University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Social Work Report 2023

Learn more about each of our programs of study at

www.socialwork.illinois.edu

MESSAGE FROM DEAN LOUGH Dear School of Social Work Community, This past year, we have made much progress under the decisive leadership of Dean Anderson. Importantly, we have taken steps to infuse our curriculum and community with a renewed commitment to diversity, equity, and racial justice. As you will read in the following stories, these themes are woven into every aspect of our work, from addressing racial disproportionality in child welfare to pioneering new research projects focused on economic development and violence prevention.

We continue to place a strong emphasis on public engagement, nurturing valuable partnerships with state agencies and focusing our research on critical social problems, such as child abuse and neglect, mental health, substance abuse, and health. One of the initiatives highlighted in this report is a pilot project delivering and testing a guaranteed basic income to homeless families in Champaign County. Other faculty members have been working to provide new services for foster youth on campus. These efforts, and many other projects not spotlighted in the report, reflect our commitment to extending our mission beyond the confines of the classroom. We are proud to celebrate our faculty and staff who have been recognized for their excellence in public engagement.

This past year, our school adopted a new global strategic plan, which we have begun to put into action. We continue to nurture global citizenship among our students and to forge new connections with international partners.

Our collaboration with social work institutions in Taiwan, faculty efforts to inform disaster relief, and our work to strengthen global mental health each testify to these efforts, with many more promising ventures on the horizon.

In this report, we also shine a light on the commendable efforts of our ambitious students who have started new programs with significant social impact. Their work exemplifies our commitment to social justice and racial equity. The innovative projects highlighted in this report combine the strengths of social work with business, arts, and other disciplines in exciting ways.

This upcoming year also brings with it new leadership, the retirement of beloved faculty, and the welcoming of new faculty and staff. With these changes, we anticipate a wave of fresh perspectives and exciting opportunities.

To our dedicated staff, faculty, students, alumni, and community partners, I extend my deepest gratitude. Your collective efforts play a vital role in shaping our school into a vibrant community, steadfast in our shared mission to promote social change.

Thank you! Here’s to another year of growth, innovation, and impact.

Ben Lough Dean and Professor

HELPING FOSTER YOUTHS FIND A BETTER FUTURE The School of Social Work is taking part in a study designed to support youths aging out of foster care and educate them about their postsecondary education options.

In a study she completed in 2021, Judy Havlicek found that on average only 33% of young people who aged out of foster care in Illinois enrolled in postsecondary education. Eighty-eight percent of those who did enroll did so first in a community college. Of those who enrolled in either a two- or four-year college, only 8% graduated with a four-year degree within six years.

She wanted to support the Illinois child welfare system in doing something about that.

So, Havlicek, associate professor in the School of Social Work, worked with the Illinois Department of Child & Family Services to become a pilot site for Better Futures, an intervention developed about a decade ago at Portland State University to support youths aging out of foster care to learn about postsecondary education options and further explore their personal interests through peer coaching sessions.

Funded by the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), a Better Futures five-year study is being conducted by principal investigator Amy Salazar of Washington State University and co-PI Jennifer Blakeslee of Portland State University. Blakeslee and her team came to the UIUC campus in July for three days to train six social work students in an evidence-supported intervention. The students will act as coaches for the foster youths connected to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign portion of the study, which is testing the effectiveness of the program compared with services as usual.

Providing Support “We want to educate foster youth about postsecondary education options,” Havlicek says. “Our coaches will support youths to identify their goals. The program is designed to support goal attainment, whatever these might be.

| 2 |

From some of the research I’ve seen, this intervention does increase levels of self-determination and motivation for college, and the hope is it also increases rates of enrollment and graduation.”

The 10-month program was launched on campus in late July, Havlicek says, followed by bimonthly coaching sessions and quarterly workshops. Similar interventions in the study are being held in Texas, Oregon, and California.

“We recruited 18 young people to come to campus to stay for two nights and three days,” she says. “We gave them a campus tour and facilitated panels of students to talk about their experiences. We also had a panel on careers, talking about different career pathways, and a panel on financial aid. We also visited Parkland Community College, and the youths got a chance to meet their coaches.”

Filling a Gap in Programming Coaches are meeting twice a month in 90-minute, one-on-one sessions with the youths. During the meetings, the coaches are helping youths establish specific steps and timelines as they work toward their goals.

The youths, who are from Champaign County and surrounding counties, are also attending skill-building workshops led by “near-peer” college students with lived experience in foster care. The themes are focused on relevant postsecondary topics.

Better Futures is designed to fill a gap in programming that is specific to the needs of foster youths—specifically, the longer-term, relation-based supports typically provided by parents. If the intervention is found to be effective, it will be one of the few evidence-based practices for improving postsecondary outcomes for youths with foster care experience.

PROMOTING SOCIAL CHANGE THROUGH PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Kevin Tan is working with multiple communities to promote social-emotional learning and diversity, equity, and inclusion in K-12 schools. Recently, he was rewarded for his efforts.

In May, Kevin Tan, associate professor in the School of Social Work, received a plaque and an honorarium for his Campus Excellence in Public Engagement Faculty & Staff Distinguished Award from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

“Dr. Tan’s commitment to and work in public engagement goes far beyond what is expected of faculty members,” says former dean Steve Anderson. “He has created a strong synergy to bring students, faculty, staff, and community members together to further collaborative projects that are mutually beneficial and that make a difference in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Focus on Public Engagement Since coming on faculty in 2016, Tan has spent seven years working with K-12 schools to address inequitable outcomes, working with marginalized students of color and witnessing firsthand their social and emotional struggles.

“I’m humbled and honored to receive this award,” he says. “Public engagement is an integral aspect of my research, teaching, and commitment to the land grant mission of our university. In my work, I strive to bring attention to issues of racial justice, furthering our university’s commitment to anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion. I also believe in preparing our students to be socially engaged citizens who will work towards the betterment of our society.”

Two prominent projects that highlight Tan’s public engagement efforts are his work with the MahometSeymour School District and the Danville School District. In Mahomet, Tan undertook a two-year project to enhance the mental health and social-emotional wellbeing of children, caregivers/parents, and school staff in the Mahomet-Seymour School District. In Danville, Tan had students take photographs that reflected their sense of identity, agency, and belonging, and hosted exhibitions that included students, the Danville mayor, community members, and the school superintendent to view and discuss the photos, with the aim of finding ways to bring about social change.

Tan also received a grant from the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority to hire two full-time therapists for the Danville School District. He has headed numerous other projects with schools and community organizations, all aimed at promoting social-emotional learning (SEL) and addressing racial disparities.

Promoting SEL and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion “Dr. Tan has devoted his research, teaching, mentoring, and service to promoting social-emotional learning and greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the K-12 schools,” Anderson says.

“Being publicly engaged is a core of who Dr. Tan is. His work emphasizes that issues of anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion must be at the forefront of all public engagement work, and also must embrace reciprocal and mutually beneficial partnerships between the university and the community while simultaneously preparing students to become socially engaged citizens who will work towards improving our society.”

Tan says he engages the public by bringing the community into his classrooms—for guest lectures, for example—and by bringing his students into the community.

“Bringing students to visit agencies such as the Juvenile Detention Center in Urbana provides further depth to their understanding of the community and injects an element of realism to my teaching,” he says.

Tan plans to continually bring attention to the lived experience of the most vulnerable populations in the community through his research, teaching, and service, and to continue to highlight the significance of public engagement.

“While the greatest reward for my public engagement work is the sense of making a difference, this award will enhance my ability to promote social change as well as the confidence that my efforts align with the core mission of our university,” he says.

| 3 |

GUARANTEED INCOME: HELPING THE HOUSING INSECURE AND HOMELESS A Social Work professor has created and is running a program to aid families with school-age children who are housing insecure or homeless.

