Spotlight on giving
Scholarship giving amplifies impact, says School supporter Sallie Chaney
When alumna Sallie Chaney (BASW, '78) and her husband, John, also a UW alumnus, decided to contribute to the School’s scholarship
fund, they saw it as more than just a way to help out current students.
“When we help a social worker develop his or her skills and that person
goes on to help others, it’s a way for us to double our impact in the
community,” explained Chaney, a native Washingtonian. “I am proud to be a
School alumna and glad that the School continues to be so well regarded
nationwide.”
After graduating with a social work degree, Chaney
worked at the American Red Cross, Seattle-King County, first as a
caseworker and later as director of disaster relief services. “What I
enjoyed most about working in the nonprofit sector was collaborating
with a team of people dedicated to doing good work and helping others. I
enjoyed the creative aspects of developing programs and interacting
with city emergency-service providers and other agencies within the
larger social service community. I admire all of them.”
For
the Chaneys, education is a main focus of their gift giving, along with
the environment and spirituality. “My parents set an example for me in
how to show compassion and help others,” she said. “John and I are well
aware of the rising costs of higher education today, and we are grateful
to be in a position to help out.”
Upcoming events
Save the date for annual scholarship breakfast, April 26
 “Social Innovation, Reimagined” is the theme of this year’s
scholarship breakfast, scheduled for Tuesday, April 26, from 7:30 a.m. to 9:00
a.m., at the Husky Union Building on the UW Seattle campus. This year’s
keynote speaker is Vikram Jandhyala, UW Provost for Social Innovation,
who will explore how entrepreneurial thinking, innovation mindsets and
team-based creativity can impact not just the fields of technology and
business, but also the most pressing social issues of our day. RSVP for
the scholarship breakfast here.
Nominate your candidates for outstanding alumni
The School is seeking nominations for two alumni awards to recognize
individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in social work
and social justice. The awards are the Moya M. Duplica Distinguished
Alumni Award, for alumni who have forged careers of exceptional service
and professional leadership, and the Early Career Achievement Award, for
outstanding individuals who received their last School degree within the
last 12 years. The nomination deadline is April 6. Make your nominations
here.
In the news
Dean Uehara highlights scientific social work in online editorial
 Data-driven scientific social work, an integral part of the School’s innovation imperative, has a bottom line, writes Dean Eddie Uehara in an article appearing Feb. 3 in the online news site Xconomy.
Scientific social work, she writes, has developed leading-edge
solutions for social problems such as poverty, child safety and
security, healthy aging, emotional well-being, economic empowerment,
gender equity and access to health care and financial services. But the
return on investment for scientific social work is not dollars and
cents, it’s collective impact. Partners for Our Children Executive
Director Ben de Haan followed with an article on the same site, reinforcing the role of innovation, technology and data to improve lives of vulnerable children and families.
Suicide prevention takes center stage with state leaders and lawmakers
Between 2012 and 2014, almost 80 percent of Washington state residents killed by firearms were suicides. A new public health initiative to
reduce gun-related deaths in the state was announced recently by Gov.
Jay Inslee at a press conference at a mental health center in Burien.
Joining him for the announcement was social work Associate Professor Jennifer Stuber, a health policy expert and faculty director for Forefront,
a School-affiliated suicide prevention group. The governor promised to
strengthen background checks and put into action a new statewide suicide
prevention plan. Listen to Stuber's interview by KUOW’s Bill Radke about this innovative partnership.
On Jan. 25, Forefront was in the news again for its third annual Suicide Prevention Education Day in Olympia, with a dramatic memorial of
1,111 cardboard tombstones set up on the Capitol lawn—each symbolizing a
state resident who died by suicide in 2014. The daylong event provided
an opportunity to meet with legislators to discuss suicide prevention
legislation developed with gun retailers and pharmacists to raise public
awareness about the safe storage and disposal of
medications.
