Michael Sherraden, the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis and founding director of the Center for Social Development, has been named a Social Work Pioneer. The honor, announced on July 19 by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Foundation, has been previously bestowed upon such social work luminaries […]
New research from the Center for Social Development confronts the enduring legacy of slavery and racism by identifying a policy model for delivering reparations. Published in a special double issue of RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, the study draws upon CSD’s Child Development Account research and the long-running SEED from Oklahoma Kids experiment.
Research conducted by the Center for Social Development took center stage at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s May 21 hearing on proposed federal children’s account policy.
Social work students in mainland China have a new tool for learning how to help families navigate financial challenges and build financial security. A landmark textbook from the Financial Capability and Asset Building initiative at the Center for Social Development has been translated into Chinese.
Amid a flurry of behind-the-scenes Congressional activity, key researchers and policy experts have endorsed central elements of a federal children’s account policy. Shaped in large part by research at the Center for Social Development, the elements and consensus are the subjects of a new brief from CSD.
Under the new policy, every child in the Central Asian nation is receiving an account with assets from natural-resource wealth.
In southern Africa and elsewhere, high vulnerability to poverty and false promises of employment lure many youth from their homes into the hands of traffickers who exploit them through forced labor. A new project from the Center for Social Development (CSD) initiative on Financial Capability and Asset Building in Africa (FCAB Africa) focuses on reducing […]
On Wednesday, January 31, U.S. Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania introduced federal legislation to create a national children’s account policy. The 401Kids Act is designed to empower all children, and particularly children from disadvantaged households, by providing a means for them to accumulate assets for developmental priorities like higher education.
Ray Boshara, a national expert on wealth inequality and household financial security, has joined the Center for Social Development (CSD) as a senior policy advisor. As part of this appointment, Boshara serves as a Legislative Fellow with the Office of U.S. Senator Bob Casey, where he is developing Senator Casey’s “401Kids” proposal. The proposal will […]
The Center for Social Development’s newest faculty director is a leading expert on financial social work and social policy in mainland China. Shu Fang, professor in the School of Sociology and Psychology at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing, is the newest faculty director at the Center for Social Development (CSD). Fang […]
CSD co-organizes international conference at gateway between East and West. Researchers, educators, practitioners, and policymakers came together in late November for the International Conference on Social Work and Social Research: Financial Capability and Asset Building for All. Organized by Azerbaijan University, the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis, Sakayra University […]
A new study captures parents’ perspectives on the influence that Child Development Accounts can exert over children’s educational attainment and parental saving for children’s higher education. Successful policymaking depends on public support. In policies affecting children, parents’ understanding and opinions matter. A new study from Center for Social Development researchers Jin Huang, Sondra G. Beverly, […]
In a recent seminar, Center for Social Development (CSD) researchers discussed the SEED for Oklahoma Kids experiment, Singapore’s leadership in asset-based social policy and a vision for global Children Development Accounts. Singapore is a global leader in asset-based social policy, providing citizens a cradle-to-grave structure for accumulating wealth. That interest in such policies and their […]
Gena Gunn McClendon, esteemed director of community engagement at the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University, passed away on October 21, 2023. She leaves behind an enduring legacy as a fierce advocate for equity, a champion for the disempowered and a passionate defender of voting rights. “Throughout her career, Gena has been a […]
Natural resource wealth underpins a proposal for what may be the world’s next national children’s account policy.
Li Zou has given many presentations on Child Development Accounts (CDAs) in other countries, but this one was different.
The international director for the Center for Social Development (CSD) was at the World Bank to deliver invited remarks on the bank’s plan to evolve its mission and operations. The bank’s roadmap affirms commitments to poverty reduction and shared prosperity while calling for changes to better meet global challenges.
At the bank’s April 11 Evolution Forum, Zou sketched a strategy for meeting all three of those goals, a strategy for developing a global CDA policy based on research by the Center for Social Development.
Brown School honors Clancy with 2023 Distinguished Alumni Award Passion and patience. Margaret Clancy has devoted a generous dose of each during her 24-year career with the Center for Social Development (CSD) in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. They have paid off not only for her career, but for millions of […]
As Bulgarian social workers assist thousands of Ukrainian refugees, CSD’s Aytakin Huseynli is leading a group that offers global support.
For decades, deeply entrenched policies have made Greater St. Louis one of the most segregated metropolitan areas in the United States. A new briefing book offers policy options for change.
The award recognizes a career of applied research innovations, major contributions to social work knowledge. On Saturday, January 14, 2023, the Society for Social Work and Research honored Michael Sherraden with the 2023 Distinguished Career Achievement Award. Sherraden is the George Warren Brown Distinguished University Professor at Washington University in St. Louis, Codirector of the […]
A special issue of the Journal of Family and Economic Issues charts an agenda for new practice and research on financial capability, assets, and family financial well-being.
In China, CSD’s new research with Child Development Accounts aims to build families’ capacity for managing autism and its costs.
In Singapore, an innovative project is training frontline staff and volunteers to give financial guidance to low-income families.