The program that gives people a temporary lift started, fittingly enough, on a chairlift.

“My brother and a friend of his and I were skiing in Tahoe,” says Christopher Larrison, associate professor in the School of Social Work. “I told them I was working with older adults who had been financially exploited. The friend, Mark Donovan, says, ‘I’m very interested in basic income, that might take care of being financially exploited if you have regular income.’”

That planted the seed in Larrison’s mind. A successful pilot program in Stockton, California, had recently wrapped up; the universal basic income program gave randomly-selected residents $500 per month for two years with no strings attached. The results? It measurably improved participants’ job prospects, financial stability, and overall well-being.

Similar programs—over a hundred of them, Larrison says—have been popping up all over the country. Why not in Champaign County?

Starting the Project Back from his ski trip, Larrison went to work to get such a program going. First on his to-do list was to form a formidable and knowledgeable team.

“I met with Brent Roberts and Elsa Augustine from the Center for Social & Behavioral Science,” he says. “They both enthusiastically backed the idea.” From there, Larrison drew in Associate Professor Will Schneider from the School because of Schneider’s interest in income solutions in the child welfare system. This team then applied for Call to Action funding from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion. “Finally, we hired Chelsea Birchmier, a doctoral student from the Department of Psychology, who has been instrumental in implementing the program,” Larrison says. “The contributions of two undergraduate students, Illakkia Ranjani and Fawwaz Ahmed, have been both meaningful and important. And Amy Hiles and Keith Blandford from the School’s business office have enrolled all of our participants in Banner and work diligently to ensure they receive their monthly payments.”

In March 2023, funded fully by University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign money, nine people with school-age children received their first of seven $750 monthly checks in the Champaign County Guaranteed Income Project.

The project is one of 25 “Call to Action” proposals approved in 2022 by Chancellor Robert Jones in a $2 million annual commitment to address systemic racial inequities through research. The nine recipients all fall under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act’s definition of homelessness: people who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

| 4 |

“These are all working families receiving the funds,” Larrison says. “They all have other income, which tells you they’re not making enough money to support their families.”

Larrison’s community partner in the project is the Champaign-Ford Regional Office of Education #9. “Kim Nix [connections program coordinator] and Donna Kaufman [assistant superintendent] have been instrumental in getting the families involved,” he says.

Completely Funded through the University Many of the guaranteed basic income projects have been dependent on ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funds, created by a federal stimulus bill to aid public health and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. By the time Larrison got this project rolling, however, all of Urbana and Champaign’s, and the university’s ARPA funds were allocated. Being entirely funded through the university’s own money makes this project unique.

“We could find only two other projects across the nation that use university money,” Larrison says. “When I tell people that we’re using university money, they really like that idea. When we talk about branding at the university level, this has a very branding feel to it. It’s very positive.”

Foremost on Larrison’s mind these days is how to sustain—and grow—the project.

“I’ve talked with a lot of wealthy people, and they’re very curious about and interested in the project,” he says, “but it’s hard to convince them to give money to me to give away. Some of them looked at me like I have three heads.”

He relates the story of Donovan, who invested heavily in Tesla stock when it was selling for $80 a share. He made back his investment tenfold. Donovan proceeded to write a $500,000 check and then raised $9M for a guaranteed income program in Denver that involves nearly 900 families.

“When you can write a check like that, with no vested interest, that makes a big difference,” Larrison says.

Unfortunately, Larrison doesn’t have $500,000 burning a hole in his pocket.

“I would like to get the university more highly involved,” he says. “I spent $45,000 of their money, so if they tripled that, thirty families of McKinney-Vento could get money for six months over the course of a year. You know from a university standpoint the $150,000 is pretty small—and it clearly would buy lots of love around the community.

I think permanency could be built through the university.”

Increased Need for Guaranteed Income Programs Why should anyone—the university, foundations, corporations, individuals—want to invest in such a program?

“Well, first, it works,” Larrison says. “It’s been proven to work. And in a town like this, where housing is readily available and not overly costly, there has to be a set of solutions that start with people having enough income to participate in its housing in the most traditional way. And look at it this way: If any of the other things that we’ve tried had worked, we wouldn’t have the problem we’re having.”

Exacerbating the housing issue, he says, is the increasing presence of AI. “There were people, like Elon Musk, who thought that even before AI, we might not have enough jobs for people,” Larrison says. “Going ahead, even working people are going to struggle within an environment where healthcare is expensive, where food costs are being inflated, and where work is not likely to pay enough and may diminish greatly over time.”

The need for guaranteed income programs is there, Larrison says. And yes, many people are leery about the idea of simply “handing out money” to people, fearing that the money will be misspent. With no strings attached, certainly some people will likely use the money in ways that don’t aid their ability to attain more permanent housing or higher-paying work. But Larrison points to research that shows that guaranteed income works: It pulls people out of poverty, improves health outcomes, makes it easier for people to find jobs (or better jobs) and take care of their children.

“What I’ve learned is our office can do it, the university money is good money, we have a great partnership with the Regional Office of Education, so we know there’s a consistent flow of clients, that there are more than 500 kids every year who are identified as part of a family that is housing insecure, we know that they could benefit from having access to better assistance, we know in general that people are not misspending money,” he says.

Larrison plans to survey the participants in the Champaign County Guaranteed Income Project at the end of the seven months of funding. “We’ll see how they used the money, how it helped them, and so on,” he says. “My hope is that five of the nine find housing stability, and among the four that don’t, that they were able to engage in activities that either improved the qualities of their kids’ lives or they were engaged in expending dollars that changed the dynamic of their ability to earn more dollars.”

| 5 |

THE HEALING PROJECT Dora Watkins is on a mission to give a voice to those who have been traditionally silenced, especially Black women and other Women of Color. Through her program, she strives to empower these communities and start the collective healing process.

In 2016, Dora Watkins had a vision to create something special, but it wasn’t until 2023 that her dream came to fruition. It was well worth the wait.

In February, Watkins, a PhD student in the School of Social Work, unveiled The Healing Project, which gives voice to people—and specifically to Black women and other Women of Color—with trauma histories to share their stories and experience collective healing.

She expected about 40 people to turn up for the inaugural event. Instead, a few hundred people jammed into The Literary, a Champaign “book-bar,” for the project’s premier, which featured stories told in varying formats, including monologues, poetry, and photos.

“That completely blew my mind,” Watkins says. “It just grabbed the attention of everyone who came in. That response tells me there is a need for this project and that there’s a community consciousness for the collective healing process.”

The Genesis It all began with an invitation to share her own story through an event hosted by The Secret Society of Twisted Storytellers, an award-winning curated storytelling organization.

“Back in 2016, I was asked to share my story of experiencing chronic sexual abuse for the first time publicly, on stage at the Charles H. Wright African American History Museum in Detroit,” Watkins says. “We were raising funds to raise awareness and a community consciousness around rape culture and the material condition of folks in Detroit who had been victimized but never saw justice. It was then that I saw the power of storytelling and that storytelling had this dual effect on people. I saw the power and potential of the arts for social justice and for collective healing.” The event, and her sharing, left a lasting impression on Watkins.

“I began conceptualizing The Healing Project then, and I’ve been intentional about taking time to get clear on the vision and to find those who share and believe in the vision,” she says. “I believe they’re here at UIUC and in the School of Social Work, and being in the violence prevention research lab with Dr. Rachel Garthe and doing work on gender-based violence in connection with my dissertation work pushed me to move on the vision. I discerned that now was the time to move with it.”

| 6 |

The Team and Funding Watkins has built a team of about 20 people, including Garthe, graduate and undergraduate students from the School, students and faculty from around campus, and academicians and others from beyond campus who share her vision. Dr. Wendy Hsieh, who earned her PhD from the School last year and is now at National Taiwan University, is one of 10 advisory board members.

“We’re working together to see how we can bring The Healing Project to Taiwan,” Watkins says.

