CSD News

Li Zou, the Center for Social Development’s international director, participated in two high-profile events this summer in Beijing.

Representatives from St. Louis universities and community organizations gathered for the first Campus and Community Voter Engagement Summit, on August 9 at the Brown School.

The head of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s Office of the State Committee on Family, Women and Children Affairs was the Center for Social Development’s guest recently.

More than 65 invited guests from 18 states and the District of Columbia attended a lively Child Development Account Forum in late July at the Brown School of Social Work. CSD and Missouri State Treasurer Eric Schmitt, who oversees Missouri’s 529 college savings plan, hosted the event.

​Volunteers tie communities together because they are active in every major shock and stress communities experience, from earthquakes and flooding to climate change and local conflicts, finds the new 2018 State of the World’s Volunteerism Report.

With bipartisan support, Pennsylvania is launching a statewide policy to provide college savings accounts for all newborns with a $100 scholarship grant. The universal, automatic-enrollment Child Development Account policy will affect many families: Pennsylvania averages 140,000 births a year.

A national Child Development Account policy is emerging in Taiwan. President Tsai Ing-wen in June signed into law the Act on Savings Accounts for the Education and Development of Children and Teenagers.

Please join us for the event Black Wealth, Black Health: The Power of the Black Vote, from 2-4 p.m. June 30 at Schlafly Library, 225 N. Euclid Ave.

“A Toolkit for Expanding Financial Capability at Tax Time” is now available and free to download. The 70-page book presents the current evidence underpinning various tax-time efforts to expand financial capability among low- and moderate-income households.

The White House hosted a high-profile summit meeting on federal prison reform on May 18, and Carrie Pettus-Davis, who helped to organize it, sat among cabinet members. The summit “was a message to the world that the United States is ready to change how it does incarceration,” she says.

The first textbook to focus on financially vulnerable households is now available from Oxford University Press. “Financial Capability and Asset Building in Vulnerable Households: Theory and Practice” teaches about financial capability and asset building through the stories of four families whose lives unfold over 23 chapters.

Our faculty and staff are committed to advancing racial equity, and one of the most important vehicles is the national Grand Challenges for Social Work. We’ve created four webinars to highlight this initiative.

​About 50 researchers, practitioners, policymakers and funders met this month in Washington, D.C., to discuss how to advance the field of Child Development Account programs by making them sustainable and scaleable to reach millions.

​​To celebrate Financial Capability Month, the Center for Social Development and the Center for Household Financial Stability at the St. Louis Federal Reserve convened a forum, “Coin a Better Future: Reaching Out to Financially Vulnerable Families.”

​A new 115-page community-driven report on segregation and housing in St. Louis was released this week by numerous local partners in the fields of public health, law, fair housing and community development.

The annual cost of childhood poverty in the United States is more than $1 trillion, according to a new study by Michael McLaughlin and Mark R. Rank.

Brown School alumna Charita L. Castro-Gonzalves, MSW ’99, will return to St. Louis as the featured speaker for the Brown School Recognition and Hooding Ceremony on Thursday, May 17.

Michal Grinstein-Weiss, PhD, was installed as the Shanti K. Khinduka Distinguished Professor on April 2 before an audience of colleagues, collaborators, supporters and family members, including many from her native Israel.

​Growing up in war and chaos, Aytakin Huseynli knew she wanted to help others, but the profession of “social work” didn’t exist in Azerbaijan. Later, she would go to great lengths to change that.

Voter Access and Engagement is a nonpartisan partnership that connects public, nonprofit and private-sector organizations in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

A new CSD brief aims to advance Child Development Account policy by identifying 10 elements for universal and progressive CDAs at scale.

The Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy will hold the fourth annual Social Work Day on the Hill on March 21, in Washington, D.C.

More than 120 people working to improve the lives of black boys and young men in St. Louis participated in the second annual HomeGrown STL Summit on February 8.

A new paper by Molly Metzger, assistant professor at the Brown School, and Nay’Chelle Harris, masters research fellow in housing policy, analyzes “Team TIF St. Louis.”