Forefront is also taking its message of prevention to rural schools, with a $100,000 grant by the Washington State Office of
Superintendent of Public Instruction to provide suicide prevention
outreach and training.
SDRG director speaks out on keeping juveniles sober, healthy and out of jail
In Washington state, possessing trace amounts of illicit drugs (with
the exception of marijuana) or sharing drugs is a felony for juveniles.
In an opinion piece for the Spokesman-Review, Kevin Haggerty, director of the School’s Social Development Research Group,
and Mark Cooke, policy director at the ACLU, suggest a more humane and
cost-effective approach. The duo propose that Washington consider
alternative approaches, such as prevention and treatment programs that
are available on demand and tailored to individual needs. The authors
also recommend that state legislators consider enacting a policy that
would divert juvenile drug cases from the criminal justice system, an
approach that saw success when applied to first-time prostitution
offenders.
Alumni and School Updates
Bold new national initiative, Grand Challenges for Social Work, launched
The official launch of Grand Challenges for Social Work took place at the 20th anniversary conference of the Society for Social Work and Research in  Washington,
D.C., in mid-January. In the opening plenary session, Dean Eddie
Uehara, SSWR president, explained how the 12 grand challenges set a
bold, science-based agenda to promote individual and family well-being,
create a stronger social fabric, and build a more just society for all.
For the past four years, the School played a critical role in developing
the Grand Challenges initiative, beginning with a 2012 conference in
which Dean Uehara and UW faculty proposed the idea and helped mobilize
social work professionals and scholars across the country. Dean Uehara
continues her leadership role as one of three newly appointed co-chairs
for the Academy’s Grand Challenges initiative.
MSW student's work with veterans recognized with $175,000 award
MSW student Christopher Brown
served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in Afghanistan before leaving
the Marine Corps in 2008. Since then, at least 15 men from his battalion
have committed suicide, an unusually high rate among returning
veterans. Determined to help, Brown started a nonprofit organization
called Growing Veterans,
which uses sustainable agriculture as a catalyst to prevent despair,
suicide and substance abuse among veterans in western Washington. The
group sells produce from two farms in Skagit and Whatcom counties at a
farmers market held weekly at the VA hospital in Seattle and also
donates produce to food banks. Brown hopes to turn the 40-acre Skagit
farm into a veterans retreat and training center in the future. In
November, the New York-based J.M. Kaplan Fund recognized Growing
Veterans with The JMK Innovation Prize, which awards $175,000 over three years to the most promising ideas in social-sector innovation.
Igniting Social Change: 2015 annual report on innovation and impact
 Learn
how the School of Social Work is using technology, research leadership,
partnerships and prevention strategies to move the needle on social
impact in a big way. The 2015 annual report, Igniting Social Change,
spotlights recent School initiatives, including a partnership with
Facebook to aid in suicide prevention, a program to improve lives of
young people in Southeast and Central Seattle, and the launch of Grand
Challenges for Social Work—a national initiative that the School has
played a decisive role in since its inception in 2012.
Awards and accolades
Two School professors inducted as fellows into national social work academy
On Jan. 14, the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare inducted Grace Beals-Ferguson Scholar and Professor Paula Nurius and Carol LaMare Associate Professor Taryn Lindhorst as
fellows. At the ceremony, held in Washington, D.C., Nurius and
Lindhorst were recognized for their outstanding accomplishments as
scholars and educators. “This well-deserved recognition highlights the
rich contributions that Paula and Taryn made to the science of social
work and to generations of social work students,” said Dean Eddie
Uehara.
UW honors DeLong and Spearmon for volunteerism and leadership
James DeLong was awarded the School’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Community Volunteer Recognition Award for
2016. DeLong (MSW, ‘79) has a multifaceted and rich history with the
School, serving as a practicum coordinator, classroom lecturer, program
director and respected mentor for faculty, staff and students. For the
past 20 years, he has directed the MSW Extended Degree Program, which
has graduated more than 1,000 social workers. DeLong and his partner,
Janet, established two School endowments: one for social workers serving
African-American communities and the other for social workers assisting
tribal communities.
