The Boston College School of Social Work’s Latinx Leadership Initiative is partnering with Mass General Brigham to improve care for Latinx communities in Massachusetts.
In social work and behavioral health settings, a level of shared cultural and linguistic understanding is vital for promoting clients’ health and well-being. For the Boston area’s diverse and growing Latinx communities, however, it is not always easy to access culturally-fluent, bilingual therapists and social workers. To address this critical gap, the Latinx Leadership Initiative in the BC School of Social Work has received a $600,000 Community Fellows Grant from the Mass General Brigham health care system to develop the workforce of bilingual, bicultural social workers in Massachusetts. The grant is part of a new $50 million investment by Mass General Brigham—Massachusetts’s largest health care provider—to improve mental health care capacity, workforce development, chronic disease management, nutrition security, and equity through partnerships with 20 community-based agencies and institutions of higher education in Massachusetts.
Rocío Calvo
Mass General Brigham approached the Latinx Leadership Initiative because of the work the BCSSW program was already doing to recruit and train social workers to work with Latinx communities, said Associate Professor Rocío Calvo, the LLI’s founding director and the new grant’s principal investigator.
“There is an acute need for behavioral health providers in Latinx communities, especially after those communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID,” Calvo said. “Mass General Brigham’s goal is to address that need, and we have a history of training professionals to do that work successfully.”
Since Calvo founded the LLI in 2013, some 185 master of social work students have graduated from the program, completing all eight of Boston College’s core social work courses entirely in Spanish. Under the stewardship of Calvo and Assistant Director Ximena Soto, the initiative has been recognized as a Model Program for Diversity Education by the Council on Social Work Education’s Center for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice, and it received a top national award from Excelencia in Education in 2020. The Mass General Brigham grant will allow the LLI to provide living stipends and professional development to fellows within BCSSW’s M.S.W. program as they complete their behavioral rotations in community health settings that predominantly serve Latinx communities.
““There is an acute need for behavioral health providers in Latinx communities, especially after those communities have been disproportionately affected by COVID. Mass General Brigham’s goal is to address that need, and we have a history of training professionals to do that work successfully.””
The partnership’s inaugural cohort of four fellows will be selected this fall. After this cohort graduates in 2022, LLI and Mass General Brigham will select at least 10 fellows each academic year. The grant will also help fund Calvo’s ongoing research on effective strategies for training and supporting bilingual, bicultural social workers, which she conducts in collaboration with the LLI’s students, alumni, and partner organizations.
“The interventions of this grant target the systemic issues that prevent Latinx social workers from developing their careers and Latinx clients from accessing adequate care,” Calvo said. She points to the monthly professional development workshops the LLI is developing with its community partners. “These workshops will help LLI students learn how to navigate systems to overcome the barriers that often prevent Latinx social workers from advancing in their careers."
Gautam N. Yadama
The LLI’s alumni work with Latinx and Hispanic communities in diverse settings across the United States and abroad, from schools and hospitals to clinics and prisons. Their impact is surely felt locally: Nearly 20 percent of Boston’s residents identified as Hispanic or Latinx on the 2020 census, and this percentage is projected to continue growing, both within the city’s limits and in surrounding communities.
BC School of Social Work Dean Gautam N. Yadama said that the LLI's new partnership with Mass General Brigham contributes to BCSSW’s varied efforts to increase access to evidence-based interventions and improve the quality of life in local communities.
"Such efforts require enduring partnerships with a network of practitioners, health systems, and communities," Yadama said. "In partnering with Mass General Brigham, we are extending the reach of our premier social work training that is evidence-based and culturally attuned to serving our Latinx populations in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts."
John Shakespear | University Communications | November 2021