ENGAGE
Annual Report 2022-2023
ENGAGE promotes student and faculty engagement with the community to address social justice issues, facilitate student learning and support community engagement efforts at the School of Social Work and across the University of Michigan.
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Meet the Team ENGAGE Director Trina Shanks is the Harold R. Johnson Collegiate Professor of Social Work. Since 2018, she has overseen the School’s strategic goal of community engagement and the evolving ENGAGE team. She is also the director of the Center for Equitable Family and Community Well-Being and serves as faculty advisor to the New Leaders in African-Centered Social Work Scholars Program. From 2010 to 2012, Shanks was appointed by Michigan Governor Jennifer
Granholm to serve on the State Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity. She is currently one of the national network co-leads for the Social Work Grand Challenge: Reducing Extreme Economic Inequality and a nonresident fellow at the Urban Institute. Shanks earned a PhD in social work from Washington University and an MS in Comparative Social Research from the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar.
Sonia Harb is the ENGAGE team engagement strategist. She has decades of experience promoting the alleviation of poverty and development of communities of color across southeast Michigan and has served as a strategic advisor for the provost’s office on Detroit engagement. Prior to joining U-M, she led the establishment of a multimillion-dollar employment and training operation for ACCESS, developed youth and education programming and innovative initiatives for
the organization, and launched ACCESS Growth Center, a department focused on community and economic development. She has served on numerous boards and state commissions, most recently as present vice-chair of the Michigan League for Public Policy’s board of directors and past chair of Michigan’s Commission on Community Action and Economic Opportunity.
Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, MSW ’10, is an ENGAGE team program manager. A certified Six Sigma Green Belt, she is a political social worker and community organizer with over 10 years of experience in various social justice areas, including labor, healthcare, voting, immigration, housing and disability. In 2020, she was appointed chair of the Michigan Asian Pacific American Affairs Commission by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and in 2022, she was elected as an Ann Arbor City
Council Member of Ward 3. Ghazi Edwin received U-M’s James T. Neubacher Certificate of Appreciation in October 2020. In 2021, she received the DEI Impact Award from the School of Social Work, and was one of five faculty university-wide to receive the U-M Provost’s Teaching Innovation Prize.
Fatima Salman, MSW ’15, is the program manager for ENGAGE’s Employment Equity Learning and Action Collaborative. Salman completed her undergraduate education at U-M in 2000 and taught language and linguistics at a local private school. For three years, she lived in Madison, Wisconsin, and worked as the principal of a local elementary school. She returned to Michigan to complete her MSW and served as the Muslim Students Association’s executive director during the
transition. She currently is the president of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) - Michigan Chapter, the chair of the Council of Chapter Presidents for NASW National, and serves on the program committee for The Children’s Center in Detroit.
Saria Bechara, MSW ’23, is an ENGAGE team program assistant. She recently earned her MSW in the Program Evaluation and Applied Research Pathway. As an MSW student, she completed her field placement at the U-M Organizational and Community Multicultural Praxis Lab and worked in the School of Social Work’s Office of Global Activities. Prior to that, Bechara studied and worked in Lebanon. She completed her undergraduate education at the Lebanese American Universi-
ty in psychology and biology. She also worked and volunteered in both academic and nonprofit spaces, where her positions included research and program development and evaluation roles as well as direct practice roles in psychosocial support provision.
Meet the Team continued Leslie Leong, MSW/MPA ’23, is a Field Student Intern. As an MSW student, she was a Community Scholar in the Community-Based Initiative in Detroit. Leong received her BA in public health from Wellesley College, where she developed a passion for social justice and increasing access to equitable health care and social services. This led her to work for a managed healthcare organization focused on underserved communities, serve in the Peace Corps in Guatemala to improve pub-
lic health programs and services in rural communities, and, later, join a COVID-19 emergency response team where she advised local health jurisdictions in California on their public health operations.
