2019 University of Illinois School of Social Work Annual Report

| 2019 REPORT |

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CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF SOCIAL IMPACT This year will be a special one for our School of Social Work, as we are excited to celebrate our 75th anniversary.

It is a milestone of which we collectively can be very proud, and it offers the occasion to recognize and reflect upon the contributions and accomplishments of so many students, faculty members, and alumni.

The SSW always has been about social impact, and focusing on that impact is an integral part of our 75th anniversary celebration. Whether it be assisting and empowering our most vulnerable individuals and families, helping build stronger communities, or advocating for more just laws and social policies, our School has led and joined others in diverse endeavors dedicated to social justice and positive social change. Social impact has been a consistent emphasis across our educational, research, and service missions. Although societal pressures and problems are constantly changing, this focus has remained steadfast and will continue to guide us in challenging and changing times.

The School now has over 8,100 alumni from our BSW, MSW, and PhD programs. These alumni have enjoyed diverse career paths across the spectrum of social work and other social change efforts. Just as SSW faculty and staff members have dedicated themselves to creating an educational experience that has transformed the lives of countless students, our students in turn have created diverse pathways that have profoundly impacted so many others. It is a virtuous cycle that fans out in countless directions and continues to grow. Our collective impact is our greatest accomplishment and reward.

As we all know, we have a lot of work to do as societal members and as social workers. We cannot lose sight of this as we take some time to reflect on our accomplishments. Rather, I am confident that reflecting on our impact will fuel us to even greater work moving forward. So I very much hope that you will join us for our 75th anniversary activities this year. You can begin by circling April 4, 2020 on your calendar, as we will have a day of celebration in Champaign-Urbana. Please stay tuned for other announcements about the 75th anniversary, and feel free to contact us with any ideas you may have. Please also send us your own stories about the impact that you may have had, or that others in the School may have had on you.

Here’s to the next 75 years of social impact!

Steve Anderson, Dean and Professor

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HELPING THE HELPERS

Tara Powell has worked in disaster relief for many years. Recently, she expanded her programs to equip providers who are working in natural disasters with healthy coping mechanisms and emotional support. She tested those new programs out in the aftermath of two recent hurricanes, Harvey and Maria.

Hurricane Harvey caused an estimated $125 billion in damage, primarily to Texas, in August 2017. One month later, Hurricane Maria devastated the Lesser Antilles, resulting in the worst blackout in US history and wreaking more than $90 billion in damage.

In both cases, Americares, a disaster relief and global health organization, was among the many organizations providing humanitarian aid.

Tara Powell, assistant professor in the School of Social Work, has a longtime working relationship with Americares.

Powell has played a small but important role with Americares in both recent hurricanes: devising and delivering interventions to help the helpers. A grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is funding her work.

“I developed an intervention that Americares has adopted,” Powell says. “It’s geared toward healthcare and social service providers, to mitigate the impact of a traumatic event, such as a hurricane or other natural disaster, on those providers. Many times, in the recovery process there is no mental health programming for them. They’re providing the most care, but they don’t have services to address their own stress. That’s the gist of the intervention.”

Powell oversees the interventions going on in both Puerto Rico and Texas. For these two hurricanes alone, about 9,000 providers—nurses, social workers, disaster case managers, EMS personnel, and others—have gone through the programs that Powell has created.

“Providers are at a much higher risk for a lot of mental health symptoms because they’re playing this dual role of both survivor and provider,” Powell says. “They provide services, but they usually don’t take the time for themselves, or there’s simply not enough services available for them.”

The rates of clinical levels of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) for responders in Puerto Rico is 48 percent, she adds, which is much higher than the general public’s levels. “We know this, yet there’s never been any widescale dissemination of programs for them,” she says.

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Until her programs, that is.

Powell created a three-hour intervention that helps providers identify stressors and learn healthy coping mechanisms that can be employed at both individual and organizational levels. This model has been used in previous disasters, but providers have asked for more. So, for the two 2017 hurricanes, she worked with colleagues in Puerto Rico and Texas to add two elements: (1) a booster session that provides additional support to be administered a few weeks after the initial intervention, and (2) additional services beyond the booster session, such as ongoing support groups, psychoeducational groups, and one-on-one services.

These additional services, she says, “help people understand common reactions to trauma and how to serve their patients and clients adequately when they’re in a high-stress environment.” That stress comes not only from the impact of the disaster itself, but from the dwindling help from outside sources after the initial recovery has taken place, leaving behind the providers who live in the affected region to take on higher patient and client loads.

Powell is nearing the end of a study she is conducting to measure the effectiveness of her programs. Her study is comprised of 1,100 providers divided into three groups: a control group, a group that received the three-hour intervention and the booster session, and a group that received the intervention, the booster session, and two additional services.

“In both Texas and Puerto Rico, we’ve found that those who participated in the program had significant reductions in post-traumatic stress symptoms above our control group,” she says. “We also found significant improvements in healthy coping strategies among program participants in both Texas and Puerto Rico.” The programs help participants achieve greater self-awareness, know when they need to seek help, be willing to seek that help, have support systems in place to deliver that help, and understand and adopt healthy coping behaviors.

“There’s not a lot of literature out there about the services available for providers,” Powell says. “I’m hoping this adds to the literature and also makes people more aware that we need to take care of these providers in disasters as well. Because if we’re not taking care of them, they’re not going to be able to take care of those that they’re serving as well as they could.”

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COMBATTING STRUCTURAL VIOLENCE IN THE HISPANIC/LATINO COMMUNITY

Hispanic/Latino youths face a deep health disparity compared to non-Hispanic youths. Research conducted in part by Rosalba Hernandez is helping to uncover the factors involved, with the aim of bringing health equity to Hispanic/Latino youths.

Structural violence—where social structures or institutions can harm people or prevent them from meeting their basic needs—could be an important factor in the alarming prevalence of Hispanic/Latino youths’ high BMIs (body mass indexes) and weight, says Rosalba Hernandez, assistant professor in the School of Social Work.

“It’s really important to figure out what is contributing to this epidemic in Hispanic/Latino youth,” she says, adding that the obesity rate for Hispanic/Latino children ages 6-11 is 26 percent—double that of the rate for nonHispanic children of the same age.

Hernandez is principal investigator for a grant embedded within a larger grant from the University of Illinois at Chicago Center for Health Equity Research. Her portion of the research extends two years, one of which she has just completed.

“The center’s grant is focused on the concept of structural violence and the idea that there are social, economic, and political systems that put certain groups at risk and increase their vulnerability to different health effects and health inequities,” she says. “My portion focuses on structural violence exposure in Hispanic/Latino parents. It looks at issues such as discrimination and racism that parents are exposed to and tries to characterize the types of structural violence they face and the extent to which they are exposed.”

Her first year of research involved working with the largest health-related dataset of Hispanics in the US, with data being collected, beginning in 2012 from 16,415 Hispanic/Latinos, including about 1,400 children.

“I’m looking at that data to characterize what structural violence looks like in Hispanic/Latino adults,” Hernandez says. “This coming year I will look at how these parental exposures to structural violence impacts their child’s BMI and weight—looking at transgenerational effects of structural violence.”

