Social Work Showcase 2021
April 27 - May 8
*** Project Winners Announced! ***
Congratulations! Click Below to View!
What our Showcase is about
The Department of Social Work would like to welcome you to this virtual poster showcase which displays the year-long efforts of our graduating MSW student community-based Capstone Projects, and the year-long efforts of graduating BSW student applied Senior Research Projects, all conducted at internship sites across Southern California and designed to leave a positive impact on social service delivery.
We are extremely proud of the efforts of our students, and also wish to thank our field education agency partners who supported these projects and the Research and Capstone Faculty, Dr. Anupama Jacob, Dr. Mary Rawlings, Dr. Olivia Sevilla, Dr. Adria Navarro, Dr. Carol Leung, and Prof. Kimberly Setterlund.
Congratulations to the class of 2021!! Directions for navigating the site are below.
MSW Capstone Leadership Projects: The Capstone Leadership Project provides opportunities for MSW students to demonstrate advanced social work competencies, to practice leadership at their field placement sites, and enhance self-awareness of individual leadership styles and skills. The Capstone project requires students, in conjunction with their field instructors to: utilize best practices to identify an existing need at the field site; create a sustainable Capstone project; assume significant leadership; engage in self-assessment and self-reflection; utilize best practices to evaluate intended outcomes of the selected intervention; and provide the organization with deliverables.
BSW Research Projects: The BSW research posters are the culmination of students' year-long research projects tied to their field internships. Over the course of the research class, students formulate a viable research question, review the literature, collect data from their field internship sites, conduct data analysis, and discuss implications of their findings for practice and further résearch. Students learn to apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgment through the process of data collection, data analysis, writing a research report, and presenting their research.
Criteria for Selection of MSW Capstone Leadership Awards
Top Poster Awards will be announced and posted on this site on April 29th, and awardees will be honored during program year end events. Three Top Posters are selected for each cohort (Full-Time and Part-Time).
SELECTION CRITERIA:
Must meet high academic standards.
Addresses a true and significant need of the organization determined through formalized needs assessment process.
Methods (how the project is carried out) are collaborative in nature (involves key stakeholders, administration, organizations, etc).
Includes an evaluative component and demonstrates measurable outcomes.
Demonstrates intent to create significant impact on communities, organizations, programs, or individuals.
Client outcomes are improved and are reflected in improved outcomes.
New systems are put into place that did not exist prior to the project.
Contributes in measurable ways to emerging policy in organizations or communities.
In the discussion section, addresses sustainability where new procedures, programs, or systems are put in place that did not exist prior.
Criteria for Selection of BSW Poster Awards
The BSW posters were systematically scored (0 to 20 points) by a team of poster judges from the BSW department. The posters with the highest ratings were selected for the BSW Research Poster Awards. The judging evaluation criteria included the following 4 components:
1) Discussed the main purpose of the study or research question clearly.
2) Demonstrated content clarity and coherence.
3) Applied project implications and future research clearly and coherently.
4) Overall poster project design and organization.
Grand Challenges for Social work
Directions for Navigating the Virtual Showcase:
Sign into the virtual showcase guestbook by selecting either the Student Check-In or Guest Book tab in the top right corner, then return to the home page.
The posters are organized below by the Social Work Grand Challenges. The Grand Challenges have been put forth by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare to provide a framework for the profession to champion social progress powered by science.
To browse posters by Grand Challenge, scroll below and click on either BSW or MSW Posters. If you are looking for a specific student's poster, click either the BSW Directory or MSW Directory below to find their name and the Grand Challenge to which their project is linked. Then, return to this home page and scroll below to find their specific Grand Challenge.