One of Watkins’ goals is to build a team that will extend beyond her stay on campus. “I want to build something that will outlast me, because this is not about me,” she says. “Dr. Garthe will be guiding future research projects.

I hope to remain connected once I leave the U of I, but in terms of leadership, it’s always about helping to build others up, to pass that baton.”

Funding for the project has primarily been provided through a grant received by the School’s Community Learning Lab. The First National Bank in Champaign has also contributed funds and plans to continue to contribute, Watkins says. A fellowship from the Interseminars Initiative at the Humanities Research Institute on campus has also helped The Healing Project get off its feet.

“I’m very grateful to the School of Social Work and also the UIUC community for being so supportive and helping me push out this vision,” she says.

Watkins has carefully crafted The Healing Project to support several goals: • To give Women of Color a voice through the artistic expression of their choice • To promote the healing of both storytellers and listeners • To close the race-based gap in scientific inquiry, where such voices and lived experiences are largely ignored • To address the epistemic and psychosocial violence against Black women and other Women of Color “These stories should be guiding our research questions and pointing to what we should be paying attention to as scholars,” Watkins says. “We plan to build a consciousness around narrative work and around art-based methods as legitimate knowledge for use in research. There’s so much power, so much meaning, so much in terms of informing and guiding research in the behavioral sciences, anthropology, psychology, social work, sociology, and you can even go as far as any of the other hard sciences as well.”

Watkins plans to begin recording narratives once she goes through the approval process with the university’s Institutional Review Board.

“There’s value in preserving these stories and amplifying them because any analysis that we do in research or in social work practice must be grounded in contextualized experiences,” she says. “Otherwise, I find it to be unethical.

I want to contextualize people’s experiences for research and also for community consciousness building, for social justice and collective healing.”

Her plan, she says, is to use the recordings to inform research, practice, intervention and prevention programs, and policy efforts.

“We want to turn the stories into productions, into anthologies or books, and allow people in the community who shared their stories to be part of the research project, to produce something that’s lasting and that speaks to their identities and amplifies the voices of those who have been left out, erased, and overlooked in research,” Watkins says.

Power and Healing in Art While narrative stories are a central part of The Healing Project, they are no more important than other forms of art that are used to tell people’s stories. There is great power in art in all of its forms.

“We use different types of art,” Watkins says. “Photographs, monologues, the spoken word. We’re also trying to build a street theater team, utilizing performance art. Dance and movement in the body is a way to tell a story.

Poetry, rap lyrics, song lyrics. The Healing Project utilizes all forms of art. We’ve had people submit paintings. We want to amplify art because there is healing potential in art.”

Huge Vision “Sometimes I have to pinch myself,” she says. “It feels surreal. But the thing about vision is you really have to be patient, you have to trust the process. I’ve trusted this process for over seven years now. I’m glad to be in the right place at the right time.”

Her vision doesn’t stop with herself or with the community. “We want The Healing Project for local communities, but we also want to build an infrastructure that will last and that hopefully will help it become a national and even international program or movement. The vision is huge.”

| 7 |

FULBRIGHT SCHOLAR’S TAIWANESE UNIVERSITY COLLABORATION Research in social safety nets for low-income single-mother families will help guide policy-makers in Taiwan and benefit mothers and children.

For Chi-Fang Wu, it was a dream come true.

From January through July 2023, the professor and director of the PhD program in the School of Social Work got to spend time in Taipei City, Taiwan, where she grew up.

But it wasn’t an extended vacation. It was to conduct the research on the impact of social safety net programs among low-income families in Taiwan, for which she was awarded a Fulbright scholarship. She was sponsored by National Taiwan University, renowned for its social work program and a long-time collaborator with Illinois’ School of Social Work.

“It’s been my dream to come back and teach at NTU because, growing up in a low-income family, I could never imagine being able to do so,” Wu says.

Wu collaborated with NTU faculty in examining the effects of unemployment and underemployment on the economic well-being of single-mother families and determining the efficacy of social safety net programs for these families. In addition, she taught graduate social welfare policy courses and mentored PhD students on enhancing their research methods and their teaching skills.

“Most Fulbright scholars either conduct research or teach, but for me it was hard to choose,” she says. “So, I chose to do both. I wanted to help the next generation of social workers analyze current social welfare policy in Taiwan and to become effective agents of change that will benefit the world in the years to come.”

While in Taiwan, Wu made nine presentations at various universities and organizations. She presented on multiple program participation, employment, and material hardship. She also presented on the pros and cons of the American welfare system and on the differences between the American and the Taiwanese social welfare systems.

Government officials found her presentation so meaningful that they were shared with state and city government officials who had not attended her presentation.

Her final presentations for the Fulbright at NTU focused on a discussion of multiple studies in which she analyzed data from both Taiwan and the United States. Her findings highlighted how the different social welfare policies influence the populations’ economic well-being. Her research is leading the way to new collaborations with scholars within the International Social Welfare Conference network, including with academics from South Korea, Japan, and Singapore.

| 8 |

Long-Term Partnership with NTU Wu’s recent work in Taiwan continues the collaboration between the School of Social Work and NTU. Wu, who has been at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign since 2005, points to 2008 as the starting point in the relationship.

“From my standpoint, one of the more rewarding parts of this whole relationship is we have made a pretty big difference in Taiwan in educating their PhD faculty members,” Anderson says.

“That’s when we began having informal conversations,” Wu says, referring to talks between herself, former dean Wynne Korr, and Joyce Feng, who earned her PhD at the School of Social Work and went on to a long-time career at NTU as a professor and later as social work department chair and NTU dean of students. Susan Cole, emerita professor in the School of Social Work and a fellow Fulbright scholar—the first from the School—who also taught at NTU, joined the conversations. Those conversations turned into the first of many biennial conferences between the two programs, with host duties alternating between the two schools from one conference to the next.

Wu sees benefits for both the School and NTU.

Former dean Steve Anderson says that the partnership between the School and NTU makes a lot of sense.

“You start with the connection with Joyce Feng, and we’ve always had a lot of Taiwanese PhD students over here,” he says. “Chi-Fang has been a big part of that.

And the School, over time, has had an interest in having a larger international presence, and starting with a place where we had a connection through students was a good reason to go to NTU. Their interests in social issues, in poverty-related issues, in economic development issues, have quite a correspondence to what we do here.”

Anderson notes a summer exchange program that has been running for many years, where NTU students come to Urbana-Champaign to learn about the US social services system.

Relationship Benefits Both Sides “We learn from each other. The School’s strengths include its productive and interesting research, which gives Taiwanese scholars a different view of the social work research agenda and creative ideas on how to provide for interdisciplinary initiatives and more advanced training for doctoral students. The NTU faculty have strong practical experience and are adept at integrating research and practice.”

“Through our student exchanges and our research collaborations, we maximize our impact and understanding,” Wu says.

Her time in Taiwan the first seven months of this year proved invaluable to Wu, both professionally and personally. Her work as a Fulbright scholar has influenced policymakers across Taiwan, provided practical skills to emerging scholars, and laid the groundwork for continued collaborations.

“I was able to use my experience in both cultures to strengthen and deepen an institutional partnership that will provide bilateral value to both institutions,” Wu says.

“We are building a stronger global partnership between the institutions, one that is sustainable over time. The sharing of resources and learning between the two institutions will enable collaboration, producing insights neither of us could achieve working in isolation.”

“In terms of an exchange relationship, it’s been probably the most stable one we’ve had from both a student side and a teaching and research side,” he says. The Taiwanese students who earn their PhDs from Illinois often go back to universities in Taiwan,” he adds.

| 9 |

PROVIDING HELP FOR VICTIMS OF VIOLENCE AND CRIME The Violence Prevention Research Lab is dedicated to helping victims of violence and other forms of crime. Their latest study reveals the need for more comprehensive training across all systems of care in the state.