She identifies six risk factors for structural violence regarding obesity in Hispanic/Latino youth: chronic stress, perceived stress, intrafamilial stress, extrafamilial stress, ethnic discrimination, and neighborhood disorder.

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“Our preliminary findings show three distinct patterns of exposure that we’re seeing,” she adds. “About 36 percent of our participants had low exposure across these six domains; about 56 percent had high exposure across all six domains, and about eight percent had high exposure of intra- and extra-familial stress and neighborhood disorder but were low on the other domains.”

The next steps, she says, will include exploring who the people are in these three subcategories, determining the factors that landed them in those categories, and examining the relationship between the issues in the categories and their children’s BMIs and weight.

“We’re seeing that both stress and structural violence exposure could be contributing to this health disparity,” Hernandez notes. “This study will give us some ideas on whether structural violence really does impact BMI transgenerationally. We’re also interested in why and how it happens and the mechanisms through which children might be impacted.”

She adds that potential solutions might need to be addressed at the societal, community, and individual levels.

“Can we reduce the structural violence that’s happening in the community and better equip community members to be resilient? What tools do they need to effectively deal with that?” she says. “Some people tend to thrive in these contexts, despite the structural violence around them. Who flourishes, and how do they flourish? What can we learn from them?”

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EXPANDING CARE IN UNDERSERVED AREAS BHEWLL UPDATE-YEAR 2

Janet Liechty is an associate professor who, among her other duties, is principal investigator for the four-year Illinois Behavioral Health Workforce Education, Learning & Leadership (BHWELL) grant.

Q: You are now just finishing your second of four cohorts for the BHWELL program, is that correct?

Q: How did the first year go? Surprises, good or bad?

Did it meet or exceed your expectations?

A: The last of the 15 scholars in Cohort 1 graduated in May 2019, and Cohort 2 is at the beginning of their field placements. About half of the 37 BHWELL scholars in Cohort 2 just began field placements in May 2019, and the other half start in August 2019.

We are in the middle of the second year of the grant.

A: The first full cycle of BHWELL Cohort 1 went extremely well, and we are very proud of the first 15 BHWELL scholars, most of whom are already employed. They interned in primary care clinics, VA health centers, rural and urban hospitals, substance use disorder treatment centers, and other health and mental health agencies.

Collectively, these 15 scholars reported 2,425 patient encounters during their two semesters of field! They also reported observations of dozens of health and behavioral health comorbidities, such as diabetes and depression or asthma and anxiety, and recorded a myriad of ways that they worked with team members to improve care for patients.

Q: Briefly state the need for the BHWELL program.

Why is it being funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration?

A: There is a national shortage of behavioral health providers such as MSWs and LCSWs—including in Illinois— especially in rural and small metropolitan areas, and among underserved populations in urban areas. There is a particular need for behavioral health providers who are trained to work on interprofessional teams in patient-centered, primary care settings where the integration of health and behavioral health is occurring.

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Q: You had 16 placement sites for students in the first cohort. Has that expanded in this second year?

A: Yes, we now have 64 BHWELL-approved field placements, and we continue to grow the list of BHWELL-approved sites in rural and underserved areas where the integration of behavioral health and primary care is underway. Each year the locations can change, since we try to develop BHWELL options for students in rural and underserved geographic areas where they live and want to intern and work.

The 37 students in Cohort 2 are headed to 26 different agencies, as some agencies have multiple interns. We are very appreciative of the BHWELL site partners and look forward to partnering with other agencies throughout the state, especially in rural areas.

Q: How has the experience gone for the students so far?

A: We are still processing the data from Cohort 1, but the overall satisfaction with the program has been very high. Students have commented how the requirement to engage in interprofessional learning with other health professions during their internship helped them reach out and build leadership skills, and how the training helped them pay more attention to the ways that health and behavioral health are mutually influential.

Almost all students have commented about the value of the interprofessional trainings we have offered with students from other health professions. Many have described experiences in field that have built up their confidence, and others have expressed appreciation for the extra support and career development opportunities through BHWELL. We are also listening closely for any concerns and suggestions from students on how to strengthen the program.

Q: Do you see any changes upcoming for the program?

and public health departments that are leading the way in their counties to increase access to behavioral health services and have integrated them into primary care. We bring these leaders and innovators together each fall for a CEU event that allows BHWELL sites and alumni and faculty to learn more about Integrated Care (IC) in Illinois and build a network of social workers in IC. (Our event is on Friday, September 20, 2019, from 1 to 4 p.m. in the School). We hope to connect with even more primary care clinics and critical access hospitals in rural and underserved Illinois communities where Integrated Care is being implemented. We continue to build our mailing list and social media presence on LinkedIn to share resources and connect BHWELL alumni with new scholars. Interprofessional Education with students from the medical and nursing schools in Urbana continues to be a high priority. We continue to partner with our colleagues from the National Center for Rural Health Professions housed at the U of I College of Medicine in Rockford, our fantastic field instructors, and wonderful field office, faculty, community experts, and area healthcare systems to further the goals of the grant: to improve access to high-quality behavioral health services through workforce development.

To learn more about BHWELL, events, or join the mailing list, visit socialwork.illinois.edu/bhwell or email IL-BHWELL@illinois.edu

A: The program is on solid footing, but we are always looking for ways to improve and ways to use BHWELL IL BHWELL to help encourage and amplify efforts to move toward HRSA Integrated Care in Illinois. We continue to find incredible examples of communities, rural healthcare systems, SCHOLARS PROGRAM

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK

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FACULTY HIGHLIGHT: LILIANE WINDSOR, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

LEARNING TO INFORM POLICY THROUGH RESEARCH

Liliane Windsor will spend a year as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Health Policy Fellow in Washington, DC, learning firsthand about health policy processes at the federal level.

After their year-long assignment in Washington, fellows will continue to receive support to sustain their development as health policy leaders. “The whole legislative piece is extremely important to my work,” she says.

As part of the 2019-2020 class of the RWJF Health Policy Fellows, Liliane Windsor will join a group of highly accomplished mid-career health policy professionals to work on health-related legislative or regulatory issues for members of Congress or senior administrators.

“I do community-based participatory research, which means my goal is to work with communities to create practical solutions to community problems. The legislative process is one of the mechanisms through which we can have the biggest impact.”

Windsor, an associate professor at the School of Social Work, was one of six candidates chosen from a national competition to be part of this year’s class. As of today, there are over 270 RWJF Health Policy Fellows.

Windsor is eager to experience the opportunities she will gain through the fellowship, but she is also giving up—at least for the moment—a cherished part of her work: her teaching and research. She focuses primarily on substance use and criminal justice system issues.

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The new fellows will spend September 1, 2019, through August 31, 2020, in Washington, DC. The first threeand-a-half months are spent learning about the health care legislative and executive policymaking process.

“We will be meeting with all the major players at the federal level,” Windsor says. “Over 200 speakers are scheduled to come and talk to us.”

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Starting in January 2020, Windsor will begin her placement within the executive or legislative branch.

