School of Social Work News

Associate Professor Daphne Watkins will be a featured speaker at Michigan State University’s Making Relationships Work: A Summit on Black Male Academic Success and Inclusion.  She will be presenting her work on the YBMen Project, an educational and social support program for young black men which serves as a mechanism through which we can learn about the strategies that influence and shape young black men’s ideas and experiences with mental health.

Payton Watt, CASC student and Vice President of Michigan is My Home, was awarded the TEDx 2018 Award for Innovation for the group’s advocacy work with the Ann Arbor homeless community.  The award celebrates putting imaginative and ingenious ideas into impactful action.  Michigan is My Home empowers individuals and families experiencing homelessness through packaging programs, social advocacy and community engagement.

Dean Emeritus Harold R. Johnson talks with his daughter Karen Downing (U-M librarian) about his experience has the first African-American dean at the University of Michigan.

Jack Griffin and Amrita Das, CASC minors, received the 2018 Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Spirit Award. The awards honor undergraduate students on Central Campus who best exemplify the leadership and extraordinary vision of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  

Susannah Feinstein, MSW ‘18, was selected as a 2018 Dow Sustainability Fellow. 

Dow Fellows focus on interdisciplinary approaches to a broad array of sustainability challenges related to water, energy, transportation, built environment, climate change, food, health, human behavior, and others. In addition to co-curricular activities and interactions with the Dow Doctoral and Postdoctoral Fellows, each Masters/Professional Fellow will complete an interdisciplinary team project focused on developing collaborative and practical sustainability solutions in the real world.

Jack Lessenberry from Michigan Radio discusses Poverty Solutions latest initiatives with Associate Professor and Director of  Poverty Solutions, Luke Shaefer.

Professor William Elliott III's article, "Why children's savings accounts should be America's next wealth transfer program" was featured in The Conversation. In addition to The Conversation, the story was picked up by other news outlets including:

• The Chicago Tribune
• 10 News Tampa Bay Sarasota
• Los Angeles Times
• Main News
• Australia News

Associate Professor Daphne Watkins won two of the four awards presented at the University of Michigan Fast Forward Medical Innovations (FFMI) program on November 17, 2017.  

Watkins, who competed among 15 teams of physicians and medical professionals, is the principal investigator for the YBMen Project, which was created to better understand and address the pressures and needs of young black men using popular social media platforms to provide mental health education and social support.  Watkins won the Health IT category, and the Crowd Favorite category.  

“The Medical Innovations program is a great way to learn how to grow ideas and make good use of customer discovery,” Watkins said.  “These awards are an acknowledgement that the work we’re doing is useful and important. They are very encouraging.”

Watkins continues to write grants to evaluate the YBMen Project and make it scalable and sustainable.