Three-quarters of the 1,114 Illinois residents who participated in a recent study led by Rachel Garthe, associate professor in the School of Social Work and director of the Violence Prevention Research Lab (VPRL), indicated they had been the victim of intimate partner violence. 69% percent noted that they had been physically assaulted, 51% had been the victim of sexual assault, and 33% had been victims of sex or labor trafficking.

The findings by Garthe and her team were reported in the 2022 Victim Needs Assessment for the Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority (ICJIA) in November 2022.

Those are just some of the sobering findings that, Garthe says, point to the critical need to improve all systems of care for victims of violence and crime.

“Trainings need to be provided across all systems,” Garthe says. “Police and law enforcement, medical and healthcare settings, social services, community-based organizations, helplines and hotlines, as well as other systems of support, including spiritual and faith-based settings, need trainings to improve services and to focus on increasing cultural competence and understanding in the delivery of victim-centered services.”

Garthe’s team members included Wan-Jung Hsieh, an assistant professor at the National Taiwan University; and, from the VPRL, graduate research assistants Mary-Elizabeth Guenther and Dora Watkins; undergraduate research assistant Christine Kwon; and lead graduate research assistant Madisyn Welsh.

A Singular Journey With Many Barriers “A noteworthy aspect of this study is the reminder that there is not a linear path for victims of violence or crime,” says Garthe. “Everyone’s journey seeking help, seeking support, and processing the experience is different. And that means there is not a one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to victim services.”

Some people seek formal support—from police, from medical personnel, from social service agencies—while others might look for informal supports, such as family and friends. Some gravitate toward a mixture of both, Garthe says.

| 10 |

“But there are a number of barriers, stigma, discrimination, and negative interactions that victims experience when seeking help,” she adds. “We need to continue to support providers from the various systems and organizations on being trauma-informed.”

Recommendations from Study Garthe and her team came up with 11 recommendations for the ICJIA, whose mission is to improve the administration of justice in Illinois. “Our report assists the ICJIA’s Victim Services Planning Committee in ensuring effective and efficient services for victims, helping guide funding decisions and policymaking,” Garthe says.

Among the recommendations were: • Creating more accessible, accommodating, welcoming, culturally competent, gender-responsive, inclusive, and equitable environments for all victims.

• Enhancing services to better serve underrepresented groups and to decrease experiences with discrimination and inequities when receiving formal services.

• Creating more primary prevention programs within communities to reduce the needs for interventions, enhance education around victimization, and strengthen knowledge of available resources and supports.

• Enhancing and evaluating virtual services as the pandemic continues so that victims can still access high-quality support and assistance.

“We heard from youth and adults that victim services need to be more trauma-informed, accessible, and equitable,” Garthe says. “Thus, there is an urgent need for all systems of care to take a victim-centered, trauma-informed approach. In order to be more victim-centered and trauma-informed, systems of care across Illinois need more training, support, collaboration, and accountability.”

VPRL Mission and Student Experiences The VPRL studies the development and prevention of dating violence/intimate partner violence, bullying, cybervictimization, stalking, sexual violence, and other forms of violence during adolescence and young adulthood. “We had PhD, MSW, and BSW students assisting with this project,” Garthe says. “The lab provides students with opportunities to work on federal and state research grants, to participate in the design of research projects, to lead and participate in academic papers and presentations, and to collaborate with other researchers, community stakeholders, and grant program officers.”

| 11 |

PROVIDING HOPE—AND HEALTH—FOR CHILDREN The Journey of Hope has long helped children develop resilience in the face of natural disasters. Now, it is being adapted in a study to test its efficacy for those facing the challenges brought on by both natural disasters and COVID-19.

In 2005, Hurricane Katrina caused an estimated $125 billion in physical damage—and an untold amount of mental and emotional damage.

Out of that storm, Journey of Hope was born.

Journey of Hope is an evidence-based intervention that was co-developed by Tara Powell and colleagues from Save the Children, the first organization to prioritize children’s needs in the aftermath of disasters in the United States. The intervention helps children develop resilience in the face of natural disasters.

Journey of Hope is still going strong today; Save the Children has delivered the program in disaster and lowresource settings across the globe. And the program is the reason for a four-year, $2.4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. The grant supports the adaptation of Journey of Hope as an intervention in communities in the southern United States that have been dually impacted by COVID-19 and recent hurricanes.

“This grant is incredibly important to me because disaster-affected children who live in low-resource settings are disproportionately impacted by these events, yet do not receive services to meet their social and emotional needs,” says Powell, an associate professor in the School of Social Work.

Powell is principal investigator on the grant, working with co-investigators from the University of South Florida and the University of Houston. The researchers are collaborating with Save the Children.

Building Healthy Coping Skills “Journey of Hope offers an age-specific curriculum to help children and their caregivers understand, process, and express their feelings and emotions,” Powell says. “The program builds healthy coping skills through structured games, stories, and positive behaviors in a safe, small group setting. It helps children identify emotions and understand that it’s normal to feel angry, sad, or frustrated during scary or difficult situations.”

The program is organized into eight one-hour sessions for groups of eight to 10 children.

Studying the Efficacy of the Program’s Adaptation “We’re studying the implementation and efficacy of the COVID-19 adaptation of the Journey of Hope intervention on economically disadvantaged and racial and ethnic minority children in the disaster-affected areas in the southern US,” says Powell. “There’s a critical need for behavioral health interventions that are designed to prevent or reduce disaster-related distress and lessen behavioral health disparities among racial and ethnic minority children in high poverty settings who have been exposed to multiple large-scale disasters.”

| 12 |

Four Aims of Study Powell and her team are conducting a study with 800 children from third through eighth grade. She notes the study has four primary aims:

1 seeing if the COVID-19 adapted intervention is effective in preventing behavioral health and inter- personal problems among the children involved;

2 examining if change variables such as social connectedness, adaptive coping, and self-efficacy have positive effects on children’s behavioral health and interpersonal behaviors;

3 assessing the moderating impact of COVID-19related stressors on behavioral health outcomes among children who participate in the study versus a control group; and

4 exploring hindrances and helps to the implementation process and the acceptance of the intervention as delivered through community and school-based counselors in school and after-school settings.

The Need for the Intervention “COVID-19 had a profound impact on children, jeopardizing their sense of safety, security, and behavioral health,” Powell says. “In addition, with a changing climate, millions of children in the southern United States are at risk for or have first-hand experience of hurricane-related stressors. Coupled with pandemicrelated stress, many of these children are disproportionately at risk for escalating mental health problems.

“Thus, there is a critical need for these children to receive accessible, empirically-supported preventative interventions to mitigate the onset of mental illness and behavioral health issues.”

| 13 |

AGAINST ALL ODDS Youths going through the foster care system often have the odds stacked against them.

Leyda Garcia-Greenawalt didn’t let that stop her.

Leyda Garcia-Greenawalt’s journey has been shaped by her experiences within the foster care system. Now in her third year at Loyola University Chicago’s law school, she stands as living proof of her intelligence, determination to overcome challenges, and the resolve to leverage her life lessons to support fellow foster children who are following in her footsteps. As a Civitas Child Law Fellow, she channels her commitment into aiding the younger generation navigating the same system she once did.

Garcia-Greenawalt, who earned both her BSW and MSW from the School of Social Work, has certainly defied the odds. Only half of children in foster care graduate from high school, and less than 5% obtain a four-year college degree. (The current overall high school graduation rate is 85%, and about 23% of Americans have a bachelor’s degree.)

Of the 391,000 or so children living in the US foster care system, about 113,000 are eligible for adoption. Of those eligible, only about 47% are adopted in any given year. The average age of adoption is six years old.

Garcia-Greenawalt was 19 when she was adopted.

