Professor Trina Shanks has received the 2024 Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) Social Policy Award. Shanks will be presented with the award this weekend at the SSWR Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. in January.
The Center for Equitable Family & Community Well-Being, led by Professor Trina Shanks, has received a $1 million contract to evaluate American Rescue Plan (ARP) money directed through the Washtenaw County Racial Equity Office.
Passed in March 2021, the ARP was designed to provide relief and support in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. The plan supports community investments in programs and infrastructure to build stronger, more equitable post-pandemic economies.
The center’s team of faculty, staff and students will evaluate county-approved projects, including a financial equity center, expansion of local broadband service, and a community priority fund, which will direct grants to nonprofits expanding capacity while cultivating sustainable funding sources to continue their work.
“These organizations serve parts of the county that historically have been underinvested in and not received substantial public funding,” Shanks said. Small organizations that stepped up during the pandemic—regarding public safety, homelessness, education and basic needs—can now grow, become secure and have sustainable impact.
“We believe that an intentional focus on those whose work hasn’t been acknowledged with federal funding, especially people of color, will bring greater equity to the system and involve the people closest to the solutions,” she said.
Professor Trina Shanks’ research on the long-term implications of the Homestead Act was cited by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her dissent of last month’s Supreme Court ruling striking down affirmative action in college admissions.
Professor Trina Shanks has received the 2023 Distinguished Faculty Award. This highly esteemed peer award recognizes governing faculty members who demonstrate excellence in domains including longevity of service to the School; national recognition in scholarship and service; excellence in teaching and mentoring; outstanding service to the School and the University; and contribution to the professional community.
Professor Trina Shanks will serve on the Framing and Design Committee of U-M’s Inclusive History Project. This presidential initiative is designed to create a more accurate narrative about U-M’s history, with an initial focus on race and racism. “We cannot move forward as a university until we acknowledge those we’ve excluded in the past. We must have the courage to understand the lived experiences of all those in our community, past and present,” said U-M President Santa J. Ono.
Professor Trina Shanks has been appointed board president of the Black Administrators, Researchers, and Scholars (BARS) group. BARS was founded by the late Larry Davis, MSW '73 and PhD '77, to aid in the development and advancement of Black social work scholars, researchers and administrators within the Social Work academic discipline.
Professor Trina Shanks is an editor on the latest edition of the Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society. This second edition outlines bold innovation and collective action powered by proven and evolving scientific interventions to address critical social issues facing society. The chapters tackle problems such as homelessness, social isolation, mass incarceration, family violence and economic inequality.
The conventional mortgage market is not working in Detroit, writes Professor Trina Shanks in a Detroit Free Press editorial. Shanks and her co-authors recommend new programs to support homebuyer education programs and establish a single-family residential rehabilitation fund. “We know the private mortgage market does not serve Detroit in the same way as it does adjacent communities. The evidence is indisputable,” writes Shanks. The article cites data reviewed by the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being that shows that vast swath of Detroit, identified by neighborhood, see very little mortgage lending activity in relation to residential property sales. “We are in a once in a lifetime moment, where substantive federal investments are flowing into Detroit. Let's focus these infrastructure investments in a way that benefits Detroiters.
Trina Shanks was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare. The Academy is an honorific society of distinguished scholars and practitioners dedicated to achieving excellence in the field of social work and social welfare through high-impact work that advances social good. Fellow status is among the highest professional accolades bestowed to social work scholars; Michigan Social Work now has 12 academy members. Shanks is the School of Social Work Community Engagement Director and Harold R. Johnson Collegiate Professor of Social Work.
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Professor Trina Shanks is quoted in a Washington Post article about how federal relief programs initiated during the pandemic have been surprisingly effective at lifting people and families out of poverty. President Biden’s “Build Back Better” proposal would continue some of these financial supports, which could potentially cut childhood poverty rates in half. “The whole point of the child tax credit is, if a family is working at all, it pushes the family above the poverty line so their children aren’t suffering,” said Shanks.
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