Graphic courtesy of the Grand Challenges for Social Work.
Six faculty members at the Boston College School of Social Work have contributed to a new set of policy briefs released Tuesday by the Grand Challenges for Social Work, an initiative that aims to tackle 14 of the biggest social issues in the United States.
The policy briefs provide recommendations to address 10 of the challenges, which cover a far-reaching social agenda promoting individual and family well-being, a stronger social fabric, and a more just society.
BCSSW faculty focused on four challenges: advancing long and productive lives; eradicating social isolation; creating social responses to a changing environment; and reducing extreme economic inequality. They were among more than four dozen researchers who participated in the project, which also examined ways to help end homelessness, eliminate racism, and harness technology for social good, among other challenges.
The initiative’s leaders recommended individuals share the briefs with advocacy groups, government officials, and professional organizations, saying in a post on its website that “These briefs can be helpful tools to focus policy advocacy and communicate about solutions with various stakeholders.”
Associate Professors Cal Halvorsen and Christina Matz made four policy recommendations to promote the experience and skills that older adults bring to society.
For one, they advocated an end to ageism and age discrimination, which, they said, reduce opportunities to work; compromise overall health; and increase the risk for economic insecurity.
In particular, the researchers recommended Congress expand the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act to protect all workers—including those under the age of 40. They also urged Congress to pass the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act, which would reinstate its original intent for age to be a factor in an age discrimination claim, as opposed to being the primary factor.
“This change,” Matz, Halvorsen, and their co-authors wrote, “can significantly bolster legal protection from age discrimination within the workplace, and it currently has bipartisan support.”
Associate Professor Erika Sabbath and Professor Emeritus James Lubben provided three policy recommendations to reduce the incidence of social isolation, a potent killer that is linked to higher risks for health problems such as heart disease, depression, and cognitive decline.
One of their recommendations—to strengthen social connections to support parents and families—drew on research suggesting that the sensitive period in which social connections are most beneficial may occur at younger ages than was once thought.
Accordingly, the researchers said, children and parents need high-quality child care and paid family leave to strengthen social connections for parents and children and to ensure children’s healthy development.
“Access to high-quality child care enables parents to properly meet the work and social obligations that structure an increasingly complex society,” Sabbath, Lubben, and their co-authors wrote. “Paid family leave allows parents to engage more fully in relationships with children and in other social connections that may enhance parenting.”
Associate Professor Samantha Teixeira advocated a three-pronged approach to advancing climate and environmental justice.
One part of the approach involves developing policies that proactively respond to migration and displacement caused by climate crises. In particular, Teixeira and her co-authors recommended social workers team up with immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced people to examine strategies to humanize migration and displacement through formal recognition of “climate refugees”—that is, people who have been forced to leave their homes as a result of the effects of climate change on their environment.
The researchers also advocated the creation of policies that explicitly center marginalized communities most impacted by climate and environmental injustices.
“Social work policy practitioners should recognize this gap,” Teixeira and her co-authors wrote, “and examine ways to make this large climate policy more just and responsive to urban and rural communities that are on the frontlines of environmental and climate impacts.”
Assistant Professor Vincent Fusaro presented an eight-point plan to reduce extreme economic divides, which, he and his collaborators wrote, “requires addressing wealth accumulation among the wealthiest as well as inadequate resources for the poorest.”
The first point of their plan involves the adoption of universal basic income, which has been found to be associated with a decrease in poverty and an increase in educational success.
“This approach offers a direct and economically responsive safety net,” the researchers wrote, “supplementing the limitations of existing wage policies and welfare programs, and could be fully funded via fundamental tax reform.”
Another point of their plan calls for an end to consumption taxes on basic necessities. The researchers pointed out that 13 states tax groceries, disproportionately burdening low-income households, which spend a larger share of their earnings on such goods than higher-income households.
“Unlike the federal income tax, which is a progressive tax that increases as earnings increase so that higher earners generally pay a greater rate than lower earners,” Fusaro and his co-authors wrote, “consumption taxes are regressive—they are a proportionally larger share of the earnings of a low-income household than a higher-income household.”