 Margaret Spearmon received the University’s Multicultural
Alumni Partnership’s Distinguished Alumna Award for 2015–2016. Spearmon,
the School’s chief officer of community engagement and diversity, was
recognized for her academic leadership, in particular her “relentless
effort to recruit, mentor, train and support all students who desire a
first-class educational opportunity."
NIH awards $675,000 to study how financial strain affects health
The National Institutes of Health awarded Gillian Marshall, assistant
professor of social work at UW Tacoma, more than $675,000 to study the
complex and previously unexplored relationship between financial
hardship and mental and physical health. The Great Recession of 2008
altered the financial well-being of millions of people, especially older
Americans. Using economic data from the 2008–2010 recession, Marshall
hopes to glean important insights into a major contributor to overall
health—financial stress.
School research groups awarded more than $650,000 to help at-risk youth
Partners for Our Children received $500,000 from the Raikes
Foundation to extend a new technology solution into the runaway and
homeless youth sector. Many struggling children and young adults go from
one social service provider to the next, with little connection between
services or communication between service providers. The program,
called Oliver, collects and shares data, providing a more comprehensive
picture of client needs and services. Oliver is already making a
difference in the Spokane region, where the technology is helping
streamline the parent-child visitation process in the child welfare
process.
Communities That Care, a proven program that translates prevention
science into tools that communities can use to improve the lives of
young people, received $150,540 from the Pennsylvania Commission on
Crime and Delinquency to train state staff, contractors and community
mobilizers and provide 20 Pennsylvania communities with access to
curriculum materials, videos and web presentations. The Communities That
Care prevention system was developed by the School's Social Development
Research Group, which provides online resources and technical support to
communities in Seattle and across the country.
Milestones
Pioneering social work professor and scholar Hy Resnick remembered
 Herman “Hy” Resnick,
85, died Dec. 10 after being struck by a car during an evening
rainstorm near his home in Woodinville, Washington. Resnick taught at
the School for 31 years before his 1998 retirement. “Hy leaves a
tremendous legacy of friendship, generosity and social thought that
played an important role in the School’s development as a leader in
social innovation,” said Dean Eddie Uehara. Resnick was an early
proponent of using computer applications to deliver social services to
marginalized individuals and families. He was a strong believer in
cross-disciplinary scholarship and in great demand as a consultant to
service organizations, nationally and internationally. He is survived by
his wife of 52 years, Mary, and their three children. Contributions in
Resnick’s memory may be made to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Read more here.
“Community giant” and social service leader Ike Ikeda died Dec. 2
Tsuguo “Ike” Ikeda, a noted nonprofit social service
leader and School alumnus, passed away Dec. 2 at 91. Ikeda had a long
and rich, 54-year, career in social work, advocating for the needs of
young people and minorities, and helping to create public policy changes
to benefit low-income families and people of color. He earned his MSW
degree from the School in 1951 and was later named director of the
Atlantic Street Center, the first Asian-American to serve in that
position. He was also a founding member of the Minority Executive
Directors Coalition of King County and received the School’s
Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005. Read more here.
Lucile Peake Townsend, instructor and activist, passed away Dec. 6
 Teacher, activist and outdoor lover Lucile Peake Townsend
died at the age of 79 on Dec. 6. Townsend earned an MSW at the School
in 1974 and then worked as a caseworker, trainer and supervisor at
Children’s Protective Services in Rainier Valley. In 2004, she became an
instructor at the School of Social Work. As an ardent civil rights
activist, she worked with Join Hands and the Coalition Against
Discrimination to successfully lobby private clubs in Seattle to accept
African-Americans as members. Her passion for the outdoors was reflected
in the many biking, hiking, scrambling and ski trips she led as an
active member of The Mountaineers.
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