About
The Grand Challenges for Social Work, the flagship program of the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare (AASWSW), is a groundbreaking initiative to champion social progress powered by science. It’s a call to action for social work researchers and practitioners to:
- Harness social work’s science and knowledge base;
- Collaborate with individuals, community-based organizations, and professionals from all fields and disciplines; and
- Work together to tackle some of our toughest social problems.
An urgent appeal for needed change
For more than a century, social workers have been transforming our society. Social work interventions doubled the number of babies who survived in the early twentieth century, helped millions out of poverty from the Great Depression to today, and assisted people with mental illness through de-institutionalization, aftercare, treatment, and advocacy.
Today our society faces serious, interrelated, and large-scale challenges—violence, substance abuse, environmental degradation, injustice, isolation, and inequality. We need social workers’ unique blend of scientific knowledge and caring practice more than ever.
Together, the Grand Challenges for Social Work define a far-reaching social agenda, promoting:
- Individual and family well-being,
- A stronger social fabric, and
- A just society that fights exclusion and marginalization, creates a sense of belonging, promotes trust, and offers pathways for social and economic progress.
Read our Vision, Mission, Domain, Guiding Principles, & Guideposts to Action statement here.
Why a Grand Challenges initiative?
Grand Challenges have been used for more than a century to address significant societal issues. Explore the history of Grand Challenges, learn how the AASWSW developed the original 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work.
We need you
The Grand Challenges for Social Work are for you, about you, and won’t succeed without you. Everyone—in social work and in related fields—has a role. Everyone in social work—students, researchers, practitioners, faculty members and universities–can take part. Our success depends on you.
