School of Social Work News

In 2018, ENGAGE launched the Small Grants Program to encourage faculty to build partnerships with Detroit community-based organizations and to support resident-led efforts to strengthen Detroit neighborhoods. These awards are supported by the Office of the Provost and are part of the School of Social Work’s strategic effort to connect Detroit engagement efforts and increase impact in the city. ENGAGE partners with the School of Public Health’s Detroit Urban Research Center in the administration of the small grants program. Here are this year’s grant recipients:

1. “Empowering Detroit Together: Building Community Impact Partnerships”
   Faculty Member: Clinical Associate Professor Abigail Eiler
   Community Partner: Yusef Shakur, Co-Executive Director, Michigan Roundtable
    
2. “Black Ecclesiastical Intervention to Help Equip Affected Lives Enduring Mental Disorders (BE HEALED)”
   Faculty Members: Professor Rich Tolman and Associate Professor Addie Weaver
   Community Partner: Pastor Charles Williams, Community Investigator

Professor Emerita Lorraine Guitérrez received the inaugural Maria B. Cerdas Trailblazer Award at the Latino Social Workers Organization’s National Latinx Social Work Conference in Chicago last week; she was also the keynote speaker. The award is named after Cerdas who became the first Latina member of the Chicago Board of Education in the 1960s.

Clinical Assistant Professor Ayesha Ghazi Edwin spoke with CBS Detroit about a new “right to sit” ordinance she introduced in her role as Ann Arbor City Council Member. MSW student Jessica Riley’s participation in the public comments is included as part of the story. The ordinance was approved in October.

Additional media coverage:

• MLive

Professor Shawna Lee’s research on how fathers are connecting with their children — despite economic hardship and negative stereotypes — has been cited in an article on Tech Explorist. Lee and her co-authors call for these positive experiences to be reflected in the media and for health care providers to support father-inclusive practices.

Professor William Elliott III spoke with San Francisco’s KQED about how children’s savings accounts can provide hope and change perspectives. “You are giving families access to an institution that allows them to build wealth that’s coupled with a change in attitude and reflecting on what’s now achievable for them,” Elliott said.

Associate Professor Xiaoling Xiang is the principal investigator of a recently-funded federal grant from the Administration for Community Living’s National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research.  The three-year study will focus on evaluating the real-world effects of the Empower@Home program on social participation among older adults with disabilities. Empower@Home is an online self-help program for depression based on the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy. 

“I am thrilled to build on the momentum of our recent NIH R01 award to further expand Empower@Home’s community impact,” said Xiang. “Our goal is to extend its reach to older adults with disabilities and broaden its focus beyond a single condition to encompass outcomes like social participation and connections. This brings us closer to achieving our mission of promoting the multi-dimensional aspects of healthy aging.”

Assistant Professor Fernanda Cross spoke with WXYZ Detroit about how her own experience as an immigrant inspired the creation of the Latinx Youth Empowerment Series, also known as YES, which connects immigrant students at Ypsilanti Community High School with mental health services.  

“Immigrating is difficult. The children are having to do a lot of the navigating the new culture. They’re navigating the new language for the parents as they are learning the language themselves,” Cross said. “For the adolescents that come from undocumented parents, there’s always this constant fear of getting separated from the family, having one of the caregivers deported or being deported themselves in case the adolescents,” she said.  “These students were very likely never going to see a provider if it had not been for these groups.”

YES has been so successful that the Michigan Health Endowment Foundation is funding six additional groups over the next two years.

U-M’s Anti-Racism Collaborative, an initiative of the National Center for Institutional Diversity, has announced the 2024 Anti-Racism Grants.

Professor Joseph Himle and Associate Professor Addie Weaver have received an Anti-Racism Grant for their project FARWell: The Formula for Anti-Racist Wellness and Therapy. This project  — a community-university partnership between My Brother’s Keeper, Formula 734, and social work researchers at U-M and The Ohio State University — will support the development and evaluation of a transdiagnostic cognitive behavioral therapy for depression and anxiety, designed for and by young Black men.

Joint PhD Student Irene Routté has received an Anti-Racism Graduate Research Grant for her project Landscapes of (Im)Mobility: Congolese Refugee Youth, the U.S. Resettlement System and Spatial Negotiations of Belonging.

Associate Professor Odessa Gonzalez Benson has received an Anti-Racist Digital Research Initiative Grant for her project A Digital Collection as Narrative and Visualization of the Journey of Resettled Refugees.

The Anti-Racism Grants are sponsored by the Office of the Vice President for Research in partnership with the National Center for Institutional Diversity’s Anti-Racism Collaborative, which aims to support and amplify the work of anti-racism scholars at U-M.