“If we’re in the legislative branch, we’ll be doing everything from helping to develop legislative proposals, to meeting with constituents, to briefing legislators on a range of health issues, whatever the office needs,” she says.

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“We won’t be teaching or conducting research during the fellowship,” she says. “I’m a little sad about my research; that will be a hard transition. But overall, I’m very excited, and this will be well worth the investment to make my work more meaningful. I’ll be learning how to inform policy through research and inform research through policy so that I can be a more effective educator and scholar.”

The field of social work has been underrepresented to date among the RWJF Health Policy Fellows. “Traditionally, the fellowship has focused on physicians,” Windsor says. “It’s a really exciting opportunity to be one of the few fellows with social work expertise and be able to bring that perspective to the fellowship.”

FACULTY HIGHLIGHT: RYAN WADE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

RACIALIZED SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION

“My work attempts to define and measure a critical yet under-investigated phenomenon and quantify the magnitude of its effect on YBGBM’s psychological wellbeing.”

Research interest: Racialized Sexual Discrimination (RSD) among young black gay/bisexual men of color (YBGBM) This research is important because... gay/bisexual men of color report widespread discrimination on the basis of race/ethnicity in online sexual networking/dating venues (i.e., mobile apps and websites used to find intimate partners). Such discrimination takes many forms, including exclusion, degradation, rejection, and erotic objectification. RSD may have an impact on the health and wellbeing of gay/bisexual men of color—and black YBGBM in particular—by contributing to sexual network restriction (which elevates black YBGBM’s risk for HIV infection) and contributing to elevated rates of depression or lower feelings of self-worth among this population.

I was drawn to this area of research because... this is a widely discussed phenomenon in popular discourse (e.g., social media, LGBT news outlets, physical and digital community spaces), but there is minimal empirical research on this subject in the social sciences. The degree to which RSD contributes to negative health outcomes among an already marginalized and at-risk population is not well understood. Thus, it is important to adequately describe and measure this phenomenon, as well as examine the associations between RSD and critical health outcomes.

A highlight of my findings so far is... black YBGBM reported higher depressive symptoms and lower feelings of self-worth when they were physically objectified by white gay men in online sexual networking/dating venues.

They also reported higher depressive symptoms when they were rejected by other black men, and higher depressive symptoms when they encountered white supremacy (i.e., the elevation of whiteness as the most preferred or desirable characteristic in a partner).

The potential impact of my research includes... defining and measuring a critical yet under-investigated phenomenon, and to quantify the magnitude of its effect on YBGBM’s psychological wellbeing. It is my hope that this work will bring greater awareness to RSD and establish the groundwork for developing initiatives to disrupt its practice or mitigate its adverse effects.

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FACULTY HIGHLIGHT: RACHEL GARTHE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

PREVENTING ADOLESCENT VIOLENCE Research Interest: My research examines the development and prevention of adolescent peer and dating violence, and young adult intimate partner violence. My research is grounded in a developmental-contextual model, considering interactions between one’s characteristics, relationships, and contexts in relation to violent behaviors and experiences. The majority of my research focuses on racial and ethnic minority youth living in highburden urban communities, as this population is often faced with community violence, economic and health disparities, and other risk factors for youth violence.

Through my research, I have forged partnerships with schools and community organizations to research the implementation and evaluation of youth violence prevention programs. My future research includes the development and evaluation of dating violence prevention programs for middle school students, incorporating adolescents’ families into prevention efforts.

This research is important because... youth violence is a pervasive public health concern, leading to serious impacts on youths’ physical, behavioral, and mental health. An estimated one in five youth experience a form of dating violence in their adolescent relationships. For racial and ethnic minority youth living in high-burden urban communities, the prevalence of dating violence increases to one in three youth. These alarming prevalence statistics and the negative impact of dating violence on adolescent development highlights the urgency of this research.

“Many people assume that parents’ or caregivers’ influence fades as their child enters adolescence and they gain more independence.

However, my work has demonstrated that strong families - families with strong parental monitoring and communication, messages supporting nonviolent responses to conflict, and family cohesion – can continue to protect youth from NOIS AT CHAMPAIGN-URBANA engaging in or experiencing violence.” .ILLINOIS.EDU

I was drawn to this area of research because... I saw and heard about the impact school, family, and community violence had on youth I worked with. When I was in graduate school, I worked with a research center that was evaluating the impact of a bullying prevention program for racial and ethnic minority youth who lived in economically disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. Although the lessons each week focused on building social-emotional and conflict resolution skills with one’s peers, it became apparent to me that violence at school often wasn’t the only place these kids were seeing, hearing, or falling victim to violence.

Violence prevention curricula can instill messages of nonviolence and conflict resolution, but these youth eventually leave the school building where they can be exposed to messages and displays of violence at home and in their communities. It was from this experience that I knew I wanted to be a part of the world of prevention – researching how we can prevent violence by supporting youth and their schools and families.

A highlight of my findings so far is... using longitudinal statistical methods to illustrate that families continue to influence their youths’ development and behaviors. Many people assume that parents’ or caregivers’ influence fades as their child enters adolescence and they gain more independence. However, my work has demonstrated that strong families – families with strong parental monitoring and communication, messages supporting nonviolent responses to conflict, and family cohesion – can continue to protect youth from engaging in or experiencing violence. My work will continue to study the ways in which families can protect youth from peer and dating violence, strategically thinking about how to embed families into violence prevention programs.

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The potential impact of my research includes... coordinating violence prevention efforts to become more multifaceted and collaborative.

The majority of violence prevention efforts focus on one context (e.g., school) without accounting for the other social and physical contexts that are impacting youth. My research aims to change this narrative so that we can promote messages of nonviolence at home, in schools, and throughout the community.

FACULTY HIGHLIGHT: FLAVIA ANDRADE, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

AGING, DEMOGRAPHY, HEALTH & SOCIAL DISPARITIES

“These estimates are critical for countries to determine service needs and costs related to care for this growing and graying population.�

Research Interest: Aging, Demography, Health and Social Disparities This research is important because... people are living longer, but we want to make sure they are also living in better conditions. The increase in life expectancy across the globe raises critical questions as to whether longer life implies more years of good health or additional years lived with cognitive impairment, disease, or disability. However, gains in life expectancy differ across social groups. In fact, demographic, epidemiological, and nutritional changes are marked by social disparities that reflect differences in education, income, occupation, and wealth. In my work, I have explored these issues, focusing mostly on the experiences of countries in Latin America, which are marked by high levels of social inequalities. In the US, I have explored how Latinos are aging. Despite low levels of education, income, and wealth, Hispanic/Latinos live longer than non-Hispanic whites, but these additional years are not always marked by good health.

I was drawn to this area of research because... social disparities matter and they influence people across their lives. In addition, social disparities have intergenerational consequences. I started my career working on social mobility and how individuals could improve their social standing over time and how these changes could affect their children. The goal is to reduce disparities and improve outcomes for all.

A highlight of my findings so far is... that social disparities influence how long and how well we live. Women live longer, but often in worse conditions. Those with lower education, income, and wealth tend to have worse health outcomes. However, some of my research points to potential ways in which interventions and policy changes can improve outcomes.