By that time, she had more than a dozen caseworkers, attended 12 schools before 10th grade, and lived in eight different placements since the age of 12. The average time spent in foster care is about 20 months.

Asked why so many foster kids don’t make it to or through college, Garcia-Greenawalt says “Part of it is you’re in this survival mode; you’re just living day to day. On a larger scale, you’re just trying to get to eighteen. You’re not thinking about what comes after.”

Foster children find themselves in a survival of the fittest trial. Leyda Garcia-Greenawalt found a way to not merely survive, but thrive, despite all those odds stacked against her.

Garcia-Greenawalt’s adoptive mother, Janice Greenawalt, is an alumna of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her three older children with her husband, Andy Greenawalt, didn’t attend the U of I. When Garcia-Greenawalt decided on Illinois and on the School of Social Work, her mother was thrilled. “It was a real bonding moment for us,” Garcia-Greenawalt says.

Social work was a natural fit for Garcia-Greenawalt—she certainly had a lot of firsthand experience with the field.

“

| 14 |

Having been in foster care makes me a better social worker, and being a social worker makes me a better person,” she says. “Social work has really helped me grow both personally and professionally.”

After earning her MSW in 2021, Garcia-Greenawalt decided on law school. As an undergrad, she had attended a prelaw program through Chicago-Kent College of Law; she had also gone multiple times to DC, starting in high school, lobbying for various foster care issues. “That was another reason I wanted to go to law school,” she says.

That reasoning was bolstered by a professor who heard her speak at an event and afterwards told her she’d have more people willing to listen to her if she had a law degree.

“She wasn’t wrong,” Garcia-Greenawalt says. “So, here I am, and I still do a lot of social-work things, foster care advocacy, legislative advocacy, but with a bit of a different lens.”

“My end goal is I’d like to be a professor either in social work or law, or potentially both,” she says. “There’s becoming a greater recognition of the need for interdisciplinary work, particularly with social work and law.”

Prolific Writer Garcia-Greenawalt has steadily published throughout the years. She recently had two articles published in Loyola’s Children’s Legal Rights Journal; one article addressed moral injury in the context of children, parents, and service providers. (Moral injury refers to the psychological, social and spiritual impact of events when a person is forced to go against her moral beliefs and values, particularly in high-stakes situations.)

“An example is when a caseworker has to remove a child from a home, by policy or because they were told they had to by a supervisor, but it conflicts with their personal morals,” Garcia-Greenawalt says.

The second article presented a call for the right to counsel for youth in care. Garcia-Greenawalt is also editor-inchief for the upcoming volume of the journal, and she works part-time as the national law school student organizer for the National Association of Counsel for Children, which trains and certifies attorneys who represent children, families, and agencies and advocates for policy reform alongside young people and families.

She also published a few articles as an undergraduate for the SSW Journal, a refereed journal of the Illinois Association of School Social Workers. “One was on the intersection of intimate partner violence, child welfare, and incarcerated mothers, and the other was a juvenile justice expungement federal policy proposal,” she says.

Perhaps her greatest thrill in writing occurred when she was published in the Columbia Journal of Race and Law in March of 2021. Her article, “How Immigrating to the United States Became a Life Sentence to Child Welfare,” was part of the journal’s symposium, “Strengthened Bonds: Abolishing the Child Welfare System and Re-Envisioning Child Well-Being.”

Originally encouraged by a mentor to submit an abstract to the journal, Garcia-Greenawalt was disappointed when the journal turned her down. But a few months later, they asked her to write a blog post about her topic.

“So, I did, thinking nothing of it, and a couple of weeks after that they invited me to be part of the keynote panel for their conference,” she says. “I got to speak alongside Dorothy Roberts, who is highly regarded as an abolitionist in the child welfare field, so that was a very cool moment for me.”

Garcia-Greenawalt still keeps in touch with many of her professors from the School of Social Work.

“The faculty are amazing. It’s such a great program,” she says. “I still call on many of them if I’m working on something for my law school class, or if I read something that’s applicable to social work, I send it over. They continue to be a really great support and are still being my teachers years later.”

Garcia-Greenawalt credits the School with preparing her for law school. “I don’t think anything has prepared me to be a lawyer better than being a social worker has,” she says. “Learning how to do client interviews and client contacts, learning the people skills while in the School of Social Work, has really helped me.”

Learn to Advocate for Yourself As Garcia-Greenawalt wants to pay it forward and help others—particularly foster children. Her first word of advice to them: “Learn to advocate for yourself. Speak up and be loud. Make sure your needs are being known, because they can’t be met if they aren’t known.”

You can even be like Garcia-Greenawalt: an anomaly, someone who rose above her challenging circumstances to beat all the odds.

| 15 |

THE RIPPLE EFFECT OF A SINGLE DONATION A donation has helped to fuel numerous projects through the Community Learning Lab, benefiting both community partners and Social Work students.

Thanks to a generous gift from a donor, the Community Learning Lab launched its Small Grants Big Impacts awards in August 2022.

“The awards are used to fund School of Social Work faculty, staff, or students to support a service project that benefits a community partner,” says Katie Shumway, director of the lab.

The Community Learning Lab (CLL) has over 100 such partners; all told, the CLL has provided more than 53,000 hours of community service and provided over 2,500 opportunities for students to engage as citizens and enhance their marketable skills. The CLL is celebrating its 10th anniversary in fall 2023.

The Small Grants Big Impacts (SGBI) awards made possible by the donor include: • A collaboration between Clinical Assistant Professor Kim Rice’s senior social work class and Rantoul Township High School to organize student educational workshops on body image, healthy conflict resolution, LGBTQ topics, depression, pressures of social media, changes in families, and healthy coping skills.

• Newly-named Dean Benjamin Lough’s 200 level social work course assisted the Champaign-Urbana Public Health District with creating a resource guide for adolescents and creating a website to advertise the information.

• Associate Professor Kevin Tan and some of his graduate students used SGBI funding to transport Danville Hope Center students and their families to the University of Illinois, where they toured the campus.

• MSW student Joann Boblick created cookbooks using recipes from clients associated with Building Ecumenical Discipleship through Sheltering (BEDS), which offers a range of services for homeless people, to raise funds for a refrigerator for their housing program.

• Sharva Hampton-Campbell, graduate student affairs coordinator, is using her SGBI funding to support The Village Project, which she created to meet the needs of U of I students who have gone through the foster care system. The project includes establishing a host family program to support the emotional and academic success of the students in the program.

• PhD candidate Dora Watkins is using her SGBI funding to obtain supplies and pay fees associated with the Tour de Healing, a therapeutically-applied, art-based community engagement effort to support people of color.

The donation is also being used to fund Madison Sewell, a PhD student, in her qualitative evaluation of the CLL’s community partners. “We’re evaluating our partners’ perceptions of the CLL and seeing what areas we can improve in and in what ways we can be a better partner,” she says. “It’s important to get a sense of how things are going from the viewpoint of our community partners.”

In addition, the CLL has used some of the donation funds to host a Community Partner Thank You event, which included a workshop on grant writing.

“This donor has helped us further our mission to help our community partners enrich the services they provide while giving our students great experiential learning opportunities,” Shumway says.

| 16 |

THE SKY’S THE LIMIT A brief conversation with Maria Vazquez reveals at least four attributes: Energy. Intelligence. Passion. Potential.

That combination often had her eager to learn more from her School of Social Work instructors as she worked on her BSW. She wanted more depth. More knowledge. More practice.

They would smile, laud her enthusiasm, tell her that would come during her MSW. Vazquez graduated in May 2023, and has began working on her MSW at Illinois. She will have a clinical concentration but is debating between healthcare and mental health.

“I do want to be a hospital social worker,” Vazquez says. “ER seems really interesting to me. Being on my feet and working with a variety of people, that’s really appealing to me. But social work has a lot of options, and I don’t think sticking with one particular job for my entire career is the right thing to do. I love exploring and learning new skills.”

