Dean Gautam N. Yadama
At the Boston College School of Social Work (BCSSW), we are producing knowledge and new insights about complex social problems and developing suitable evidence-based interventions to address these problems here in the U.S. and around the world. We are co-creating evidence and designing interventions with communities and families experiencing wide-ranging traumatic events leading to cumulative disadvantages and declining social, education, economic, and health outcomes. By embedding ourselves within these communities and partnering with formal and informal institutions responding to such problems, we increase the likelihood of evidence-based interventions taking root and scaling in real-world settings.
Our faculty are taking on the challenge of designing interventions with an eye toward efficacy, effectiveness, and eventually scaling to improve the well-being of diverse populations. For example, they are testing youth readiness interventions in Sierra Leone through employment promotion programs, expanding family strengthening interventions to Latinx communities, and examining the efficacy of childhood obesity prevention intervention with low-income families in Boston.
BCSSW students are building capacity to meet these challenges through interdisciplinary coursework—like the University’s new Palliative Care Certificate Program. They are engaging with faculty on research projects investigating older Latinx immigrants’ access to social services and examining global and local sustainable development, among others. Through exposure to research and new approaches in teaching, including innovative approaches to promote inclusivity in the classroom, our students are preparing to address and respond to complex social problems with innovative, evidence-based interventions.