Category: LL Social Welfare

UCLA Luskin MSW Student Receives CSWE Grant

November 19, 2024/0 Comments/in LL Social Welfare, Luskin's Latest Blog /by Stan Paul

UCLA Luskin master of social welfare student Liza Li has been awarded a Minority Fellowship Program grant by the Council on Social Welfare Education (CSWE), the national association representing social work education in the United States, based in Arlington, Virginia.

In October, Li traveled to Kansas City to attend CSWE’s annual national program meeting to receive the award, which includes a $10,000 stipend as well as support and leadership skill training opportunities for the fellowship year.

CSWE’s minority fellowship program supports the mission of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to increase the number of individuals trained to work with underrepresented and underserved racial and ethnic minority persons dealing with mental health and/or substance abuse disorders.

As an MSW student, Li’s focus is on addressing mental health disparities and promoting the well-being of the aging Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population.

“My research and practice focus on supporting older adults and their families by enhancing mental health accessibility and awareness,” said Li, who also holds a master’s degree in educational psychology from UC Riverside.

She said she aspires to become a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) in California and to provide culturally competent mental health and social support to AAPI older adults and other immigrant families with limited resources.

“As a first-generation Asian American, I am committed to giving back to my community and beyond.”

Abrams, 3 Emeriti Professors Make Top 100 List of Social Work Researchers

January 10, 2023/0 Comments/in LL Social Welfare, Luskin's Latest Blog Aurora P. Jackson, Laura Abrams, Robert Schilling /by Les Dunseith

Four professors associated with UCLA Luskin Social Welfare are among the top 100 contributors to social work scholarship, according to a recently released article in Research on Social Work Practice, a journal published by SAGE journals. Professor Laura Abrams, the current department chair, is listed as the 34th most-cited global contributor to social work scholarship in academic journals. Professors emeriti Duncan Lindsey (52), Robert F. Schilling (84) and Aurora P. Jackson (100) also made the list. “UCLA continues to be a hub for major contributions to the profession,” Abrams said. “I am honored to make the list, but even more importantly to move science toward actionable social change.” The top-cited scholar is Michael Ungar of Dalhousie University in Canada. The article, “Who are the Top 100 Contributors to Social Work Journal Scholarship? A Global Study on Career Impact in the Profession,” was written by David R. Hodge and Patricia R. Turner of Arizona State. They relied on a publicly available database of the world’s leading scientists and extracted all scholars in the social work category. Their ranking of researchers is based on a composite measure of scholarly impact that controls for self-citations and author order. In a summary of the study, the authors write, “Unfortunately, social work has relatively few mechanisms for recognizing major contributions to the profession. This study represents one step toward rectifying this concern within the domain of scholarship.”

Astor Sheds Light on Teacher and School Staff Experiences

October 29, 2020/0 Comments/in LL Social Welfare, Luskin's Latest Blog Ron Avi Astor /by Zoe Day

Social Welfare Professor Ron Avi Astor co-authored a paper in the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research about the importance of including teachers and staff in discussions of school climate and student risk. The paper, “School Staff Members in California: How Perceptions of School Climate are Related to Perceptions of Student Risk and Well-Being,” highlighted the perspectives of school staff members who help shape the environment of their schools. Research has shown that a positive school climate is associated with improved academic achievement and social and emotional outcomes for students. According to Astor and co-authors Gordon Capp and Tamika Gilreath, the current literature on school climate largely overlooks the perspectives of school staff members. They argue that in order to accurately understand school climate and how it influences all school constituents, school climate models need to include viewpoints of school staff members. The team used survey data from the 2013 California School Climate Survey, which included responses from 54,000 teachers, administrators, counselors, nurses, social workers and other school staff members. The researchers used regression models to examine the relationship between school climate and student outcomes. Their results support a staff-focused model of school climate, and they found an increased need for training and support associated with higher levels of student risk, bullying and violence. Astor’s team encouraged school stakeholders to pay greater attention to staff perceptions and experiences before implementing interventions to improve school climate. — Zoe Day

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