Anika Sproull, MSW ‘22, is a Field Student Intern. As an MSW student, she was a Community Scholar in the Community-Based Initiative in Detroit Scholar and in the Community Change and Policy and Political Social Work Pathway. She received her BA from Kalamazoo College in psychology and environmental studies and completed her senior thesis on food and environmental justice. This laid the foundation to re-design education around food and environmental justice at
Kalamazoo College and to build an on-campus hoop house, which provides hands-on learning for the Kalamazoo community. Sproull has also worked as a self-defense instructor for over ten years and spent a very influential year and a half working as a Wilderness Therapy Field Guide in Colorado and Utah.
Clio Walsh, MSW ’22, is a Field Student Intern. She received her BA in philosophy: ethics and social responsibility at the University of New Hampshire. Her academic experiences and her time working as the coordinator of a local food pantry led to her interest in the field of social work as a way of furthering equity and social justice. She uses the skills and relationships built during her MSW to support work in community organizing and direct service efforts. Parker Kehrig is a Field Student Intern and a current MSW student in the Community Change and Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, & Substance Abuse pathway and a Community Scholar in the Community-Based Initiative in Detroit. Ze received hir BA from U-M in both sociology and Women and Gender Studies.
Zihui Adams is a Field Student Intern and a current MSW student in the Community Change and Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, & Substance Abuse Pathway and pursuing a dual degree in public health with a concentration in Health Behavior Health Education. She is also a Community Scholar in the Community-Based Initiative in Detroit. Previously, Adams studied at Ithaca College in an accelerated five-year occupational therapy master’s program.
She was a Martin Luther King Scholar and minored in African Diaspora Studies. She has done research on structural racism and environmental and educational injustices.
Community Engagement Small Grants THIS YEAR’S GRANT RECIPIENTS RECIEVED A TOTAL OF
$19,000
ENGAGE launched the Small Grants Program in 2018 to encourage School of Social Work faculty to work with community partners to support their social justice goals. Each year we partner with the School of Public Health’s Detroit Urban Research Center (DURC) in the administration of the small grants program. ENGAGE and the DURC review community-based participatory research proposals and select the winners. These awards are supported by the Office of the Provost and are part of the school’s strategic effort to connect Detroit engagement efforts and increase impact in the city.
Congratulations to our 2023 Small Grants Recipients: Project Title: It’s not just me! Black young adults’ views of what it takes to live on the right side of the law: An intersectional-CBPR study Faculty Member: Associate Professor Camille Quinn Community Partner: Rai LaNier, Executive Director, MI Liberation Project Title: Neighborhood Initiatives Examining Organizational Impact: A Quality Team Project Faculty Member: Associate Professor Katie Richards-Shuster Community Partner: Alexandra Bolin, Impact and Improvement Coordinator, United Project Project Title: Community-led Storytelling in Detroit Faculty Member: Maureen Okasinski, Lecturer III Community Partner: Erik Howard, Executive Director, Inside Southwest Detroit Project Title: D-Boy Dads: Exploring Fatherhood in Detroit Faculty Member: Rich Tolman, Professor Community Partners: Sam Donald, Director Detroit Musix; Marcus Hille, Parent Think Tank; Willie Bell, Director: Family Assistance for Renaissance Men; John Miles, Children’s Center, Fatherhood Coordinator; Bomani Gray: Metro Detroit Father Policy Group Visit our website to learn more about the funded projects.
Community Engagement continued Conversations and Courses ENGAGE facilitates periodic online conversations open to the public on pressing equity issues and movements for social change. The events feature elected officials, experts and community leaders who are spearheading efforts to address disparity and promote justice for all. These online conversations are part of our ENGAGE: Community mini-course, which gives students an opportunity to explore the work of local advocacy organizations, discuss topics in social work practice that center equity, apply social work principles they are learning in the classroom to work happening in the field, and explore their own professional goals and passions as future social workers. Over the fall 2022 and winter 2023 semesters, ENGAGE hosted five virtual conversations — attended by over 250 people and watched by countless others via our YouTube channel — and taught our SSW 759 mini-course in conjunction with the conversations. Many of these conversations were sponsored in partnership with other U-M units, including the U-M Wallace House Center of Journalists and the Ford School of Public Policy. The conversations featured 18 panelists and included clinical practitioners who specialize in trauma of Native American clients, Washtenaw County prosecutors, an Ann Arbor City Council member, a national investigative journalist for the Associated Press, local and state nonprofit leaders, and scholars studying the disproportionate impact of fines and fees on marginalized communities. Below is a listing of our Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 ENGAGE Conversations. Alternatives to Policing: Unarmed Crisis Response and the Role of Social Workers September 22, 2022 Fines and Fees: Punishing the Poor & Increasing Disparity October 20, 2022 Interpersonal Practice with Marginalized Clients December 1, 2022 IDs: Exclusion by Design April 6, 2023 Our Stories, Our Voice: Diversity in Journalism and Why it Matters February 16, 2023 Visit our website to learn more about our past and upcoming conversations.