The potential impact of my research includes... understanding not only how long different groups live, but how well they are living the additional years. These estimates are critical for countries to determine service needs and costs related to care for this growing and graying population.

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FACULTY HIGHLIGHT: HYUNIL KIM, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

CHILD MALTREATMENT “In collaborating with outstanding scholars, we were able to provide the first national estimate of the lifetime prevalence of child maltreatment: 37.4 percent of US children are found to be reported to and investigated by CPS at least once by their 18th birthday.�

Research Interest: Child maltreatment and public child welfare systems This research is important because... child maltreatment is a pressing national concern. Every year, over 4 percent of US children are reported to and investigated by child protective services (CPS) for child maltreatment concerns. Compared to this annual prevalence, the lifetime prevalence is multiple-fold higher. By age 18, over 37 percent of US children are estimated to have gone through at least one CPS investigation. Child maltreatment is linked to a wide range of negative outcomes, including atypical brain development, especially regarding neurological functioning of stress response; physical health problems; mental health problems; degraded cognitive development; risky health behaviors; violent and criminal behaviors; childhood injuries; and early death during childhood and adulthood.

I was drawn to this area of research because... of my work as a frontline CPS worker on foster care cases and intact family cases during my post-MSW field work. Since then, my work has focused on developing the best possible evidence to help improve the safety and welfare of children and directly enhancing our ability to address child abuse and neglect.

A highlight of my findings so far is... in collaborating with outstand-

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ing scholars, we were able to provide the first national estimate of the lifetime prevalence of child maltreatment: 37.4 percent of US children are found to be reported to and investigated by CPS at least once by their 18th birthday. Recently, my colleague and I expanded this onset (i.e., firsttime report) prevalence to the recurrence prevalence (from second-time report through sixth-time report). My other findings include the relationships between poverty and race/ethnicity with child maltreatment, as well as relevant reporting bias in these relationships. My colleagues and I found that the strong relationship between poverty and child maltreatment was little explained by visibility bias (higher visibility of lower income families to public services) in statewide and national data. Our findings also suggest that substantial racial bias in CPS is unlikely, as black children have a slightly lower risk of child maltreatment reporting than white children after controlling for economic indicators.

The potential impact of my research includes... A series of my studies regarding cumulative prevalence suggests that both onset and recurrence of child maltreatment are commonplace. This line of work may help change our perspectives from tertiary interventions to preventive efforts.

My other findings suggest the centrality of poverty in addressing child maltreatment that cannot be explained by reporting bias. Finally, we may need to address the large poverty disparity between race/ethnicity groups to address the racial/ethnic disparity in CPS.

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FACULTY HIGHLIGHT: WILLIAM SCHNEIDER, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR

CHILD MALTREATMENT

“My work seeks to understand how macro-level factors such as inequality, unemployment rates, and the minimum wage are associated with child maltreatment.”

Research Interest: I have two primary areas of research. The first area seeks to understand the role of inequality, social policy, and family complexity in parenting and child maltreatment. The second area draws on new technologies to better measure in-home observations of parent-child relationship quality.

This research is important because... research on the risk for child maltreatment has traditionally focused on the ways in which individual-level factors such as poverty, mental health, and other risk factors influence the risk for child maltreatment. In contrast, my work seeks to understand how macro-level factors such as inequality, unemployment rates, and the minimum wage are associated with child maltreatment. To that end, results may provide insights on policy innovations that might reduce child maltreatment.

I was drawn to this area of research because...rates of child maltreatment have remained stubbornly high.

In the United States, nearly 37% of children will be the subject of an investigation for child maltreatment by their 18th birthday. Over the years a number of parenting interventions have been developed in an attempt to reduce child maltreatment. However, while rates of child abuse have declined over the last 25 years, rates of child neglect remain high. I’m particularly drawn to trying to understand the macro-level factors that contribute to child maltreatment because of the interdisciplinary nature of this work. By drawing on theory and research from social work, economics, developmental psychology, and sociology, I believe we can make a difference in the lives of children.

A highlight of my findings so far is... with my co-authors, we found results indicating that while traditional risk factors such as rising unemployment rates were associated with increased risk for child maltreatment, we also found evidence that more subjective measures—such as the feeling that one was doing worse financially than before—were also a powerful predictor of the risk for child maltreatment. I am pursuing this finding in my current work, examining associations between objective and subjective inequality and opinions about authoritative parenting.

One potential impact of my research...is that it will help to inform policymakers about the ways in which existing social policies influence child maltreatment. A range of social welfare policies—programs such as food assistance and income supports—may help to reduce child maltreatment, even if that is not the intended effect of the program. Overall, a greater understanding of how social policies and macroeconomic trends are associated with child maltreatment may help both policymakers and practitioners identify ways to disrupt child maltreatment.

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FORMER BSW PROGRAM LEADER: BRENDA LINDSEY

PASSING THE MANTLE Brenda Lindsey stepped in as director of the then-new BSW program 10 years ago. Having steered the program to robust health, she is stepping down from that role now—but not slowing down in her work.

Brenda Lindsey remembers the early days well.

“My appointment as BSW Program Director was half-time at first,” says Lindsey, who after 10 years of running the program is stepping down.

“For the first year, I met with students, recruited them, admitted them, got the curriculum set up.”

Soon, Sherrie Faulkner was hired to direct BSW field education, and more and more staff and faculty were added. Which is good, because the program grew swiftly.

“Our first class had 50 students,” Lindsey recalls. “Fast forward to today and we have 249 BSW majors and 99 social work minors, which is amazing! We are fortunate to have a terrific cadre of BSW faculty who are passionate about undergraduate education.”

Lindsey says it is bittersweet for her to hand over the BSW program reins to Janet Carter-Black, who has been named as the new director, but she is excited about the road ahead.

“I’m returning to my role as a full teaching professor,” she says. She teaches classes on school social work and on child welfare issues and trends. She is also a co-principal investigator on a new five-year federal interdisciplinary project that will prepare MSW students to serve children with disabilities. School social work has always been at the heart of her teaching and scholarship interests.

“I feel the BSW program is in a good place, and it will be good for a new person to come in with fresh eyes and see where we’re going to go in the next few years,” Lindsey says. “I’m excited to see where it goes and confident that Jan will take the program to the next level.”

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Lindsey started the BSW program from scratch and steered it quickly toward robust health. Looking back, she finds pleasure in several accomplishments.

“We were the first program to be accredited by the Council on Social Work Education within three years,” she says. “We wanted to be recognized as a leader in undergraduate social work education, and I think we have achieved that. We wanted to be a viable program not just within the School, but on campus. We’re in a good place there, too.”

Perhaps what makes her proudest, however, is the quality and accomplishments of the students who have gone through the BSW program.

“Eighty percent of our BSW graduates go on to pursue MSW or other graduate and professional degrees,” she says.

It’s the students, too, who brought her the greatest joys as program director.

“They’re enthusiastic, passionate, and committed to make things happen,” Lindsey says. “They bring an energy and fresh eyes and they see the world as having umpteen possibilities. That’s really energizing.”

