work (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 3). Baltimore, MD: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. and an Impact Model to define the issues, describe the accomplishments of social work to date, and explain the Grand Challenges concept.
Challenges were identified in partnership with sister organizations, including the National Association of Social Workers, Council on Social Work Education, Society for Social Work and Research, Group for the Advancement of Doctoral Education in Social Work, National Association of Deans and Directors in Social Work, and the St. Louis Group. The Grand Challenges were announced in January 2016 at the Society for Social Work and Research annual conference in Washington, DC. An impact report was published in 2021 to mark the end of the fifth year of the Grand Challenges.Eliminate Racism - Five Year Impact.
Grand Challenges The 13 Grand Challenges for Social Work are: Ensure healthy development for all youth:DeVylder, J. E. (2015). Prevention of schizophrenia and severe mental illness (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 6). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.Hawkins, J. D., Jenson, J. M., Catalano, R. F., Fraser, M. W., Botvin, G. J., Shapiro, V., … the Coalition for Behavioral Health. (2015). Unleashing the power of prevention (Grand Challenge for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 10). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social WelfareHawkins, J. D., J. M. Jenson, R. Catalano, M. W. Fraser, G. J. Botvin, V. Shapiro, C. H. Brown, W. Beardslee, D. Brent, L. K. Leslie, M. J. Rotheram-Borus, P. Shea, A. Shih, E. Anthony, K. P. Haggerty, K. Bender, D. Gorman-Smith, E. Casey, and S. Stone. 2015. Unleashing the Power of Prevention. Discussion Paper, Institute of Medicine and National Research Council, Washington, DC Addressing behavioral health issues in youth is part of this Grand Challenge. Drew Reynolds, a PhD candidate at the Boston College School of Social Work, ties into it with his work on social network analysis and its potential to tackle social problems. Eliminate racism Close the health gap:Begun, A. L., Clapp, J. D., & The Alcohol Misuse Grand Challenge Collective. (2015). Preventing and reducing alcohol misuse and its consequences: A grand challenge for social work (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 14). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.Walters, K. L., Spencer, M. S., Smukler, M., Allen, H. L., Andrews, C., Browne, T., … Uehara, E. (2016). Health equity: Eradicating health inequalities for future generations (Grand Challenges forSocial Work Initiative Working Paper No. 19). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. In December 2016, the International Journal of Social Work published the paper “Social Work Grand Challenges and the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals: Linking Social Work and Women’s Health.” The authors make the case for “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.” Stop family violence.Edleson, J. L, Lindhorst, T., & Kanuha, V. K. (2015). Ending Gender-Based Violence: A Grand Challenge for Social Work (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 15). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.Barth, R. P., Putnam-Hornstein, E., Shaw, T. V., & Dickinson, N. S. (2015). Safe children: Reducing severe and fatal maltreatment (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 17). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. This grand challenge includes a concerted effort to better integrate the scholarship and practice that links child maltreatment prevention and services with those addressing intimate partner violence. These sub-fields have developed with different methodological and conceptual approaches. The US CDC has recently been promoting the idea of "connecting the dots" which shows that there is quite a bit of continuity between child maltreatment, youth violence, and intimate partner violence, and gender based violence. A recent chapter on this grand challenge by Barth and Macy begins to draw out some of these continuities. Advance long and productive livesMorrow-Howell, N., Gonzales, E., Matz-Costa, C., Greenfield, E. A. (2015). Increasing productive engagement in later life (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 8). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Eradicate social isolation:Lubben, J., Gironda, M., Sabbath, E. Kong, J., & Johnson, C. (2015). Social isolation presents a grand challenge for social work (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 7). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Social isolation is a growing issue, affecting people of all walks of life and ability. It can affect children and youth, people with disabilities, older people, and people without access to technology. Social workers are on the front lines, addressing these issues in a variety of settings and with a range of interventions, as noted in a piece in the June 2016 issue of NASW News. End homelessnessHenwood, B. F., Wenzel, S., Mangano, P. F., Hombs, M., Padgett, D., Byrne, T., … Uretsky, M. (2015). The grand challenge of ending homelessness (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 9). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Create social responses to a changing environmentKemp, S. P., & Palinkas, L. A. (with Wong, M., Wagner, K., Reyes Mason, L., Chi, I., … Rechkemmer, A.). (2015). Strengthening the social response to the human impacts of environmental change (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 5). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Harness technology for social good:Berzin, S. C., Singer, J., & Chan, C. (2015). Practice innovation through technology in the digital age: A grand challenge for social work (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 12). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.Coulton, C. J., Goerge, R., Putnam-Hornstein, E., & de Haan, B. (2015). Harnessing big data for social good: A grand challenge for social work (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 11). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Kristin Battista-Frazee, MSW, explores the ways that technology is used in social work—from educating students and communicating via social media to online counseling and electronic records. Jonathan Singer, PhD, LCSW, of Loyola University School of Social Work, wrote a blog post on a paper he co-authored calling for practice innovation through technology in the field of social work. Promote smart decarceration:Pettus-Davis, C., & Epperson, M. W. (2015). From mass incarceration to smart decarceration (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 4). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Researchers have called for utilizing the Grand Challenges for Social Work framework, with its emphasis on using evidence-based policies to address social injustices, to reform the current approach to managing sexual offender registries. Reduce extreme economic inequalityLein, L., Romich, J. L., & Sherraden, M. (2015). Reversing extreme inequality (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 16). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Build financial capability for allSherraden, M. S., Huang, J., Frey, J. J., Birkenmaier, J., Callahan, C., Clancy, M. M., & Sherraden, M. (2015). Financial capability and asset building for all (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 13). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. Achieve equal opportunity and justiceGoldbach, J. T., Amaro, H., Vega W., & Walter M. D. (2015). The grand challenge of promoting equality by addressing social stigma (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 18). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.Calvo, R., Ortiz, L., Padilla, Y. C., Waters, M. C., Lubben, J., Egmont, W., . . . Villa, P. (2015). Achieving equal opportunity and justice: the integration of Latino/a immigrants into American society (Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative Working Paper No. 20). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.Teasley, M. L., McRoy, R. G., Joyner, M., Armour, M., Gourdine, R. M., Crewe, S. E., … Fong, R. (2017). Increasing success for African American children and youth (Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative Working Paper No. 21). Cleveland, OH: American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare.
Activities There have been Grand Challenge-themed meetings and conferences, colloquia, as well as several special issue journals. Curriculum development and recruitment of students is also a significant goal. In 2016, USC School of Social Work announced a DSW program themed around the Grand Challenges. Additionally, each Grand Challenge has developed a set of policy recommendations. The University of Maryland School of Social Work published an article detailing the history and progress of the Grand Challenges initiative in the Winter 2017 issue of Connections Magazine.