On February 8, Fred Melch Ssewamala, PhD, a renowned social and economic development scholar, was installed as the William E. Gordon Distinguished Professor at the Brown School of Social Work.

Benjamin J. Lough, faculty director of International Service, received the Sheth Distinguished Faculty Award for International Achievement from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Illinois International Programs.

A new book about financial capability and asset building will be released next month. The 144-page book — “Financial Capability and Asset Building with Diverse Populations: Improving Financial Well-being in Families and Communities” — is aimed at policymakers, researchers and practitioners who assist financially vulnerable people.

As economists float the proposal to give every newborn in the United States a “baby bond” account with between $500 to $50,000 in cash, Michael Sherraden, director of the Center for Social Development, says a solution already exists — Child Development Accounts.

Michael Sherraden, PhD, received the Society for Social Work and Research’s 2018 Social Policy Researcher Award, which is “in recognition of Dr. Sherraden’s record of accomplishment that demonstrates distinguished achievement across an extended career of research in social policy.”

The book “Asset-Building Policies and Innovation in Asia” – a valuable resource for students and scholars of Asian social policy – is now available in paperback.

Luther Tyus, an ex-police officer, is now a graduate research assistant with our Race and Opportunity Lab. “I got here,” he says of the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, “and it feels like the world opened up.”

Writer and activist Shaun King and U.S. Senator Dick Durbin spoke at the Smart Decarceration Initiative’s second conference.

James Jaccard, PhD, a well-known theorist in applied social science, spoke about theory, program design and evaluation in a lecture November 9 at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

The event “Social Justice and the Environment” commemorated what would have been Barry Commoner’s 100th year on November 2, 2017.

​In a joint appearance, the authors of “The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty” headlined an October 24 event co-sponsored by the Center for Social Development and the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

About 65 people participated in the October 17 event to celebrate the new book “Smart Decarceration: Achieving Criminal Justice Transformation in the 21st Century,” led by co-editor Carrie Pettus-Davis, PhD.

​HomeGrown STL is close to putting its strategy for collective impact to work in St. Louis. The project, part of the Center for Social Development’s Race and Opportunity Lab, aims to support the social mobility of black boys and men between the ages of 12 and 29 in St. Louis City and County.

The Global Social Development Innovations research center will focus on developing community-driven initiatives that address economic security, workforce development, financial inclusion, social protection, health and education.

Shapiro and his team have spent 12 years following the lives of 187 families in St. Louis, Boston and Los Angeles.

JPMorgan Chase, Prudential and Staples were among the companies that sent representatives to a conference about financial wellness programs for employees, hosted by the Center for Social Development at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

Seventeen middle-school girls recently completed “Celebrating the Strengths of Black Girls,” a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math program for racial and ethnic minority girls in the St. Louis region.

The Center for Social Development congratulates Shanondora Billiot, PhD, and Jessica Black, PhD, on their new faculty positions at the University of Illinois School of Social Work and the University of Alaska Fairbanks, respectively.

Four states have created statewide Child Development Account policies, and a new report describes them in detail with the intent of informing new initiatives in the United States.

On Tuesday, September 19, leading human resources executives are coming to Washington University in St. Louis to discuss how companies can help alleviate their employees’ financial stresses.

The Center for Social Development at the Brown School of Social Work has partnered with Prosperity Now to produce a guide for companies: “Workplace Financial Wellness Services: A Primer for Employers.”

With an era of decarceration of America’s penal system quickly approaching, a Washington University in St. Louis expert and co-editor of a new book offers concrete strategies for ushering in a metamorphosis of the criminal justice system.

The ScholarShare Investment Board, which oversees California’s 529 college savings plan, will administer the program. Margaret Clancy, policy director at the Center for Social Development, serves on ScholarShare’s Matching Grant Program Advisory Committee.

With the Center for Social Development as a partner, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau held two events in June at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

Newly elected Missouri State Treasurer Eric Schmitt kicked off the June 20 Child Development Account Forum by saying his office is “very focused” on the Missouri MOST 529 College Savings Plan.

Low-income people who gain health insurance are much more likely to make their rent and mortgage payments, according to a new Washington University study of families living near the poverty line.