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NEW BSW PROGRAM LEADER: JANET CARTER-BLACK

MOVING FORWARD

Janet Carter-Black has been named BSW Program Director and she's ready to hit the ground running.

Carter-Black has been affiliated with the School of Social Work for many years, as an MSW and PhD student, adjunct instructor and lecturer, appointments to assistant professor, clinical associate professor, and teaching full professor.

“Dr. Brenda Lindsey approached me with the proposal to teach courses in the newly reinstituted BSW Program. I very quickly discovered how remarkable it is to work with undergraduate students. I also found a renewed passion and commitment to undergraduate education,” Carter-Black says.

When she learned that Dr. Lindsey was stepping down as the program director, she had two simultaneous and opposite reactions.

“I was saddened that the person who had done such an amazing job building our school’s undergraduate program would no longer be at the helm. But I was also excited for her as she embraced the opportunity to transition into another reinvigorating dimension of professional growth and development.”

Janet’s decision to apply for the position of BSW Program Director only surfaced after serious consideration on her part. “I had to feel confident in my capacity to develop the critical knowledge and skills needed to continue Brenda’s legacy and move an already strong program forward. I received tremendous encouragement and support from so many of our incredible faculty and staff,” she says.

Dean Steve Anderson had this to say about the outgoing and incoming BSW program leaders: “We owe Brenda Lindsey our gratitude for all she has done to lead the School’s BSW program these past 10 years. Her work has led to great opportunities for our undergraduate students, linkages across the University and to our MSW program, and ongoing contributions to our many community agency partners.

“I am delighted that Janet Carter-Black will be our new BSW program director.

Her outstanding undergraduate teaching, contributions to diversity, and creativity all are treasured in the School, and we know she will continue and build upon the BSW program’s many strengths.”

“I am so excited to begin this journey and I look forward to working with the faculty, staff, administrators, alums, and of course our outstanding students as we take on the challenges associated with continued growth and program development.”

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BSW STUDENT HIGHLIGHT: SCARLETT DAVALOS

ON A FAMILY JOURNEY

BSW graduate Scarlett Davalos, spurred on by her family, is making the most of her opportunities as a student here at the University of Illinois.

When Scarlett Davalos received her bachelor’s degree in social work this past May, she was receiving it for more than herself.

“This journey is not only for me, but for my parents,” says Davalos, who is continuing on for an MSW at the University of Illinois. “They started this journey for me when they migrated from Mexico to the US.” Because of life circumstances, neither parent was able to complete high school, but both now have their GEDs—something that makes Davalos proud. “My family is my drive,” she says. “They said seek out any opportunities we can. They told us to work hard. So, my family started this and I’m adding to it. We’re achieving it together.”

Davalos has made the most of her opportunities at Illinois, achieving a 4.0 GPA, being active in campus and community service, serving on the Student Diversity Committee, being a peer editor on the Journal of Undergraduate Social Work Research, and receiving multiple awards, including this year’s Student Diversity Leadership Award.

“It was a lot of late nights, a lot of stressing, but it was all worth it in the end,” she says.

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Davalos intends to be a school social worker, ideally in high school. She was positively influenced by her high school guidance counselor and wants to be able to help youths in the same way she was helped. “High school is a time that can be tough, even overwhelming, for a lot of students,” she says. “I want to help them through the process.”

But her sights extend beyond that as well. “I’m not sure if I’ll want to practice for a bit or pursue my PhD right away,” she says. “Practicing may help me refine my ideas for my PhD.” She wants to conduct research on first generation Latinx students and the impact being first generation has on their mental health.

Whatever she chooses, she loves the flexibility that social workers have. “We can make an impact at a micro level and at a macro level,” she says. “That really energizes me.”

Davalos is “incredibly grateful for the doors that have been opened here at the U of I as a first-generation Mexican-American. I cannot be thankful enough for all the support I’ve received—from the staff, my peers, my colleagues, and the faculty.”

Now, Davalos is set to begin another leg of her journey, working toward her MSW. Her family is with her on this leg, too.

BSW STUDENT HIGHLIGHT: RA’VON BONNER

A HEART FOR YOUTH

BSW student Ra’Von Bonner is learning how to make a difference in people’s lives, particularly young people.

Ra’Von Bonner is continuing what his grandmother and mother began: entering social work to help people.

“They both have MSW’s, and that did influence me some,” says Bonner, entering his junior year at the University of Illinois. He has one semester of social work study under his belt so far. “I just know I want to help people, especially our youth.”

Bonner is also helping the Fighting Illini football team. Ranked in the top 80 running backs in the nation coming out of high school in Cincinnati, Bonner led Illinois in rushing touchdowns as a freshman and averaged 5.5 yards per carry as a sophomore, but has endured injuries throughout his career at Illinois.

“My goal there is to stay healthy,” he says. He acknowledges that playing in the NFL is one of his dreams, “but it’s not my biggest one. For me, I think it’s just reaching people. I find so much joy in reaching people and making a difference.”

As mentioned, he particularly has a heart for youth.

“My dad wasn’t there as much as I needed him to be,” he says. “I want to be the man that I needed in my life, especially for kids who are going through what I went through. I want to let them know they’re not alone. I know how that felt and I don’t want that for others. The more that love is spread in the hearts of men, instead of anger taken out on women, the better our world will be.”

A lot of his desire to help others is based on his faith and belief, he says. “I’m living to serve and not be served,” he says. “I want to give generously and not expect anything in return. I feel like if I’m looking for something in return, then it’s not really giving.”

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MSW STUDENT HIGHLIGHT: NATASHA MABLES

A BEACON OF HOPE

MSW student Natasha Mables was once homeless. She now offers hope—and informed help—to those who are in the shoes she once wore.

Some of Natasha Mables’ clients at the Salvation Army in Champaign are homeless. Others have suffered domestic violence.

for students who have experienced homelessness or working with the homeless. In Mables’ case, she has experienced both.

Mables empathizes with all of her clients, but particularly with the latter two types, because she has been in their shoes.

“I was very honored to have received the award,” she says. In her application for the award, she wrote how her homeless experience has shaped her professionally and promoted her personal and spiritual growth as well. All three of those areas have been enhanced through her work at the Salvation Army, where she has served as a program manager and case worker the past two years.

Mables, who is from Chicago, was in the MSW program at DePaul University, but enrolled in the MSW program at the University of Illinois when the father of her daughter became increasingly emotionally, mentally, and physically abusive. She moved in with a family member in Champaign, but soon had to leave because the lease did not allow her to be there.

For the next few weeks, Mables and her newborn daughter—just a few weeks old—lived in hotels. Then her money ran out.

“I hope to stay at the Salvation Army,” Mables says.

“I love working there. I’m doing things I’ve never done before—running programs, writing grants. I also love the spiritual component, of being able to pray for people. Sometimes there’s a spiritual element attached to a problem and I love being able to talk to people about God.”

She was a single mom with an infant and without a home.

“We eventually got a place in transitional housing and stayed there for about six months until I got a job,” Mables says. “But it really humbled me. I get the fears associated with having nowhere to go with your children. I had experienced that and never want to experience it again.”