She can also see herself as an instructor.

“I’ve had so many amazing professors here. I’ve been working closely with Dr. [Kevin] Tan and feel inspired by his enthusiasm,” she says. “Part of me would love to teach and be a mentor to others, as I’ve had here.

It makes me want to stay in academia and pass that knowledge down.”

Vazquez has worked with Tan over the years, including the summer of 2022 at the Mahomet Music Festival, where Tan and numerous social work students passed out mental health information to festival-goers, who numbered in the thousands, and collected surveys exploring mental health perceptions from about 700 of them. She also helped compile survey results.

“It was amazing,” she says. “It helped me see in person what we were learning in class. I could see firsthand the people who were impacted by what we were doing. It just made me like social work all the more and confirmed that this is what I want to do.” She notes that related work in Mahomet is going on, including after-school and summer social-emotional group work sessions at the Mahomet Area Youth Club.

Vazquez also assisted Tan in reviewing social justice curriculum for the School.

“I compiled the readings of multiple courses and checked how many of those readings were authored

by BIPOC scholars,” she says. (BIPOC stands for “Black, indigenous, and people of color.”) “I was excited about it because the School has not looked at the curriculum in this way; they just took it upon themselves. That’s especially important to me as a BIPOC individual.”

As Vazquez begins her MSW work, she does so with the help of a master’s graduate fellowship. She also was named a McNair scholar this past year and will receive a scholarship for that honor as well.

“The School of Social Work nominated me for the graduate fellowship and worked with me through the application process,” she says. “I’m really appreciative of that.

“My experience with the School has been very positive.

My BSW flew by! I can’t believe it’s been four years.”

Her MSW work will doubtless go even faster. And then, the sky’s the limit.

| 17 |

PATH: OFFERING HOPE TO FAMILIES AND HELP TO PROVIDERS PATH conducts trainings that support improved family functioning and equips providers to offer the support and services that children with complex behavioral health issues need.

Thanks to a new statewide initiative, Medicaid-enrolled children under the age of 21 with complex behavioral health needs in Illinois will be getting the care and support that they need.

PATH—Provider Assistance Training Hub—recently launched a series of trainings in response to the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services’ new initiative, “Pathways to Success.”

The goal of the program is to improve family functioning and reduce caregiver stress.

“It provides access to an evidence-informed model of intensive care coordination and additional home and community-based services for children who have complex behavioral health needs and require intensive services and support,” says Matt Stinson, associate director of PATH. “PATH is responsible for training and supporting Medicaid providers in four new services.”

Those services are high fidelity wraparound and intensive care coordination, intensive home-based services, family peer support, and therapeutic mentoring.

“Intermediate and advanced booster trainings launched this spring and will continue to be developed in the coming year to ensure ongoing opportunities for learning as it relates to the launching of these new services,” Stinson says.

Coaching and Technical Assistance for Providers In addition to the support offered through training, PATH will continue to develop technical assistance and coaching to providers of these new services as community providers begin delivery to families in their communities across the state of Illinois.

| 18 |

A clinical quality review team is being established to assist in the fidelity monitoring and coaching efforts of PATH as collaborative efforts continue to be developed.

PATH continues to be responsible for the training of the IM+CANS and IM-CAT and delivers additional trainings such as Treatment Planning, Cultural Humility, and all Mobile Crisis Response-related courses.

“Our entire PATH team has been crucial in developing curriculum for training and providing coaching and support,” Stinson says. “I also want to acknowledge the work that our providers have done to begin in implementing these new services.”

Collaboration and Professional Growth “Our PATH team has recently gone through a reorganizational effort, with the instructional design team moving to assist other Healthcare and Family Services work within the University of Illinois system,” Stinson says. “However, they remain an integral partner in the development of our curriculum.”

The number of staff at PATH has decreased, Stinson notes, but adds that all functions of the PATH team remain intact through their partnership with the Office of Medicaid Innovation and the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services.

In the past year, PATH had three co-training teams present at the annual TCOM (Transformational Collaborative Outcome Management) Conference, which was held in New Orleans last September. Additionally, PATH’s family advocate specialists participated in the National Federation of Families Conference in Oklahoma City in November 2022.

CPRD: DEEP ROOTS OF PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT With its focus on public engagement, the Center for Prevention Research & Development conducts research and evaluates data that result in improving lives and communities.

The Center for Prevention Research & Development (CPRD) has been improving lives and communities for nearly 35 years. Focusing on public engagement, the CPRD provides research and data evaluation, and these efforts span across five key content areas.

CPRD undertakes its research and evaluation efforts in early childhood development, healthcare for vulnerable populations, juvenile justice reform and prevention, teen pregnancy and STI prevention, and youth substance use prevention. That covers the entire age gamut and spans a wide array of issues.

All of those content areas and all of the issues within them have one thing in common, says Nancy Flowers, CPRD’s director of research programs.

“The common thread that ties all of our projects together is public engagement,” she says. “While our topics vary within the world of prevention and social services, our focus on applied research that informs and engages the public is really central to our work.

Any project that we undertake has at its core the outcome of improving the health and well-being of communities, and the strategies and ways that we do that is through public engagement.”

Making Communities Stronger Flowers gives a few examples of the ways that CPRD helps to improve the well-being of communities: • The biennial Illinois Youth Survey, a self-report survey administered in more than 800 schools across the state, providing the schools with information about health and social indicators, such as substance use, bullying, school climate, nutrition, and physical activity.

• The Medicaid SUPPORT project, an evaluation of the Substance Use Disorder Prevention That Promotes Opioid Recovery and Treatment For Patients And Communities (SUPPORT) Act in Illinois.

• The Engaging Youth for Positive Change (EYPC) program, which targets youths from ages 13-18 and facilitates their involvement in civic engagement, where they can learn, participate in, and change a local health-related policy.

“Some of our other projects are focused on continuous policy improvement,” Flowers adds. “So, we’re working with agencies that deliver services to communities and helping them to collect data to understand what’s working and what’s not and how they can best improve outcomes for children and families.”

All of these projects, she says, have public engagement or community impact at their roots. “Some are more public policy, some are more evidence-based practice, some might be informing state agencies on

how to best utilize their funding and examine outcomes, but it’s all under that public policy umbrella,” Flowers notes.

Informing Partners and Providers CPRD works with a variety of partners at the local, state, and national levels. A number of projects have come through grants from the National Institutes of Health and the US Department of Education (CPRD receives no state funds). The Illinois Department of Human Services is a long-standing partner with the Center. Locally, the Center works with community agencies and prevention providers “as a research and evaluation arm to support their work,” Flowers says.

“One example is we house an online data system for juvenile justice, partnering with the Illinois Juvenile Justice Commission,” Flowers says. “We collect and analyze data about youth in detention throughout the state’s 16 detention centers, and these data have been used to inform policy decisions.”

Those data, she says, have helped the commission advocate for not having children under the age of 12 in detention centers, but to look for other solutions instead.

“We’ve also done a statewide home visiting needs assessment and these data has been used regularly by state agencies over the past three years,” she adds.

“The Department of Human Services used the data to help them identify the communities throughout the state that have the greatest need for home visiting, so that had a big impact on local funding for those communities, and the data also helped to raise home visitor salaries by 23 percent, which was great and really strengthens the home visiting workforce.”

Keys to Success “We have a really diverse staff in terms of educational background and professional experience,” Flowers notes. “We’re dedicated to engaging in activities to support people’s professional growth. And, being housed under the School of Social Work has helped us collaborate and connect with faculty members and students, who get hands-on research experience here.”

“Innovation has also been a key to our longevity and our success,” she says. “We’re always open to new ideas, seeking out new technologies, implementing new methods, and we keep an eye on the field of prevention and social service-applied research so that we can adapt to what the field needs and what our funder needs.”