More than 100 people from various parts of the country attended the Influencing Social Policy Policy Conference 2.0, Successes and Solutions: Policies that Work, in June at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work.

​Influencing Social Policy’s Policy Conference 2.0 is in full swing at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work from June 1-3.

Gina Chowa, Center for Social Development faculty director for Global Asset Building, is director of the new Global Social Development Innovations Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration, spending $52 billion a year on correctional supervision and another $948 billion in related social costs.

The webinar, on April 25, was hosted by the Center for Social Development and the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in collaboration with the Council on Social Work Education.

The conference, “Evicted: Poverty & Fair Housing in St. Louis,” drew more than 250 people to Washington University in St. Louis’ Brown School for Desmond’s keynote address and two panels: “St. Louis Eviction Stories” and “Solutions and Next Stops.”

Financial Capability and Asset Building for All is one of the 12 Grand Challenges for Social Work and a growing practice in the social work profession. The Center for Social Development is committed to working with its partners to increase the financial capability of individuals, families, and communities across the globe!

Michal Grinstein-Weiss, associate director of the Center for Social Development, was a speaker in Tel Aviv at the conference “Making Finance Great Again,” which explored how the Trump administration may affect Israel and the global economy in finance, health care and more.

Social Work Month may be ending, but social work’s professional commitment to addressing society’s challenges continues in earnest! Today the Grand Challenges for Social Work initiative is sharing insights on moving ideas and evidence into policy, including policy strategies and actions to address critical national problems.

Motivational prompts to save tax refunds and suggested savings amounts for the tax refund can increase saving among low- and moderate-income households, finds a new experimental study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Grier and Johnson presented an overview of the Grand Challenges and expanded on two Grand Challenges: “Promote smart decarceration,” and “Build financial capability and assets for all.”

Springing from work at the Center for Social Development, a Financial Capability and Asset Building initiative is underway in Singapore. Soon social workers there will develop knowledge and skills for working with low-income families on their household finances.

Sudha Nair, PhD, was recently named a finalist for Singaporean of the Year 2016 in recognition of her powerful impact as a social worker focused on family violence. Nair, among Brown School Distinguished Alumni (MSW ’91), was also awarded the title of Her World Woman of the Year in August 2016.

Recent proposals to change the scope of federal consumer protections bring to the fore a broader discussion about financial inclusion. Now three leading journals are heightening awareness of a national effort to reintroduce to social work a curriculum focused on building financial capability for all Americans.

The HomeGrown STL Inaugural Summit, February 9 at the Brown School, drew about 120 people committed to improving the lives of black boys and young men in St. Louis City and County.

Millions of low- and moderate-income Americans who claim certain tax credits will have to wait weeks longer than usual this year for their federal income tax refunds because of a new law aimed at reducing fraud.

Families who get health insurance through the Affordable Care Act are significantly more likely to make their rent and mortgage payments than are those who remain uninsured, suggests a new study from the Brown School and Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis.

The Journal of Social Work Education has posted its January issue with a special section on Financial Capability and Asset Building. The papers originated as part of the Center for Social Development’s 2015 FCAB conference Financial Capability and Asset Building: Advancing Education, Research, and Practice in Social Work.

​Jason Q. Purnell, assistant professor in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and project director of For the Sake of All, the groundbreaking initiative on the health and well-being of African-Americans in St. Louis, was named the 2016 “Person of the Year” by The St. Louis American.

Michal Grinstein-Weiss, associate director of the Center for Social Development, spent part of December with Israel’s leading media providing insight on the country’s new law creating Child Development Accounts, the Savings for Every Child law.

More than 130 people attended the international symposium “People and Climate Change: Vulnerability, Adaptation, Social Justice” on November 18 at the Brown School.

The mayor of New York has announced a new child savings account to help thousands of New York City public school children save for college. City officials relied on research from the Center for Social Development to develop the three-year pilot program, which starts next fall.

President Barack Obama awarded Elouise Cobell, an advocate for Native American financial independence, the Presidential Medal of Freedom posthumously.

More than 200 mental health practitioners, scholars, university administrators, parents, students and community leaders gathered for the conference “Young, Gifted & @Risk: Promoting the mental health and emotional well-being of young people of color” on November 11 at the Brown School of Social Work.