In the Community “We had the privilege of working with the U-M School of Social Work during something called the Good Neighborhoods Initiative by the Skillman Foundation, and the thing about them is they cared about what we had to say, they listened and responded to what we had to say, and we came over time to trust them. That’s a huge deal in this neighborhood. Actually, I think it’s a huge deal everywhere. We trust them.” — Reverend Larry L. Simmons, Executive Director, Brightmoor Alliance
The ENGAGE team is a trusted and reliable partner for community-based organizations and activists seeking support from the School and university. ENGAGE creates new connections and collaborations between faculty and community that could potentially bear fruit in the future.
Technical Assistance and Capacity Building Projects with Community Organizations Brightmoor Up from the Infant Out The Brightmoor Alliance in northwest Detroit contracted ENGAGE to co-develop a program design and evaluation plan for an early childhood and community change program. This project, called Brightmoor Up From the Infant Out, seeks to engage the community and shift the culture in the neighborhood towards a mutual aid mindset where community members work together to support children, promote family well-being and advocate for policies that meet the needs of families. ENGAGE worked with the School’s marketing and communications team to produce an introductory video for the community and with MSW student interns to create program-related educational and promotional materials and easy-to-use program management tools for agency staff.
Investing for a Prosperous Future: A Case Study on Alternatives for Girls Children’s Saving Accounts Our team, in partnership with the Center for Community and Family Well-Being, produced a case study for Alternatives for Girls (AFG) that highlights lessons learned from their Asset Building and College Readiness Program. The development of the case study was the culmination of many years of engagement with AFG, which included helping co-design the Asset Building and College Readiness Program and serving in an advisory capacity since AFG’s inception.
In the Community continued Detroit Employment Equity Learning and Action Collaborative (EELAC) Designed and administered by ENGAGE, EELAC is a collective of 65+ organizations learning, performing, and working together toward employment equity for Detroiters. We convene on a monthly basis, bringing in speakers and presenters from all over the country and region to inform our collaborative on employment equity and economic opportunity. We intentionally connect workforce development efforts across the region and frequently work together with national organizations such as the Population Change Institute, Aspen Institute, Brookings, National Skills Coalition and PolicyLink. Our local partners include Detroit Future City, the Detroit Regional Chamber, the Detroit Workforce Funders Collaborative, The Michigan Poverty Task Force and the city of Detroit. EELAC published a series of briefs this year that are a summation of focus groups conducted with Detroit workers and job seekers. Detroit workers and job seekers are the experts we all need to turn to as we work together to improve systems and create opportunities for all Detroiters to thrive. EELAC is partnering with Detroit Future City on an action-oriented symposium to be held at the beginning of 2024. This Symposium will bring in workforce providers, workers, policymakers and philanthropy to move forward the recommendations in the Focus Group Briefs and the DFC 2023 Growth Equity Report. EELAC also launched a pilot program to address economic and employment disparities in Detroit. A team of EELAC members including Henry Ford Health (HFH), the UM SSW, the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce, and Detroit at Work are contributing existing resources to ensure incumbent workers advance along a career pathway within the HFH system. Finally, EELAC is also currently working on mapping the ecosystem within the collaborative community to encourage interagency referrals between EELAC members. We are working with Data Driven Detroit to finalize this project. “Being a part of the EELAC table is a great way to stay plugged into what’s going on in workforce and economic mobility in Detroit’s community development scene and more. I can engage with organizations doing the work every day in Detroit; and a few funders and policymakers who are listening and providing real-time opportunities and informational exchanges.” — Karen Tyler-Ruiz, Executive Director, Center for Community Based Enterprise
