The College of Social Work is proud to be home to distinguished faculty conducting noteworthy, groundbreaking research. CSW faculty scholarship addresses Grand Challenges for Social Work, tackling the nation’s toughest social problems, with racism being among them. The Grand Challenges initiative for social work is led by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare to champion social progress powered by science.
In a released policy brief titled “2024 Policy Recommendations for Meeting Grand Challenges for Social Work,” the initiative identified key suggestions for addressing the Grand Challenge to Eliminate Racism, one of the 14 identified target areas. According to the brief, social work licensure and wealth inequality present significant challenges affecting racially diverse groups in the United States, particularly impacting Black individuals. These issues have adverse effects on both the social work workforce and the well-being of racialized families.
The next 10 years will involve researchers, practitioners and policymakers participating in directed activities that will move the Grand Challenges forward and result in social work accomplishments. Specific to eliminating racism, the Grand Challenges for Social Work assert that “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.”
As part of her scholarship, Dr. Jacquelyn Meshelemiah’s research addresses the Grand Challenge to End Racism and also coincides with February’s Black History Month. Her work identifies social work as a profession with the potential to address racist ideologies and structural racism in society due to its historical mission to support and advocate for marginalized and oppressed populations. She also emphasizes the importance of the profession maintaining its commitment to core social work values, such as service, social justice, dignity and worth of the person, the importance of human relationships, integrity and competence.
In her insightful article titled “Social Work’s Grandest Challenge: Re-Contextualizing Racism and Reducing its Deleterious Effects on its Members and Those We Serve,” Meshelemiah calls upon the social work profession to critically examine its own biases and actions. She specifically addresses the impact of racism on Black social work licensure test takers, the undervaluation of research conducted by Black social work scholars and the deficit-based practice approaches adopted by some social workers that cause harm to racialized families.
Meshelemiah also discusses how, despite the profession’s mandate for benevolence, certain historical and contemporary trends reveal a different narrative. She encourages social work’s governing and advisory boards to implement measures to address racism within the profession to promote fairness and equity for all social workers across the social work community.
“At this precarious moment in time for the social work profession, it is imperative that the profession returns to its fundamental precepts of promoting social justice and serving the disenfranchised through a practice framework, research trajectory and educational paradigm that are social work specific and social justice centered,” says Meshelemiah. “The social work profession must continue to evolve in a direction that markedly shifts from the recent past, demonstrates that it has learned from its mistakes in the present and commits to doing things differently in the future.”
Meshelemiah has co-authored several recent publications related to social work, race and racism including:
Her most recent social work publication on the Grand Challenges advocates for systemic changes that address the root causes of racism, with a particular focus on social work licensure tests, social work education, social work practice and social work research.