Mables received the Esther and Marvin Steinberg Memorial Award earlier this year. The award is geared

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Despite the hardships she has faced—her mother was single and had a drug addiction and Mables was in foster care for seven years—she sees the evidence of God in her life in numerous ways. “He has been good to me,” she says.

Her experiences with homelessness impact how she interacts with her clients, she notes. “It’s what drove me to want to go back to school and get my MSW,” she says. “I really want to be that beacon of hope for others who are having a similar experience.”

MSW STUDENT HIGHLIGHT: ADAM GRIFFY

CARING FOR THE TROOPS AND THE TROUBLED

MSW student Adam Griffy draws on his experiences in the military and in the School of Social Work to provide mental health care for clients.

For six years, Adam Griffy served as a Navy Fleet Marine Force Corpsman. “My job was to be the first echelon of care for Marines, sailors, and other coalition force members,” he says. “My specialty was combat medical care.”

Back stateside after three stints in Iraq, Griffy is now providing a different type of care—mental health care—to clients he works with in his internship at Rosecrance, a substance abuse and mental health center in Champaign.

Mental health has long been an interest of his, stemming from his fascination with human behavior. He has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Eastern Illinois University, and decided on an MSW because “I’ve always wanted to help people. I just didn’t know the best route to take. I decided on social work because I saw the need for improved mental health within society, and I want to make a difference.”

Mental health care, he says, has been an overlooked area in the country, and he wants to be part of the change to address those needs. “I like the personto-person aspect of helping people,” he adds. “That appeals to me.”

He entered the School of Social Work figuring he’d focus his work on veterans, but developed an interest in helping children and adolescents develop socially and emotionally, as well.

“I plan to work in a clinic for a while after getting my MSW,” Griffy says, “and I want to earn my LCSW and also work with charitable organizations outside of work.” He also talks of eventually going on for a PhD, and he is writing a book on the social and emotional needs within different populations, bringing his military experiences into the mix.

Griffy was this year’s Becca Nimmer Marcus Award recipient, an award that goes to a student who plans to work in mental health as a profession.

“It helps in both a professional and personal sense,” Griffy says. “It motivates me in that I know my work is appreciated and that I have somebody behind me.”

Griffy will graduate in December and hopes to be hired at Rosecrance. Wherever he works, he wants to be part of the effort to get rid of the stigma of mental health care.

“It energizes me to work with people who seek out help, who want to make a change in their lives,” he says. “Or, if they don’t have that mindset yet, to go to work with the intent of bettering someone’s life.”

He is better equipped to do so, he says, by the time he has spent in the School. “I’ve had a great experience here,” he says. “One thing I like about the School is the professors not only treat you as a student, but also as a colleague. I really appreciate that.”

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PHD STUDENT HIGHLIGHT: JACOB GOFFNETT

HEALING SHAME IN THE LGBTQ POPULATION

During his MSW internship at Illinois, Jacob Goffnett observed a similarity between two distinct groups he worked with: LGBTQ adolescents and women who had survived trauma.

“I noticed a lot of overlap of shame between the two groups, and the shame with LGBTQ youth wasn’t being addressed,” says the PhD candidate, who received his MSW from Illinois in 2015, the same year he began his PhD work.

That observation helped spur his current research on shame’s influence over identity development and well-being in LGBTQ youth.

“When I saw there was no research that talked in a meaningful way about shame with the LGBTQ population, I felt it was important to be addressed,” he says. “I’m addressing the gaps in the research. I’m also looking at pride. I’m looking at shame and pride and how these emotions impact health outcomes among LGBTQ adolescents.”

Shame, Goffnett says, “is highly malleable. There are lots of ways to address it—mindfulness intervention, psychodynamic intervention, talking with a therapist. These can all help reduce the feelings of shame, and what the research tells us is that experiencing shame is really hard on our behavioral health, our physical health, and our mental health.”

Some of those outcomes include depression, anxiety, other mental health issues, substance abuse, and suicidality.

Goffnett, who has worked on the planning committee of Illinois’ LGBTQ Research Symposium the past four years, hopes that his research leads to greater awareness of the issues involved as well as some effective interventions.

“The first step is to get it on clinicians’ radars,” he says. “There are wide varieties of populations experiencing shame, and some people or groups experience it at higher levels. So be aware that it’s there and that it concurs with a lot of mental health disorders, and addressing it can open people up to healing.”

“I would definitely like to adapt interventions to address shame and increase positive emotions,” he continues.

“And when I’m speaking about LGBTQ populations, I’m speaking about pride.”

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PHD STUDENT HIGHLIGHT: VANESSA PARKER

PROVIDING INTERGRATED CARE

Vanessa Parker has turned an early-life experience into a career path of helping others.

Twenty years ago, when Vanessa Parker was eight years old, her father was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer.

He was given six months to live. He is still alive today.

The experience gave birth to Parker’s desire to choose a profession where she could help people. “I wanted to work with families who were going through what my family was going through, to make the experience better for them,” the PhD student says. “We didn’t know anything in terms of medical resources, financial resources, anything.”

Parker received her MS in Social Work from the University of Louisville in 2016 and then worked for two years as an integrated care partner for an accountable care organization in Nashville, Tennessee, before beginning her PhD program at Illinois in the fall of 2018.

While in Nashville, Parker had the opportunity to work with people facing serious chronic or terminal illnesses.

“That was eye-opening for me,” she says. “I saw how much it affects you financially and emotionally. It helped point me in the direction of the research I want to conduct.”

Parker is studying under associate professor Janet Liechty, who is the principal investigator on Social Work HEALS, a national leadership training program.

(The University of Illinois is one of 10 Schools of Social Work awarded a five-year grant to develop the next generation of healthcare social work leaders). Liechty is also principal investigator for the Illinois Behavioral Health Workforce Education, Learning & Leadership (BHWELL) HRSA Scholars Program, a clinical certificate and scholarship program for MSW students to learn how to integrate health and mental health services in primary care settings in rural and underserved areas.

Parker assists Liechty in both programs.

“I help lead the HEALS seminars and facilitate the journal club discussions,” she says. She also assisted in putting on a spring conference for HEALS scholars, and, for BHWELL, she works on program evaluation.

She found that her experience as an integrated care partner aided her greatly in her work with BHWELL. Parker loves the students and faculty at the School.

“The community is great,” she says. “And Janet Liechty is so supportive.”

That research, she says, may well pertain to “off-time” diagnoses—for example, people who develop cancer well before they might be expected to, as her father had. “Currently I’m considering either type 2 diabetes or colorectal cancer,” she says. Other options include end-of-life health care, including children who enter hospice.

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FIELD EDUCATION: CHRISTINE ESCOBAR-SAWICKI

TRANSFORMING LIVES-AND PROGRAMS

Chicagoland students benefit from the work of the MSW field team in the Windy City—and from a new hybrid program that allows them to stay in Chicago while earning their MSW. One of Christine Escobar-Sawicki’s favorite parts of her job is seeing students transform.