A researcher from CSD’s sister center in South Africa met with CSD staff members recently. Jacqueline Moodley is a research psychologist and researcher at the Centre for Social Development in Africa at the University of Johannesburg.

International experts on flooding, drought, extreme heat, land change and more will gather for a symposium on Friday, November 18, at the Brown School of Social Work.

​A program specialist from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and a senior consultant from ICF helped to lead a recent professional development workshop at the Brown School, “Behind on Bills: Tools to Help Your Clients Secure Greater Financial Well-Being.”

“Financial capability and asset building” is the theme of the 60th anniversary issue of Social Work. Articles by several researchers at the Center for Social Development were published in the October 2016 issue of the flagship journal of the National Association of Social Workers.

The Center for Social Development hosted a seminar this month for social workers and others from South Korea, part of a larger training program focused on developing financial capability for Korean youth.

Benjamin Lough, PhD, faculty director of International Service for the Center for Social Development, presented at the Conference for International Volunteer Cooperation Organizations this month at the United Nations Campus in Bonn, Germany.

To contribute to public discourse on how to make the United States more equitable, safe and livable for everyone, Michael Sherraden and Richard P. Barth submitted the opinion piece “12 questions for the presidential debate” to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

​Social Security provides an important base of income, and without it about 50 percent of America’s elderly would live in poverty, said David Certner, legislative counsel and legislative policy director for government affairs at AARP.

The American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare has developed a list of 12 questions for candidates for president, Congress, and state and local offices. The questions stem from work at the Grand Challenges policy conference, September 15-16, which drew more than 250 experts, advocates, and leading academics from all over the United States.

Students who come out of college with debt — especially larger amounts — are more likely to face hardship and financial difficulty during their lives, finds a new study from the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis.

Our photo album from the September 2016 “Social Innovation for America’s Renewal” features more than 130 pictures. If you or your organization would like to use a some to promote the Grand Challenges, you may download them.

​U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) sent a video to welcome and encourage the more than 250 attendees of the Grand Challenges for Social Work policy conference, “Social Innovation for America’s Renewal,” September 14-16 at the Brown School of Social Work.

More than 250 experts, advocates, and leading academics from all over the United States converged this week on the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis to outline a comprehensive range of solutions to some of the most pressing issues facing the nation and the next administration.

National experts, advocates and leading academics will gather at Washington University in St. Louis on Sept. 14-16 as part of a policy conference designed to hammer out constructive solutions to pressing social issues facing the country and the next administration.

On August 18, the Center for Social Development received the College Kids Ambassador Award from the St. Louis Treasurer’s Office of Financial Empowerment.

More than 60 people from 10 states and the District of Columbia participated in the “Child Development Account Forum” on August 16 at the Brown School.

United Way of Greater St. Louis and Emerson are creating an Individual Development Account program for families in north St. Louis County, United Way announced June 28. The program is part of an effort to improve the financial stability of low-income families in the St. Louis region.

The Smart Decarceration Initiative has launched a two-year research project to advance “deferred prosecution” programs, thanks to funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation​.

Hosted by Brookings and the Building Bridges Coalition, the June 14 event in Washington, D.C., was the 10th anniversary forum on the role of volunteers in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 and on the coalition’s impact research.

​Building on a longtime working history, leadership from the Center for Social Development formally advised the Israeli government in May on best practices for implementing the country’s new law to confer universal savings accounts on children born in Israel. The law takes effect in January 2017.

CSD Director Michael Sherraden was awarded an honorary doctorate in philosophy in May at Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

More than 100 people converged on Washington University in St. Louis for Influencing Social Policy’s 2016 national conference, “Race and Inequality: Policy & Advocacy for Structural Change.”

​Top Ghana officials, representatives from more than 20 financial institutions and practitioners met in April in Accra, Ghana, to learn about YouthSave research findings and how they could encourage young people to open bank accounts and save.

New research from the Center for Social Development at Washington University showed that low- to moderate-income black students and graduates accrued $7,721 more education debt than their white counterparts.