Live Your Passion For Social Change

Seattle hosted the annual Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR) conference for the first time, with the UW School of Social Work playing a significant role in welcoming peer institutions and contributing in large numbers to the research presentations. UW faculty, doctoral students, and staff researchers presented on various critical issues, including food insecurity, foster care policy advocacy, suicide risk among college students and more.

BHCore, a new School of Social Work research center, held its first behavioral health training for firefighters and emergency medical services staff on January 17. BHCore’s mission is to reimagine how firefighters, emergency medical providers and others deliver emergency and crisis behavioral health services and to transform how those dedicated responders are recruited, trained and supported.

Diana Pearce, senior lecturer emerita at the School of Social Work and founder of the Center for Women’s Welfare (CWW), is giving $250,000 to the School to support the Center’s work. Pearce hopes the additional funding will complete the Self-Sufficiency Standard’s expansion into all 50 states, and Washington D.C., with updated data by 2026.