Policy Recommendations for Meeting the Grand Challenge to Achieve Equal Opportunity and Justice

This brief was created forSocial Innovation for America’s Renewal, a policy conference organized by the Center for Social Development in collaboration with the American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare, which is leading theGrand Challenges for Social Work initiative to champion social progress. The conference site includes links to speeches, presentations, and a full list of the policy briefs

Barack Obama and the Politics of Race The Myth of Postracism in America

Many scholars across racial lines argue that the historic election of Barack Obama as the first African American president of the United States marks the dawning of a “postracial era” in our country. Despite this claim and unprecedented enthusiasm that abounds within African American circles about the direction of race relations in this country, there seems to be a glaring ideological disconnect between the desire and reality of a race-free society. Focusing attention on this disconnect and the symbolic capital of “hope” that Obama’s presidency constitutes for the Black community, this article exposes the potential pitfalls of wholesale investment in postracial thinking, particularly for the most economically vulnerable African American populations. Chief among the questions that the authors ask is how African Americans can productively address the continuing challenges of race-centric oppression under an Obama administration that is itself an embodiment of this postrace thinking

\u3ci\u3eBehavioral Health Response to Disasters \u3c/i\u3e

Editors: Julie Framingham and Martell L. Teasley Chapter 4: Nongovernmental Organizations Responding to Disasters in the United States, co-authored by Angela Eikenberry, UNO faculty member. Disasters can cause long-term disruptions to the routines of individuals and communities, placing survivors at risk of developing serious mental health and substance abuse problems. Disaster behavioral health services provide emotional support, help normalize stress reactions, assess recovery options, and encourage healthy coping behaviors. They also connect survivors to community resources that can assist the recovery process. Today’s increasing frequency and intensity of disasters merit greater focus on the development of modalities for intervention and mitigation against the psychological impacts of disaster. In Behavioral Health Response to Disasters, professionals with years of practice, research, and national advisory board service review and discuss key topics in the field. Highlighting the themes of cultural competence and evidence-based practice, this volume: -Presents an interdisciplinary approach to examining specific disaster behavioral health topics-Considers how an individual’s culture may impact willingness to seek out and accept services-Incorporates research on vulnerable or at-risk populations who are likely to suffer disproportionately more adverse psychological consequences of disaster-Discusses clinical studies of cognitive behavioral treatments for disaster-related distress and post-traumatic stress disorder In the past two decades, disaster behavioral health research, policy, and practice have grown exponentially. This volume covers the wide variety of issues in this emerging field, highlighting concerns that we must address in order to create more disaster-resilient communities.https://digitalcommons.unomaha.edu/facultybooks/1217/thumbnail.jp

Implementation of Critical Race Theory in K-12 curricula in the United States: A scoping review protocol

The purpose of this scoping review is to understand the scope of CRT implementation in K-12 curricula and to describe what these implementations look like. To do so, we are proposing to conduct a rigorous, reproducible scoping review of the field for examples of curricular implementation as reported in the published or grey literature, including state public education databases or other publicly accessible education repositories