SSW case statement

SUPPORTING THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

The road ahead and opportunities for philanthropic partnership

WELCOME TO THE FUTURE OF THE BOSTON UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK—AND OF SOCIAL WORK ITSELF. Thank you for your interest in the Boston University School of Social Work. We hope you will join us in fulfilling our dynamic school’s exciting mission: to educate outstanding social work practitioners and researchers in a diverse and intellectually rigorous environment.

Our students learn and apply clinical and macro practice methods in diverse communities throughout the world.

Our alumni hold key leadership positions. Our faculty’s outstanding research and scholarship help identify, prevent, reduce, and overcome the overwhelming challenges faced by marginalized populations—in the US and globally. And our supporters help make it all happen.

The result? We are consistently ranked in the top 4 percent of social work schools nationwide by U.S. News & World Report.

We recently completed a strategic planning process to help us steer toward our future. Through that process, we articulated a twofold core purpose: to dismantle injustice and liberate possibilities. We also defined a vision consisting of three core goals, as you’ll see at right.

We agreed on seven strategic imperatives and identified the resources we will need to act on them. On the facing page, you’ll also find a few of the ways you can support that vision.

We go forward with confidence—in part because we know where we come from. Since our founding in 1918, we have operated in a “culture of impact.” It is at the center of everything we do. It shapes the development of our programs, defines the research we conduct, and influences every aspect of the educational experience.

Our primary goal is to make a real, tangible impact on our world. We are committed to being a national leader in research and teaching, seeking to solve the most pressing social, economic, racial, gender, and climate challenges. At the same time, we have sought and found ways for individuals and communities to transform themselves for the better.

This is still true today. And today, more than ever before, social work professionals have a seat at the table. They are shaping policies and effecting positive change.

With your help, they will continue to make our society more equitable for the foreseeable future.

In 2021, Boston University finalized its strategic vision for the next decade. BU’s Strategic Planning Task Force consulted with the entire BU community to identify strengths to build on, challenges to meet, opportunities to seize, and emerging areas to explore. The task force landed on these five strategic priorities that capture the core of who we are as a private research university and that will guide BU over the next 10 years. They are: 1 A Vibrant Academic Experience 2 Research That Matters 3 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 4 Community, Big Yet Small 5 Global Engagement The BU School of Social Work strategic objectives are informed by, and align with, the University’s overarching goals.

OUR STRATEGIC VISION

Our 30-year goal is to be a global model in social, economic, racial, gender, and climate justice transformation by 2050. How will we get there?

We will dare to transform.

Transformation takes imagination, inspiration, and innovation. We will foster positive change with intention and purpose.

We will offer a radically collaborative education.

Knowledge is best developed through a process of co-creation. We will use the experience and wisdom of our faculty to support student-powered learning.

HELP US SHAPE THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL WORK

We will dedicate ourselves to compassionate action.

We will carry forward one of the longest-standing and proudest traditions of this school: a commitment to action that is driven by the heart, as well as by the mind. It combines living, loving, and learning. It puts humanity at its center, working outward to real-world engagement.

Opportunities to support the school

HELP BUILD OUR FACULTY. We seek additional endowed professorships to help with the recruitment and retention of “star” faculty. These are the researchers and teachers who will build the SSW of tomorrow. We are happy to discuss different levels of giving in support of endowed chairs. We also seek additional postdoctoral fellowships and support for our PhD candidates: the faculty of tomorrow.

SUPPORT OUR RESEARCH. Talk to us about how you want to transform the world. How do our research and clinical activities reflect your passion—and what more could we be doing, with your help? Some of our most important research- and engagement-focused activities, including the Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, have been donor-inspired.

HELP KEEP SSW ACCESSIBLE AND AFFORDABLE. We need to provide as much scholarship support as possible to our students.

We need to offer competitive admissions offers to recruit great students, and we need to help them keep their debt levels down. (Almost all of our scholarships are need-based.) Currently, 65 percent of our full-time students receive scholarships, averaging $20,739 per year.

HELP EXPAND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING. Field-based experiential learning is critically important to the SSW educational experience. Your support—through endowment or current-use dollars—helps our faculty innovate and helps our students develop professional experience. (See the Spotlight on the next page.) At present, 8 percent of our students receive $4,000 field stipends, and many more deserve and could use this support.

We will be happy to discuss these and other giving opportunities with you, at your request.

SPOTLIGHT Inspired and uplifted: In Nicaragua with CISWH Lauren Glaser (MSW’23) spent part of the 2021–22 academic year working as a global health research assistant at SSW’s Center for Innovation in Social Work & Health, under the supervision of Professor Luz Marilis López, PhD, MPH. After delivering mental health training to Nicaraguan university students via Zoom, Glaser traveled to that country in April 2022 with Professor López and CISWH officials to meet with several of her long-distance students.

The group’s first stop was the small city of Estelí, north of Managua, where two longtime SSW partners are located: Fundación Superemos and the National Autonomous University of NicaraguaEstelí. “One of the goals for our visit to Superemos,” reports Glaser, “was to provide follow-up in-person trainings for students and professionals, including nurses, physicians, and lawyers working in rural healthcare and domestic violence prevention.”

On the ground in Nicaragua: Madelyn Fermin (MSW ‘22), Guillermina Goudge (La Mariposa), Lauren Glaser (MSW ‘23), and Winnie Chen (CISWH Administrative Coordinator).

Their next stop was at La Mariposa, an NGO that originally sought to spur local employment by setting up an eco-hostel and Spanish-language school but has expanded to include free physicals, mental health, and equine therapy for children with special needs; clean water delivery for a village that doesn’t have access to running water; a reforestation project; and much more.

“What I gained from the trip to Nicaragua was immeasurable,” Glaser says. “In addition

“What I gained from the trip to Nicaragua was immeasurable.”

— Lauren Glaser (MSW’23)

to professional experience, I made several new friends and developed a deep appreciation for the work other women are carrying out across borders. It was an inspiring and uplifting experience, and I’m grateful to Professor López and everyone else at CISWH who made it possible.”

For more information, please contact: Kate DeForest Director, School Development E kated@bu.edu P 617-835-7332 Ray Joyce Assistant Dean for Development E rayjoyce@bu.edu P 617-353-2348

bu.edu/ssw/give