The state enrolls 3.4 million children in CalKIDs, which CSD experts helped to shape. Today Governor Gavin Newsom publicly launched CalKIDS, the California Kids Investment and Development Savings program. With 3.4 million children in the first cohort of enrollees and more than $1.8 billion in assets, CalKIDS leaves the starting gate as the nation’s largest […]
On June 29, Faculty Directors Jin Huang and Minchao Jin delivered keynote addresses at the 2022 Financial Literacy Education Forum in mainland China. Carried by state news agency Xinhua, Sina Weibo, Youku, and numerous other platforms, the event drew an audience of over 2.65 million viewers.
New estimates on the number of children around the globe who are building assets in CDAs. Over 15 million children have built assets in Child Development Accounts (CDAs), according to new estimates in a brief by Li Zou and Michael Sherraden with the Center for Social Development in the Brown School at Washington University. Zou […]
New research from the Center for Social Development shows that a children’s account policy reduces obstacles to higher education. As the cost of higher education continues to grow, families in the United States struggle to save enough for children’s education. State 529 college savings plans are investment vehicles that assist families in meeting this need, […]
Policies to strengthen vulnerable families typically focus either on boosting income for present needs or assets for future priorities. A recent event spotlighted policies to integrate the two approaches for vulnerable families – as we already do for other families.
Trina R. Shanks, a Center for Social Development faculty director and a Brown School alumnus, was installed September 30 as the Howard R. Johnson Collegiate Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan School of Social Work.
What would it take to ensure that every child in every state has an account accumulating assets for education beyond high school? How would those assets shape the children and their families? State officials, researchers, nonprofit leaders, program managers, and funders gathered July 16 to take up those questions.
Sicong (Summer) Sun, a PhD candidate at the Brown School, has been selected as the 2020-21 Jane B. Aron/Social Work HEALS Doctoral Fellow by the National Association of Social Workers Foundation.
Thirteen years after they began, researchers in a landmark study of asset building in Oklahoma are poised to receive new information gathered despite obstacles posed by COVID-19.
Four experts on policing told a congressional briefing on June 30 that the values and training of social workers can be useful tools in re-imagining the nation’s approach to public order and reducing racist violence of police. The online briefing, Black Lives Matter: Social Work and the Future of Policing, was sponsored by the Congressional […]
The report summarizes findings and recommendations from CDA research to inform policymakers and practitioners operating or considering CDAs in the midst of the COVID-19 health and economic crisis.
The Oklahoma Native Assets Coalition Inc. (ONAC) has released its Native Children’s Savings Initiative in the United States report.
Nearly 30 years after the publication of Michael Sherraden’s seminal Assets and the Poor, Child Development Account (CDA) policies and programs are emerging across the globe. Now, a new book edited by Jin Huang, Li Zou and Sherraden showcases the global context of those advancements.
With the presidential election looming this year, voting is as important as ever. For Black History Month, Gena Gunn McClendon, director of CSD’s Voter Access and Engagement initiative, participated in numerous events to discuss voter suppression and the crucial importance of the black vote.
A study from the Center for Social Development’s SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK) experiment has been nominated for an award given to the best paper published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs.
Sherraden was among 19 fellows inducted into the academy on Jan. 17, 2020.
CSD research and expertise shape proposal for a universal policy in the Show-Me state.
Singapore initiated training in Financial Capability and Asset Building in 2017. It is kicking off its third phase: expanding to a nationwide scale.
As financial social work emerges in China, Michael Sherraden and Li Zou highlight its potential at two Chinese universities.
For her work, Dr. Gena Gunn McClendon has been honored with the Ambassador Andrew J. Young Award for Outstanding Ethics, Service, and Commitment to Family and Community.
Robert E. Friedman believes we can close the racial wealth divide in a generation. “I believe in the promise of this country … and in this community. St. Louis has become a symbol to the country of the results of racial inequity, and I think it’s leading the way to close the racial wealth divide, and to let America live up to its ideals.”
On September 12 at the Brown School, representatives from regional universities, Missouri and Illinois election board members and community organizations convened for the second Campus and Community Voter Engagement Summit. “The summit presented opportunities for key stakeholders to have a dialogue about the significance of strategies that promote student participation in voting and the importance […]
Awareness about voter suppression is gaining momentum, in part through screenings of “Rigged: The Voter Suppression Playbook.” Building on a positive response to the first screening on Washington University’s campus, the Center for Social Development’s Voter Access and Engagement (VAE) project collaborated with community partners to host a second screening on August 3, 2019 at […]
The Centre for Social Development Africa—CSD’s sister center at the University of Johannesburg—recently published the Siyakha Youth Assets Study. It examines whether the combination of a youth employability program and a financial capability intervention can have an impact on young people’s job outcomes.
Listen to an excerpt from Lisa Reyes Mason’s interview on the inSocialWork podcast. In it, she describes how climate change is connected to social, economic and political contexts, which is why it is such an important issue for social work.
FSU has launched a new research institute aimed at advancing science, policy and practice to improve the well-being of individuals, families and communities impacted by the criminal justice system. The Institute for Justice Research and Development was founded and is directed by Carrie Pettus-Davis, Associate Professor at FSU and CSD Faculty Director of the Smart Decarceration Initiative.