“We’re never satisfied with the status quo. We’re always looking for new ways to be innovative.”

| 19 |

CFRC: TAKING ON RACIAL DISPROPORTIONALITY IN THE CHILD WELFARE SYSTEM The Children and Family Research Center is working to understand the complex issues surrounding the overrepresentation of Black children in the state’s child welfare system—and provide the data and analyses that can help the state improve the outcomes for Black children.

Black children account for about 17% of the Illinois child population—yet about 34% of children entering substitute care in the state are Black.

“It’s very eye-opening when you see the numbers in some of our reports about the overrepresentation of Black children who are being investigated and who are in substitute care,” says Tamara Fuller, research associate professor for the School of Social Work and director of the Children and Family Research Center (CFRC). “It’s not a new trend, and it’s not just in Illinois; it’s across the country. But the short answer is we don’t know what causes this.”

Fuller and her team of research associates—they number about 20 in all—are investigating the causes to the disproportionality, as well as solutions that can address it.

“It’s a complex phenomenon,” she says. “There are multiple factors involved. We’re still learning about it, measuring it, trying to find out more about it. That will set the frame for taking the next steps.”

Key Factors: Systemic Racism and Poverty Two factors are easier to identify than others.

“We can’t not mention the elephant in the room, which is systemic racism in the US,” Fuller says. “In every single system there’s inherent anti-Black racism. I’m not saying that child welfare workers are racist; I’m saying that the policies and the history of the US as a country that has discriminated against Black people is baked into a lot of what we do.”

Poverty, with its strong ties to racism, is the second factor.

“A lot of child maltreatment is neglect, so there’s child abuse and child neglect, and a lot of neglect is related to poverty,” Fuller says. “If you don’t have enough food, if you don’t have stable housing, a lot of that is related to child neglect, and Black people don’t make as much money as white people. There’s a higher percentage of Black people who live in poverty, so it’s going to make sense that there’s going to be a higher percentage of Black people who are involved in the child welfare system.”

| 20 |

Analyzing Data, Creating Reports The CFRC produces an annual report on the racial disproportionality in the Illinois child welfare system. The report analyzes and reports on disproportionality at six critical decision points in the system. In 2021, the Illinois legislature passed a bill mandating that the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services prepare an annual report on racial disproportionality for the General Assembly in several key areas.

“Because of our previous work in this area, DCFS asked us to run the analyses and produce the report,” Fuller says.

“It focuses on these key areas: children in investigations, protective custodies, entries into substitute care, the types of placements children live in while in substitute care, how long they stay in substitute care, and whether or not they are reunified with their parents, adopted, or taken into legal guardianship.”

This new annual report came about as a result of Fuller being appointed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker to the Advisory Commission on Reducing the Disproportionate Representation of African American Children in Foster Care.

“You can try to reduce the overrepresentation of Black children in foster care in one of two ways,” Fuller says. “You can try to prevent them from coming into foster care, or, if they get in foster care, you can try to move them out faster by reunifying them with their parents once it’s safe to do so, or by having them adopted by a new family or taken into guardianship. We’re working on trying to come up with recommendations on both sides, preventing them from coming in and moving them out faster.”

Bias-Free Pilot Program Fuller was also appointed to the Steering Committee on the Bias-Free Child Removal Pilot Program. The program is bias-free because the child welfare review team is given all the information they need to make an informed decision about removing a child from a home—without identifying the names, races, ethnicities, or neighborhoods of anyone involved.

“The thinking is by removing that information, the implicit bias that we have that we’re not aware of against Black people won’t be a factor,” she says. “The decisions will be made purely based on the factors that are happening in the home. So, the thinking is that this will reduce the number of Black children who are removed from the home.”

The three-year pilot program is planned to begin on January 1, 2024. “It will go into effect in three counties in the state: DuPage, Champaign, and Williamson. There have only been a couple of other counties in the US that have tried doing this,” Fuller says. “This is a new intervention.”

It’s so new, she adds, that almost no research exists that has examined if it has the intended effect of reducing the overrepresentation of Black children in foster care. “I’m really excited about it because we are currently designing a comprehensive evaluation of the pilot program that will look at both the processes within the meetings as well as the impact on outcomes,” Fuller says.

Increased Focus in Racial Disproportionality While the CFRC’s work on the disproportionate numbers of Black children in the state’s child welfare system began many years ago, Fuller acknowledges that she has seen an uptick in the focus on racial equity in the system— an increase that accelerated after George Floyd was murdered in 2020.

“More people just had their eyes opened,” she says. “We, as a country, started having those conversations about race and racism and oppression in a different way.

“A lot of the work that we’re doing now is because of legislation that was introduced in Illinois. There are several new laws that have mandated different projects related to racial disproportionality in the child welfare system, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that most of them were introduced in 2021 after we had this shift in awareness. I get so many calls on this particular topic, probably more than anything I’ve worked on in my career.”

| 21 |

SUPPORTING STUDENTS FOR SUCCESS The School of Social Work offers an array of services to undergraduate and graduate students that help keep them healthy and on track to graduation.

Food insecurity. Anxiety. Financial issues. Relationship strife. Job stress.

These are just a few of the issues that Monica Cherry and her staff of six in the Office of Student Affairs (OSA) deal with on a regular basis.

Cherry, who stepped into her role as director of student affairs in December 2019—one month before COVID began to spread across the United States—has seen it all and done it all.

The OSA is in charge of a wide array of affairs for over 650 undergraduate and graduate students. This engagement begins at recruitment, and support is provided throughout the entire student experience all the way through graduation.

“We provide academic support, putting supports in place so they can be academically successful,” Cherry says. “That includes working with other units on campus to provide those supports, such as the Office of Minority Student Affairs and DRES (Disability Resources and Educational Services) to provide accommodations for students and the Writers Workshop. We also have our own writing consultant.”

Holistic Approach Student Affairs also refers students to mental health practitioners and health providers, depending on their needs.

“We take a holistic approach,” Cherry says. “We practice social work with our students, asking them what might be impairing their ability to focus on their academics and then fill in the gaps to get the proper resources in place so they can be successful.”

She likens the approach to understanding the full

| 22 |

scope of an iceberg. “You can look at students and see some of the surface issues, but when you look beneath the surface, it’s a much bigger issue,” she says.

Students’ success was challenged by COVID, which heightened their anxiety and caused depression related to a lack of socialization, Cherry says.

“Throughout the pandemic, students have continued to present with the same issues they’ve always had,” she says, “with an increase in stress levels, anxiety, and depression. We also witnessed an increase in self-reported substance abuse, self-harming behaviors, poor emotional regulation, and difficulty in reaching out for support.”

Mentoring and Support Program Started Through a grant obtained by Carol Wilson-Smith, BSW program director and clinical associate professor, the School received funds to start a peer mentoring and support program for undergraduate students who were affected by COVID. “It was very successful,” Cherry says. “Our hope is to continue that program post-grant.”

Student Affairs works closely with faculty and staff so students don’t fall through the cracks. “Students aren’t just numbers to us,” Cherry says. “We genuinely care about them and that message is conveyed through everything that we do.”

The pandemic has had a silver lining, Cherry says.

“It has advanced the conversation about the importance of mental health,” she explains. “It’s continuing to reduce the stigma associated with us talking about mental health. In those ways, it’s really helped our field.

And it’s given people a greater appreciation of the skillsets that we as social workers have and bring to the table.”

FOSTERING FUTURES: EMPOWERING STUDENTS THROUGH THE VILLAGE PROJECT Sharva Hampton-Campbell has created a dynamic program that is geared towards meeting the needs of students who have gone through the foster care system.

Sharva Hampton-Campbell, a driving force at the School of Social Work, witnessed an extraordinary transformation during a seemingly ordinary evening.

The monthly family-style dinner for University of Illinois students, part of her brainchild, The Village Project, usually concluded by 6:30 p.m. However, on this occasion, two students lingered in her office, delving into heartfelt discussions that stretched on until 9 p.m.

