2024-2025 Student Design Challenge
If you attended events and are interested in hearing more and sharing with us your interest in the Grand Challenges for Social Work, please complete this survey.
Please find information on this page about the Grand Challenges Student Design Project that took place 2024-2025. You may find event information, project timelines, and overall expectations below.
What was the Student Design Challenge?
The Grand Challenges Student Design Challenge project raised awareness and increased interprogram collaboration with UW Social Work students engaging in the Grand Challenges, addressing issues that project teams were interested in. Project took place either through independent research proposal projects, in tangible work with practicum placements, community organizations, and community members and work with policy engagement. Several events and activities were presented through the university over the course of the challenge.
Projects were required to have a minimum of three students working collaboratively addressing Grand Challenges. Each participating team applied for up to $500 to fund their respective projects, submitting proposals by January 22nd, 2025—with selections and funding distributed by February 2025. Proposals ranged from addressing the following Grand Challenges; Promoting Smart Decarceration, End Homelessness, Advancing Long and Productive Lives, Closing the Health Gap, Achieving Equal Opportunity and Justice, Eliminating Racism, Eradicating Social Isolation.
University of Washington School of Social Work Students worked on the Student Design projects—from proposal submission, through project ideation between October 2024 and May 2025—submitting their final deliverables and project presentations prior to June 2025.
Grand Challenges for Social Work
Need a refresher of the Grand Challenges for Social Work? Initiated by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the Grand Challenges is a groundbreaking initiative to champion social progress powered by science. It’s a call to action for all of us to work together to tackle our nation’s toughest social problems. Click each link below to learn about individual challenges:
Student Design Projects & Events
On October 31st, 2024 The Grand Challenges for Social Work Kickoff Event, coordinated through the Dean’s Office, featured Dean Michael Spencer, Dean Emerita Eddie Uehara, Professor Jennie Romich, Sofie Aaron, and MSW graduate (‘25) Sophia Meshinchi. This fall event launched the 2024-2025 student design project
Check out the upcoming and past events organized by our 2025 Student Design Project Teams!
Over the course of the Grand Challenges for Social Work Student Design Projects, students received monthly newsletters with relevant information pertaining to their projects and community resources happening at the university and national levels.
In May 2025, Spring Speaker events were held in collaboration with the Office of the Dean with all participating student groups. Five groups presented over the course of two days, sharing about their research, collaborations, and Grand Challenge project engagement over the year. This was a celebration of the work completed by BASW, MSW, dual-degree, and PhD students, collaborators, and Social Work Staff and Faculty mentors over the course of the 2024-2025 academic year. For final deliverables from these events, or to get in contact with student groups, please email gcsocialwork@uw.edu. Please find event slides below:
Frequently Asked Questions
At this time, our proposal project form is not open. This past academic year, the form opened November 2nd, 2024, and closed on January 22nd, 2025. Proposals were submitted on this google form. We recommended applicants review questions before navigating the google form, look over proposal scoring, then— as a team—submit the proposal!
You will know if your project has been selected by February 1st, 2025, at which point funding will begin to be distributed.
- Google Form Questions: review questions before navigating the google form
- Project Rubric: see proposal scoring
- Google Form to apply: submit your proposal!
There were a wide variety of project proposals that were submitted. Three examples of accepted project proposals can be found below:
- Members of the Social Work Asian And Pacific Islander (SWAPI) coalition proposed an initiative to engage with “Advancing Long and Productive Lives” and “Closing the Health Gap” through creating safe processing space for Asian-identifying students at UW. Their group provided workshops led by licensed staff, teaching mindfulness and emotional regulation techniques informed by body-based interventions and healing, building community among Asian students in the school over the course of several workshops. During their final deliverable, a potluck sharing out their work over the year, they further distributed a relevant and extensive resource list related to AANHPI community needs.
- Latinx-identifying students with La Colectiva provided an educational and artistic workshop to older Latinx adults in collaboration with a local community agency, “El Centro de la Raza”. Their work supported the wellbeing of their respective communities by increasing connections, fostering artistic engagement, and providing materials that can be used by community members for years to come. Their project proposal was aimed at addressing the Grand Challenges of “Closing the Health Gap” and “Eradicating Social Isolation”.
- Clinical and macro-level social work students collaborated to examine and document the alternative crisis response landscape emerging in the city of Seattle, addressing the Grand Challenge of “Smart Decarceration”. This group conducted interviews with those involved in Seattle area crisis response programs, sharing qualitative data and conducting analysis in partnership with research faculty, and created a website dashboard with digestible formatting for policymakers and the general public, aiming to provide a breakdown of planned and existing crisis response resources in the King County area.
Are you interested in starting a project but don’t have a team? Please join us at some drop-in workshopping spaces for interested students looking for teammates. Feel free to join us at some of the below dates and times:
Workshopping space (2 hours) : November 13, 5:30pm-7:30pm
Workshopping space (1.5 hours) : November 19th, 6pm-7:30pm
Workshopping space (2 hours): December 3rd, 5:30pm-7:30pm
The goal was for projects to be flexible and independently completed by students. Staff and Faculty mentors in the School of Social Work community took part in supporting student groups, tracking projects and providing guidance and expertise. The dean’s team oversaw projects via email check-ins to primary contracts around support, providing biweekly in-person office hours for workshopping space, and sending monthly newsletters related to student design projects and relevant Grand Challenges.
During the planning and implementation stages, students were asked to keep in mind their goal post-deliverable (which looked very different for each project), and all projects participated in a final spring speaker event to share with the broader social work community the projects they’ve been working on for the past year.
It has not yet been determined if programming will continue, however we want to thank you for joining us and being a part of events and student projects for the 2024-2025 Academic Year!
If you attended events and are interested in hearing more and sharing with us your interest in the Grand Challenges for Social Work, please complete this survey.
For any questions about the Grand Challenges for Social Work with the University of Washington School of Social Work, please email gcsocialwork@uw.edu!