Equity & Inclusion Committee
BUSSW’s Equity & Inclusion Committee leads our School community in promoting and centering racial, economic, and social justice, including utilizing an intersectional lens to understand how ethnicity, class, gender, disabilities, LGBT issues, and other lived experiences impact social work. A dedicated group of faculty, staff, students, and alumni work together to promote engaged conversation, collective learning, and community activities focused on equity, inclusion and anti-oppressive practice for our entire community.
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E&I Outcomes Report
BUSSW's equity and inclusion initiatives have had a significant, positive impact on our School and the greater community. From our free online course about structural and institutional racism to our speaker series, the E&I Committee Outcomes Report showcases the measurable effect and influence from the 2023-2024 academic year.
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43% Faculty of Color
Diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice are essential components of the BUSSW strategic plan. Our school strives to nurture a diverse, inclusive, sustainable organization capable of pursuing our core purpose. To that end, we are committed to making sure our organization is representative of the social work students we teach and the community members we serve. 43% of our full-time faculty identify as members of the BIPOC community.
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E&I Speaker Series
Our Equity & Inclusion Speaker Series produces free, public, virtual events on topics related to social justice, equity and inclusion, and social work. Watch past recordings or register for an upcoming speaker series event by clicking the button below.
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The Liberation Health Model
This model was co-created by Prof. Dawn Belkin Martinez, Assoc. Dean of Equity & Inclusion. It takes a holistic, macro approach to clinical social work by contextualizing mental health culturally, politically, and historically. Watch an animated video introducing key Liberation Health concepts and its approach to clinical therapy.
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BUSSW Licensure Prep Initiative Addresses Inequity & Test Bias
Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW) has launched a series of workshops for students to address inequities in social work licensure testing. These events provide targeted support to our BIPOC, Latinx, and non-native English speaking students, and expand test prep for all students.
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Love Letters to the LGBTQIA+ Community
In celebration and recognition of annual Pride Month, we dedicate these love letters of support and affirmation to you – our LGBTQIA+ friends, students, colleagues, family members, and peers. We wrote these letters to let you know that you are welcome, needed, valued, respected and honored, and we hope they give you inspiration, hope, and pride in who you are.
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Emerging Scholars Program
BUSSW’s Emerging Scholars Program connects BU community members with early-career scholars who are leading innovative research in climate and environmental justice. An initiative of the BUSSW Equity & Inclusion Committee, the program prioritizes work by individuals from backgrounds that are underrepresented in academia and includes MSW class visits, networking opportunities and a spring colloquium open to the public.
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E&I News at BUSSW
Alumni, Macro, Research, Social Justice
BUSSW Alum Mia Ocean (PhD’15) Influences California Financial Aid Policy that Promotes More Equitable Access to Education
Education opens doors to better career prospects, higher income, and personal development, allowing people to break cycles of poverty and inequality. However, many students from low-income backgrounds rely on financial aid to achieve their education goals and they are more vulnerable to losing that aid for a wider variety of reasons than students from different […]
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