1. ENsure Healthy Development for all Youth
"Each year, more than six million young people receive treatment for severe mental, emotional, or behavioral problems. Strong evidence shows us how to prevent many behavioral health problems before they emerge. By unleashing the power of prevention through widespread use of proven approaches, we can help all youth grow up to become healthy and productive adults."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/ensure-healthy-development-for-all-youth/)
2. Close the HEalth Gap
"More than 60 million Americans experience devastating one-two punches to their health—they have inadequate access to basic health care while also enduring the effects of discrimination, poverty, and dangerous environments that accelerate higher rates of illness. Innovative and evidence-based social strategies can improve health care and lead to broad gains in the health of our entire society."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/close-the-health-gap/)
3. Build Healthy RElationships to End Violence
"Interpersonal violence has a traumatizing impact—across the lifespan—on individuals, families, communities, and society. Oppression based on factors such as a person's age, race, gender, identities, abilities, or socioeconomic status alter these experiences. Healthy relationships foster emotional resilience and strength. Developing and broadly implementing interventions, both universal and targeted, with individual, relationship, community, and service delivery systems can bolster a range of interpersonal relationships, reduce violence more broadly, and strengthen our mental and physical health, our families, and our communities."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/build-healthy-relationships/)
4. Advance Long and Productive LIves
"Increased automation and longevity demand new thinking by employers and employees regarding productivity. Young people are increasingly disconnected from education or work and the labor force faces significant retirements in the next decades. Throughout the lifespan, fuller engagement in education and paid and unpaid productive activities can generate a wealth of benefits, including better health and well-being, greater financial security, and a more vital society."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/advance-long-and-productive-lives/)
5. Eradicate SOcial isolation
"Social isolation is a silent killer—as dangerous to health as smoking. National and global health organizations have underscored the hidden, deadly, and pervasive hazards stemming from feeling alone and abandoned. Our challenge is to educate the public on this health hazard, encourage health and human service professionals to address social isolation, and promote effective ways to deepen social connections and community for people of all ages."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/eradicate-social-isolation/)
6. End Homelessness
"During the course of a year, nearly 1.5 million Americans will experience homelessness for at least one night. Periods of homelessness often have serious and lasting effects on personal development, health, and well-being. Our challenge is to expand proven approaches that have worked in communities across the country, develop new service innovations and technologies, and adopt policies that promote affordable housing and basic income security."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/end-homelessness/)
7. Create Social Responses to a Changing Environment
"The environmental challenges reshaping contemporary societies pose profound risks to human well-being, particularly for marginalized communities. Climate change and urban development threaten health, undermine coping, and deepen existing social and environmental inequities. A changing global environment requires transformative social responses: new partnerships, deep engagement with local communities, and innovations to strengthen individual and collective assets."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/create-social-responses-to-a-changing-environment/)
8. Harness Technology for Social Good
"Innovative applications of new digital technology present opportunities for social and human services to reach more people with greater impact on our most vexing social problems. These new technologies can be deployed to more strategically target social spending, speed up the development of effective programs, and bring a wider array of help to more individuals and communities."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/harness-technology-for-social-good/)
9. Eliminate racism
"The United States is built on a legacy of racism and white supremacy that has consistently and significantly impacted the daily lives of millions of people. Today, racist policies, bias, and discriminatory practices continue to promote racial inequality in myriad ways. Social work has provided considerable leadership in the civil rights and race equity movements, but has much more work to do, internal to the profession and for society as a whole. We propose to develop a model for eliminating racism by identifying evidence and practice-based interventions that will end racism and ameliorate the negative outcomes of our history of racism."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/eliminate-racism/)
10. Promote Smart Decarceration
"The United States has the world’s largest proportion of people behind bars. Mass incarceration and failed rehabilitation have resulted in staggering economic and human costs. Our challenge is to develop a proactive, comprehensive, evidence-based “smart decarceration” strategy that will dramatically reduce the number of people who are imprisoned and enable the nation to embrace a more effective and just approach to public safety. "
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/promote-smart-decarceration/)
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/promote-smart-decarceration/)
11. Build Financial Capability and Assets For All
"Nearly half of all American households are financially insecure, without adequate savings to meet basic living expenses for three months. We can significantly reduce economic hardship and the debilitating effects of poverty by adopting social policies that bolster lifelong income generation and safe retirement accounts; expand workforce training and re-training; and provide financial literacy and access to quality affordable financial services."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/build-financial-capability-for-all/)
12. Reduce Extreme Economic Inequality
"The top 1% owns nearly half of the total wealth in the U.S, while one in five children live in poverty. The consequences for health and well-being are immeasurable. We can correct the broad inequality of wealth and income through a variety of innovative means related to wages and tax benefits associated with capital gains, retirement accounts, and home ownership. Greater lifelong access to education will also provide broader economic opportunities."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/reduce-extreme-economic-inequality/)
13. Achieve Equal Opportunity and Justice
"In the United States, some groups of people have long been consigned to society’s margins. Historic and current prejudice and injustice bars access to success in education and employment. Addressing racial and social injustices, deconstructing stereotypes, dismantling inequality, exposing unfair practices, and accepting the super diversity of the population will advance this challenge. All of this work is critical to fostering a successful society."
(https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org/achieve-equal-opportunity-and-justice/)
- Harness social work’s science and knowledge base;
- Collaborate with individuals, community-based organizations, and professionals from all fields and disciplines; and
- Work together to tackle some of our toughest social problems.
Today our society faces serious, interrelated, and large-scale challenges—violence, substance abuse, environmental degradation, injustice, isolation, and inequality. We need social workers’ unique blend of scientific knowledge and caring practice more than ever. Grand Challenges have been used for more than a century to address significant societal issues. Everyone—in social work and in related fields—has a role. Everyone in social work—students, researchers, practitioners, faculty members and universities–can take part."
https://grandchallengesforsocialwork.org
