JUST SOCIETY
Network
Leadership
NETWORK CO-LEADS
Laura Lein, PhD
Professor and Dean Emerita
School of Social Work, University
of Michigan
leinl@umich.edu
Jennifer Romich, PhD
Professor
Director, West Coast Poverty Center
School of Social Work, University
of Washington
romich@uw.edu
Trina Shanks, PhD
Harold R. Johnson Collegiate Professor
Director, Community Engagement
and Center for Equitable Family &
Community Well-Being
School of Social Work, University
of Michigan
trwilli@umich.edu
WORKING GROUPS
Inclusive Asset-Building
• Focus: Addressing inequities in
access to wealth and asset-building
resources
• Strategies: Child Development
Accounts, Revised Tax Policies
Equality in Work & Income
• Focus: Making work benefit all
employees
• Strategies: Guaranteed Basic Income,
Paid Family Leave, Minimum
Wage, Youth Employment, Child
Allowances, etc.
LOOKING BACK
In 2016, members of the Grand Challenge made these policy recommendations as part
of their new social contract:
1. Strengthen labor standards and reform employment policies
2. Expand active employment creation
3. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
4. Expand childcare access to enable stable employment
5. Create new, lifelong policies for inclusive and progressive wealth building
6. Develop a universal child allowance
Over the past five years, network members, their colleagues, and other social workers
have taken numerous substantive actions toward these goals, including:
• Publishing numerous peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries
• Presenting multiple webinars, including two on COVID -19: "Learning from History about
Disaster and Economic Inequality" and "Stay Home? Housing Inequities, COVID -19, and Social
Welfare Policy Responses"
• Co-authoring two policy briefs: "Start Lifelong Asset Building with Universal and Progressive
Child Development Accounts" and "Convert the Child Tax Credit into a Universal Child Allowance"
and advocating for these policy recommendations on Capitol Hill and participating in the
March 2019 Social Work Day on the Hill
• Highlighting the work of social work and social welfare researchers who study innovative
proposals, including universal basic income, secure schedules for low-wage workers, child
development accounts, sector strategies in workforce development, and unconditional cash
grants for new parents
• Developing a curriculum for teaching social work students about extreme economic inequality
and creating a website
LOOKING AHEAD
Over the next two to five years, the network plans to focus on policies and practices in
their two critical areas, each to be supported by a working group, to design, implement
and evaluate proposed solutions:
• Equality in Work and Income will explore how to make work benefit all employees by stabilizing
earnings, increasing wages, improving working conditions, and equalizing paid time off for
health and caregiving. It will also review how social and tax policy are interrelated with and affect
paid employment. The group will look at the programs that are successfully "moving the
needle" on guaranteed basic income, paid family leave, minimum wage, youth employment,
and child allowances.
• Inclusive Asset-Building will look at gross inequities in access to wealth and asset-building
resources, particularly as they relate to young people and those in marginalized communities.
The group will identify, describe, analyze, and suggest improvements to programs that are
successful in changing the distribution of economic assets and balance sheets in the U.S., as
well as reducing predatory practices.
To accomplish this work, the network will:
• Host a working conference to identify and assign action items and update the overall agenda
for the Grand Challenge
• Develop Special Interest Group activities directly related to core policy initiatives
• Improve communications by updating the website and expand their social media presence
• Deepen coordination with other scholars and practitioners of social work as well as other
poverty-related organizations
• Publish a guide to analyzing policies with respect to reducing economic inequality
An Impact Report at Year 5 of the 10-Year Initiative | 33