This exchange marked a pivotal moment for HamptonCampbell. It crystallized the importance of her innovative program, aimed at empowering former foster youth pursuing higher education. The Village Project, conceived by Hampton-Campbell, has become a beacon of learning equity, providing a safe haven for foster youth to thrive academically and emotionally.

Utilizing the “It takes a village” approach, HamptonCampbell orchestrates a comprehensive support network to ensure these students’ diverse needs are met. A stark contrast in graduation rates underscores the program’s necessity. Nationally, college graduation rates for non-foster youth range from 54 to 63 percent, while for foster youth, the numbers dwindle to a mere three to 11 percent.

The program’s genesis was Hampton-Campbell’s encounter with social work students who had experienced the foster care system firsthand. Drawing from her own fostering journey with her husband, where they provided nurturing environments for nearly 20 teenagers, she conceived The Village Project as a lifeline for these students. Her goals were clear: connect students with essential resources and extend the program’s reach far and wide.

The program’s impact materializes through monthly dinners funded by an alumnus, and peer-led meetings that foster connections among participants. Recognizing the isolation that often plagues former foster youth on campuses, Hampton-Campbell envisages a new facet—host families providing care packages and emotional support during holidays and breaks. The concept, which the students humorously likened to “speed-dating with host families,” is met with enthusiasm.

The program’s confidentiality necessitates a collaboration with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services for outreach. Students from various disciplines, including social work, business, engineering, and more, gather under The Village Project’s umbrella.

Hampton-Campbell envisions an anthology where students narrate their stories of resilience, chronicling their journey from foster care to higher education.

The book aims to inspire other youth in similar circumstances while providing financial rewards for the contributing authors.

Hampton-Campbell’s dedication hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Dean Ben Lough and fellow faculty members wholeheartedly support her vision, recognizing the program’s potential. The Village Project aligns with the campus’s efforts to cater to diverse student needs, amplifying voices from the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equality, and Inclusion.

Yet, it’s the unwavering resilience of the students that fuels Hampton-Campbell’s passion.

| 23 |

THE COMMUNITY LEARNING LAB The Community Learning Lab (CLL) creates and supports relationships between the community and the students at the University of Illinois in a partnership that is mutually beneficial in the areas of sustainability, service, growth, and education.

2022-2023 NUMBERS

The CLL and WeCU partnership extends project matching across the university to better meet the needs of community partners.

| 24 |

Community Partners

Allerton Park Angel’s Youth Center Buy Black Chambana Campaña de Salud Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of Illinois Central IL Neuropsychological Services Champaign Center Partnership Champaign Community Unit 4 School District Champaign County Christian Health Center Champaign County Healthcare Consumers Champaign County Mental Health Board Champaign County Regional Planning Commission Champaign Park District Champaign Urbana Jewish Federation Champaign-Urbana Public Health District Channing-Murray Foundation Chicago Pre-College Science and Engineering Program Children’s Home & Aid Christie Clinic Illinois Race Weekend Circle of Friends Adult Day Center City of Champaign Equity and Engagement Department CLACS (Center for Latin American and Carribean Studies) Clark-Lindsey Club de Tareas Common Ground Co-op Community Service Center of Northern Champaign Co. C-U at Home CU Trauma and Resiliency Cunningham Children’s Home Cunningham Township Developmental Services Center Douglas County Health Department DREAAM Education Justice Project Family Service of Champaign County Feeding Our Kids First Followers Foster Progress Franklin STEAM Academy (U4SD) Freedom School- Urbana School District Gilbert Gallery (Urbana) Greater Community AIDS Project of East Central Il Grow in America Habitat for Humanity of Champaign County Hillel Hope Center

Housing Authority of Champaign County Immigrant Services of Champaign Urbana (ISCU) Independent Media Center Institute for Sustainability, Energy, and Environment Jubilee Café Krannert Center for the Performing Arts Letters Against Isolation Mahomet Area Youth Club McKinley Foundation Minds in Motion Neighborhood House New American Welcome Center NORML Illinois Old King’s Orchard Community Center Organizations PACE, Inc. Project Success of Vermilion County RACES Randolph Street Community Garden Rantoul Township High School Rape Advocacy, Counseling, and Education Services RISE Behavioral Health and Wellness Salt and Light Silver Hearts Community, Incorporated Sola Gratia Farm SSW Office of Student Affairs Strides Shelter Sustainable Student Farm The Baby Fold The Gilbert Gallery The Hope Center The HOYCE Center The Immigration Project The Land Connection The New American Welcome Center The Reading Group The Red Herring Vegetarian Restaurant The Refugee Center The Well Experience UC Books to Prisoners Uniting Pride University Primary School University YMCA Urbana Neighborhood Connections Center VA Illiana Health Care, Danville: Substance Abuse Rehabilitation and Prevention Program Wesley Food Pantry Women’s Business Council

| 25 |

ADVANCEMENT IMPACT UPDATE: Generous donor support has helped us continue to elevate the values that make Illinois distinctive: a sense of boundless aspiration, collaboration, and a global perspective.

Within the last year, the School of Social Work has established a diverse portfolio of scholarships for students, supported our elite faculty to develop innovative and evidence-based solutions to solve real-world problems, awarded over $15,000 in emergency aid to students in need, and invested in the artistic representation of the social and restorative justice practices we champion as a community.

BY THE NUMBERS

Interested in discussing opportunities to provide support?

Contact: Nathan Goebel, Office of Advancement ntgoebel@illinois.edu or 217-244-4709 go.illinois.edu/SSWGiving

| 26 |

New Scholarships for Social Work Students The School of Social Work is fortunate to have an array of donors who want to support our students and the causes we champion by creating scholarship funds. Because of generous gifts from these donors this past year, we can provide even more scholarship support for our students.

• The National Alliance on Mental Illness of Champaign County created a new scholarship fund for graduate students focusing their studies on mental health, hoping to help remove financial barriers and address the growing need for more clinical service providers in the field.

• Dr. Ga-Young Choi (Ph.D., ’09, MSW, ’02) established the Youngsoon Park Scholarship for Social Work to honor her grandmother and bring awareness to the Korean American community and the lack of Korean-speaking helping professionals.

• Former Associate Professor Ruppert Downing and his wife Gladys created the Downing Diversity Scholarship to support MSW students matriculating from historically black colleges and universities.

Making a Difference - Opportunities for Giving Your continued support ensures the School of Social Work remains a place where progress and innovation can flourish.

Fund for Field The Fund for Field has a profound impact on social work students undertaking unpaid internships. This fund enables students to better engage in valuable experiential learning opportunities by alleviating the financial burden.

This fund empowers students to pursue their passion for social work and make a tangible difference in the lives of individuals and communities in need. Ultimately, this scholarship not only enhances the educational experience of social work students but also fosters a more equitable and compassionate society by nurturing the next generation of dedicated and qualified social workers.

Social Work Study Abroad Opportunity Fund The School of Social Work’s international internships and service-learning opportunities stand as a testament to our commitment to holistically blending classroom knowledge with global engagement.

Social Work students have traveled to destinations like South Africa, Greece, Israel, Japan, and Uganda.

The School is continuously working on expanding this already impressive list of destinations and global learning opportunities.

Through the generosity of donor support, this fund will directly impact our ability to grow and offer these necessary experiences for our students, as well as on students’ abilities to afford the costs of traveling, living, and working abroad. Our current and future social workers will be gifted an invaluable opportunity to learn about other cultures, deliver services in areas that need them, and gain crucial knowledge and experience to serve their clients better internationally and at home.

| 27 |

1010 W. Nevada St. Urbana, IL 61801 MC-082 www.socialwork.illinois.edu #ILLINOISsocialwork (217) 333.2261 socialwork@illinois.edu