“At the School of Social Work, we talk about how we transform lives and prepare students to be difference makers,” says Escobar-Sawicki, a clinical associate professor who has been part of the MSW field team in Chicago since 2011. “I get to see that transformation in students. At the beginning of their journey, they’re hopeful, nervous, facing a big learning curve. Then you fast forward to graduation, and you can see the obstacles they’ve overcome, the goals they’ve achieved, NOIS AT CHAMPAIGN-URBANA how much more confident they are in their practice.

ILLINOIS.EDU Escobar-Sawicki is on a team of four for the MSW program, and they work closely with a team of three for the BSW program. All play a big role in growing that confidence. They work with students through the placement cycle, select sites, coordinate with the sites for placement interviews, and provide support for the students and field instructors throughout the process.

She notes that the School works with more than 125 agencies in Chicagoland, more than 300 throughout Illinois, and more throughout the US and internationally. “We’re always looking to expand our sites and offer opportunities in different types of settings,” she says. “We work with students to identify their passions and what they want to learn, and we try to find the best fit for them.

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“We’re always thinking about what we can do to enhance student learning, how we can better support field instructors,” she adds. That includes intervening with students who are struggling, staying abreast of current trends in the field, and ensuring that research needs inform practice and vice versa.

A trend in higher education that the School is embracing is online and hybrid options. Escobar-Sawicki points out two offerings from the School as examples: a Leadership and Social Change program that is offered completely online, and an Advanced Clinical hybrid program that has just started in Chicago. The latter program allows students to combine online classes and face-to-face weekend classes. Both options make it easy for students to study where they are—a particular boon for students from Chicagoland.

“The Chicago hybrid makes sense because we have existing relationships with organizations up here who want to host our students,” Escobar-Sawicki explains.

“It’s exciting to be able to expand the ability of people who want to get their MSW from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign while living in Chicago.”

“The breadth of learning opportunities and experiences that students have are significant,” she notes. “And I am traveling to sites all over the state and seeing how social workers impact lives. To see this happening live is really exciting.”

ALUMNI HIGHLIGHT: DANNY LEE

OFFERING A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE Danny Lee, who earned his BSW at Illinois, finds himself in an atypical, challenging, and rewarding position with ExxonMobil.

Danny Lee’s career path is far from typical. But you can’t argue with the results.

Lee came to the University of Illinois with the intent of becoming a marriage and family therapist. But going through a practicum at a clinical practice, he discovered two things: the emotional demands on a psychologist in direct clinical practice were more than he bargained for, and he had—surprise—strengths that aligned quite nicely with social work.

So, Lee enrolled in the BSW program at Illinois. “The program is an intentional hybrid of macro and micro practice, fitting my appetite to think more institutionally when trying to understand the root causes of complex social problems,” says Lee, who graduated magna cum laude with a BSW in 2016.

Lee, who immigrated from South Korea to Chicago in 1994, went on to get a joint MSW/MBA from Washington University in 2018.

“I wanted to be a broker who empathically connects and aligns missions from two distinct ways of thinking,” he explains about the dual degree. “Social workers bring tremendous value in connecting dots from a nuanced gray network of political complexities while maintaining the integrity built around their commitment to marginalized groups. MBAs hone in on root problems and strategically identify actionable steps.”

Lee saw tremendous potential in marrying the two disciplines.

“When left alone, social workers can talk themselves in circles in formulating the root problem. Likewise, when left alone, MBAs can execute a hundred actionable steps and completely miss the holistic picture necessary to understand how to tackle a root problem.

Together, a complex problem can be assessed and actionable steps can be conceived and executed.”

“This is just one of many examples as to how important cross-pollination across all ways of thinking, not just social work and business, is the best way to move the needle forward.”

Lee moves the needle forward for ExxonMobil in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he works as a Public & Government Affairs Advisor.

“I was invited to offer a unique perspective, and I am honored to be doing that.”

“My focus is around external community relations, specifically around managing our local Baton Rouge contributions budget, strategically focusing our philanthropic dollars on metric-driven evidence-based initiatives,” he says.

It is his social work degree that attracted ExxonMobil to Lee. “They knew that I would add value to our external community efforts by thinking more strategically with ExxonMobil’s investments in technological innovations and scalable resources,” he says. “Corporate social responsibility, then, goes beyond charity, but instead pushes our local leaders for creative private-public partnerships for maximized social good.”

Lee didn’t aim to go into social work. Then, once he decided on his career path, he didn’t aim for the typical MSW degree. And, armed with his MSW/MBA joint degrees, he didn’t land the typical social work job.

Instead, he is helping ExxonMobil meet the growing energy demands while mitigating and reducing environmental impacts and meeting inclusion and diversity needs.

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CENTER FOR PREVENTION RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENTIMPROVING THE PERFORMANCE OF MIDDLE-GRADE SCHOOLS

Middle schools—typically underfunded—are receiving a boost in developing high-performing leaders, faculty, and students, thanks to key findings from three grants that were presented in a national forum briefing in Washington, DC.

Researchers don’t normally toil in the limelight.

Take Nancy Flowers. The director of research programs at the Center for Prevention Research and Development (CPRD), Flowers has spent the last 10 years leading the research on three related middle-grades grants.

Flowers stepped into the limelight for a bit when she was invited this spring to be a panelist at a briefing hosted by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform.

“It was a culminating event for the forum and for me in terms of the work we’ve been collaborating on for the last 10 years,” she says.

The CPRD’s role in the three U.S. Department of Education grants was as the research and evaluation partner for the forum. Dawn Carpenter, senior research program coordinator, and Shahana Begum, research data coordinator, collaborated with Flowers on the grants.

Flowers shared the CPRD’s findings at the “High-Performing Middle Schools: Equipping and Empowering Teachers and Leaders” briefing, which was held in the Capitol Building in Washington, DC. It was attended by state senators and representatives, leaders of national education organizations and from the US Department of Education, and members of education interest groups.

“For me, personally, it’s really satisfying to see our work at the national legislation level,” says Flowers, who has been with the CPRD since 1992. “We always try to link our research to practice so that we are informing the field, but it’s really rewarding to see our work informing and being used as an evidence base in national policy legislation.”

For example, the CPRD’s research and findings tie in with legislation entitled “Success in the Middle Act,” which has been introduced in Congress by Representative Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI). Grijalva also spoke at the middle-grades briefing in Washington.

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Flowers presented three key findings that came out of the research conducted over the past 10 years on three grants—one on school transformation, another on leadership development, and the third on teacher instruction.

“The audience really engaged with us,” she says. “They wanted to know more details about what we were describing—especially in terms of leadership and the most effective ways to coach and mentor teachers and principals. It was a nice discussion.”

“The lessons we learned were replicated across all three grants, which strengthens the data and evidence behind the recommendations,” Flowers says.

High-performing middle-grade schools, Flowers says, were found to excel in these three areas: • Vision. “Schools where faculty were part of the adoption process of the vision, and the vision was used as a

roadmap for continuous improvement with leadership and faculty on the same page, were the most succesful schools,” • Climate. “Culture and climate need to come first to support transformation in instructional practices and

programs, schools that develop a supportive climate that is student-centered and collaborative, where

teachers are part of the solution and the decision-making process, are most successful.”

