Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society

The Grand Challenges for Social Work Initiative (GCSWI), which is spearheaded by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW), represents a major endeavor for the entire field of social work. GCSWI calls for bold innovation and collective action powered by proven and evolving scientific interventions to address critical social issues facing society. The GCSWI aims to identify and find solutions for some of the most persistent social issues, tackling problems such as homelessness, social isolation, mass incarceration, family violence, and economic inequality.

Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society is an edited book that presents the foundations of the GCSWI, laying out the start of the initiative and providing summaries of each of the twelve challenges. The 13 main chapters that form the core of the book, one on each of the Grand Challenges, are written by the primary research teams who are driving each GC project.

The second edition includes updates on the initiatives laid out in the first edition and sets new goals for the next five years. It also includes new information on the Grand Challenge to Eliminate Racism, expanding the social work pipeline, commentaries from leading social work organizations, and how interdisciplinary science can best provide a platform to tackle society's most urgent problems.

This fully updated second edition of Grand Challenges for Social Work and Society is important reading for all practicing social workers.

Richard P. Barth, PhD, MSW, is Professor at University of Maryland School of Social Work and Chair, Grand Challenges for Social Work Executive Committee

Jill Theresa Messing, PhD, MSW, is Professor at School of Social Work at Arizona State University

James Herbert Williams, PhD, MSW, is Arizona Centennial Professor of Social Welfare Services School of Social Work at Arizona State University

Trina R. Shanks, PhD, is Harold R. Johnson Collegiate Professor of Social Work, Director of Community Engagement at University of Michigan School of Social Work