Detroit Equitable Development Workgroup ENGAGE facilitates the Detroit Equitable Development Workgroup, a collaborative designed to leverage resources and foster just and equitable development in the city of Detroit. Focus areas this year included developing an equitable development scorecard for the city and examining the pros and cons of tax abatement programs in the communities. Partners include Economic Growth Institute (EGI), Doing Development Differently in Detroit, Building Community Value, and Community Development Advocates of Detroit. The workgroup believes that “just and equitable development in the city of Detroit is where Black people (the majority of Detroit’s population), and all people representing the rich tapestry of cultures and abilities in the city are equitably represented in the development process, in their access to wealth creation/distribution, and the benefits of land use are shared more evenly, including residential and commercial development.” Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development (OCED) Project Community Engagement Lead The School of Social Work’s Program Evaluation Group (PEG) received a five-year grant from the Washtenaw County Office of Community and Economic Development to develop an evaluation framework for their new Human Services Partnership program that encompasses the development of evaluation metrics, evaluation implementation and equity review processes across three funding programs. ENGAGE was brought in by PEG to co-lead the community engagement pieces of the grant, including the planning of the Washtenaw County New Human Services Partnership Equity Summit, which took place in May 2023. ENGAGE analyzed the results of a visioning activity that took place during the Equity Summit and is developing a shared definition for equity in Washtenaw County based on the priorities of the grantee organizations.
Promoting Engagement on Campus ENGAGE and Student Learning and Teaching ENGAGE team members teach Social Work fundamentals courses, infusing community engagement best practices and engagement opportunities into their courses. • • • • • •
SW 759: Advanced Topics in Community Change - ENGAGE: Community SW 649: Practicing Policy with Current Events SW 509: Essentials of Community and Organizational Practice SW 590: Introduction to Social Work Practice SW 689: Social Work Capstone - Macro SW 769: Advanced Topics in Management & Leadership Show Me the Money: Why Financial Capability Matters in Social Work
ENGAGE team members also provide field instruction both to students who are placed with ENGAGE as a field site and by serving as field instructors at community partner locations who otherwise do not have a licensed social worker on staff.
Detroit Month of Design As part of DesignCore’s Month of Design series of events, the ENGAGE team co-designed a workshop in collaboration with U-M units from three schools on campus: Business + Impact (B+I) at the Ross School of Business; the Community Enterprise Clinic at Michigan Law; and the Detroit Neighborhood Entrepreneurs Project at the Ford School of Public Policy. This workshop introduced equitable models of business that empower employees and foster community development. School of Social Work DEI office The ENGAGE team conducted a study to examine faculty and staff perspectives concerning equity and inclusion. The information was used as a resource by the DEI team to inform the DEI 2.0 planning process.
This year we worked with Community Connections Grant Program, Community Development Advocates of Detroit, and Detroit Disability Power. Their field students engaged in innovative macro practice social work and were provided excellent exposure to community change, policy practice, and advocacy. ENGAGE works closely with the Office of Field Education and fosters connections between the School and the community-based organizations that are interested in becoming an official field placement site.
Collaboration Within the School of Social Work and Across the University The ENGAGE team is a public engagement resource, partner and facilitator for faculty, researchers, students and groups within the School. ENGAGE also develops, facilitates and participates in initiatives and conversations across U-M’s many colleges, units and campuses. Listed below are just a few examples: Papa Was a Rolling Stone Project The ENGAGE team provided Professor Rich Tolman with guidance and referrals to the U-M Detroit Center as he planned a fatherhood-centered storytelling and performance project in Detroit. ENGAGE also provided funding and assistance at the event and encouraged student involvement. University of Michigan Center for Innovation in Detroit The ENGAGE team is providing support and expertise in the development of this new facility, which will be a home for graduate education, talent-based community development and community engagement — all in the service of economic development and job growth for Detroit.
Thank you for joining us on this journey of civic and community engagement throughout the last year. We look forward to our continued work together!