• Leadership. “When principals are paired with other principals in the field to talk through challenges, where

there is opportunity for professional development and a collaborative leadership structure in the building,

that facilitates principals in becoming transformational leaders and in building teacher leaders who in-turn

improve instruction for students.”

Many useful resources were also developed as a result of the findings. “The national forum developed a middlegrade leadership seminar series for teachers, a field guide for principals, videos to show best teaching practices, and a rubric to measure high-performing schools,” Flowers notes.“So, the grants have given back to the field with those products and resources that we’ve made available.”

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CHILDREN AND FAMILY RESEARCH CENTER AWARDED ILLINOIS CHILDREN’S HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION GRANT

The Children & Family Research Center is working on a new project to evaluate children’s mental health in Illinois, and shares results from a post-reunification program in Wisconsin and the latest Illinois Child Well-Being Study.

The Children & Family Research Center (CFRC) was recently awarded a $1.15 million grant from the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF) to evaluate their Children’s Mental Health Initiative 2.0.

Led by principal investigator and CFRC director, Tamara Fuller, a research team at the CFRC will plan and conduct a 7.5-year evaluation that will examine the development of coordinated systems of care for children’s mental health services in five communities across Illinois.

“Children and youth with or at risk for mental health disorders and their families often need supports and services from multiple child- and family-serving agencies in their communities, but the help they receive is often fragmented and uncoordinated,” Fuller says. “Coordinated systems of care provide a spectrum of effective, flexible, community-based, and culturally appropriate services to children and their families.”

Youth, their caregivers, and other supportive persons are full partners in all aspects of the planning and delivery of services, she adds, which are provided in the least restrictive, most normative environment that are clinically appropriate.

“The ILCHF is providing funding for 13-month planning grants in the five communities to develop a plan to build or enhance their children’s mental health system of care,” Fuller says. “Communities that successfully develop a CMHI plan will then be provided with up to $2.1 million per site to support their implementation efforts over the next six years. The CFRC will develop and conduct an evaluation that examines the processes used in each of the five communities to develop their systems of care and will also examine the outcomes of the children, families, and systems.”

The evaluation begins in October 2019 and will extend through June 2026.

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CFRC Evaluates the Wisconsin DCF Post-Reunification Support Program The CFRC partnered with the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families to evaluate their waiver demonstration project, known as the Post-Reunification Support (PS) Program.

“The PS Program provides up to 12 months of post-reunification services and support to families with children who have reunified from substitute care who are at high risk of reentry into care,” says CFRC Director Tamara Fuller. “The goals of the program are to reduce repeat maltreatment and reentry into substitute care, as well as improve child and family well-being post-reunification.”

CFRC designed and conducted an evaluation that examined: 1) the processes that were used to implement the program over a six-year period, 2) the types of services that were provided to families during the post-reunification period, 3) the costs of the services provided, and 4) the outcomes of the children and families in the program, compared to those of similar children and families

who did not receive these specially-designed post-reunification services.

The results of the evaluation found that on average, families received over six different services per month and 12 different services over the span of their enrollment in the program.

“The most frequently provided services were home management (65 percent), economic support (56 percent), individual therapy (49 percent), parenting services (46 percent), transportation (44 percent), social support (38 percent), housing assistance (38 percent), and recreational services (32 percent),” Fuller says.

The outcome evaluation revealed only one difference between children receiving PS Program services and those in the comparison group: a higher rate of preventive dental visits among children in the PS Program group.

Key Findings Released from 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being Study Large majorities of children and youth in out-of-home care in Illinois feel that their caregiver cares about them, trust them, think they were capable, and enjoy spending time with them.

That is one of the findings from the 2017 Illinois Child Well-Being study, conducted by the CFRC. “Many children are doing well in their development, physical health, emotional and behavioral health, education, and experience of out-of-home care,” says Ted Cross, CFRC senior research specialist. “Yet many of our findings should provoke concern. Many children and youth are lagging in development, have chronic health conditions or special needs, have serious emotional or behavioral challenges, struggle at school, have experienced threats to their safety, and report at least some substantial negative experiences during their time in out-of-home care.”

A few select findings from the study include: • 41.5 percent of children and youth ages 6 to 18 had scores showing a need for mental health treatment—

and 85.9 percent of those with the need were receiving treatment.

•

About a third of school-age children were having difficulty in school (30.2 percent reading below grade level, 33.4 percent performing math below grade level, 33 percent of caregivers reported that their child has a learning problem, 39.7 percent of children classified as needing special education).

•

One-third of children reported being physically hurt deliberately by someone in the past year.

•

Most children felt their caseworker listened to them all the time and understood their situation very well.

•

Caseworkers reported that 86.3 percent of caregivers expressed interest in adopting the child.

•

Forty-seven percent of adolescents rated their life situation as very poor to fair.

The full report can be found at https://cfrc.illinois.edu

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DONOR HIGHLIGHT: KATHY AND RICH ADAMS

SHARING THE BLESSING

Kathy Adams (MSW ’95) and her husband, Rich Adams, have donated $1 million to the School of Social Work.

Kathy and Rich Adams originally intended to split a $1 million unrestricted donation between the School of Social Work, where Kathy received her MSW, and the business program from another university from which Rich graduated. But after initial exploration, they decided to give the entire donation to the School of Social Work.

“I said to Kathy, let’s give the whole amount to somebody that can use it and that appreciates us and is in a field that is beneficial for everyone concerned,” Rich says.

“We’ve both been very blessed,” Kathy adds. “We’ve worked for everything we have and we’re frugal, and we don’t live high on the hog. Education is important to us.”

Kathy earned a sociology degree from Illinois State and worked as a rehabilitation counselor for the state before returning to school for her MSW, which she attained in 1995. She went on to get her LCSW and established a private practice. She has worked the spectrum, from families with infants and young children to teenagers and into the adult sector as well. She worked for the Special Education District of Lake County (SEDOL), for many years before retiring from the school district while continuing her private practice.

Most of her work life, she says, was spent in working with people with disabilities. One of her joys was helping families navigate a complex social services system. “You can miss out on services that you’re entitled to, because you just don’t know about them or how to advocate for yourself,” she says. “So, as a social worker, it was incumbent on me to help parents understand their children’s needs, understand the system, and understand how to become good parents for a child that has special needs.”

Rich, who is 73 years old (“I have no plans to retire”), is vice president of sales and marketing for Rad Source Technologies, which develops X-ray and non-nuclear irradiators for various applications in healthcare. Rad Source equipment is used in pharmaceutical labs, healthcare institutions, and universities around the world. Rich is one of the founders of the company. He sold the company three years ago; the donation to the School is derived from those funds.

“We have everything we want,” he says. “We’re very blessed.”

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UNIVERSI T Y OF I L L I NO IS AT URBA N A - C HAMP A I GN 1010 W. Nevada St. Urbana, IL 61801 MC-082 www.socialwork.illinois.edu #ILLINOISsocialwork (217) 333.2261 socialwork@illinois.edu