Showing events starting from September 1, 2024 up to September 30, 2024

September 18, 2024 - 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM ET

Join a virtual discussion with the editors of Haymarket Book's popular new title Abolition and Social Work: Possibilities, Paradoxes, and the Practice of Community Care, hosted by University of Michigan students, staff, and faculty. This book is "a critical anthology exploring the debates, conundrums, and promising practices around abolition and social work in academia and within impacted communities. Within social work—a profession that has often been complicit in the building and sustaining of the carceral state—abolitionist thinking, movement-building, and radical praxis are shifting the field."

The book's editors, Mimi E. Kim, Cameron W. Rasmussen, and Durrell M. Washington, Sr., share how they came to publish this important text and explore whether and how abolitionist principles and politics can be incorporated into social work. Throughout the chapters, the book invites readers to consider whether it is possible for social work to bolster the work of abolition, the tensions and paradoxes with abolition given the social work profession's legacies and trajectories, and examples of social work praxis rooted in abolitionist principles. 

As abolitionist organizer, educator, and curator Mariame Kaba writes in the foreword, "The promise of social work is often a carceral promise. The state and its representatives look to social workers when cops seem too violent or too expensive—when they need "someone else" to call or "somewhere else" to incarcerate people. Ida Wells-Barnett, though, and the contributors to this book, show that social work can do more than just tape some cushions to the bars. It can work to pull them down."

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September 22, 2024 - 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM ET

The purpose of the Electoral Wellness (Civic Engagement & Mental/Emotional Wellbeing) series is to invite the SSW DEI community into an ongoing conversation about power and hope during the Fall 2024 election cycle in a way that is meant to build trust and self-awareness. This experiential series will allow SSW students, faculty, and staff to build relationships in a setting that is grounded in restorative justice practices such as trust-building and active listening. This calendar of three sessions will use interactive activities to support participants in engaging in mindfulness and collective visioning as tools to protect hopefulness and plan for a socially just future in the face of uncertainty and political unrest.

Outcomes: Participants will

Experience Restorative Justice  values in practice 

Engage in self-awareness by naming feelings through the use of art

Examine power checks and balances within National and State Governments

Explore electoral hopes and fears

Discuss practices for discussing the election with clients

Practice grounding tools in the space that can be used with clients in the field

Engage in a collective visioning exercise

Process emotions following the 2024 election

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September 25, 2024 - 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM ET

Join us in person or virtually for a comprehensive overview of our DEI 2.0 Strategic Plan and ongoing efforts to foster diversity, equity, and inclusion within the School of Social Work. This session will highlight key achievements from year one and outline future initiatives for the 24-25 school year. 

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