Welcome to 2025!
This year promises to be one where social workers and nonprofit leaders in all arenas will be tasked to continue focusing on the needs of the most marginalized and oppressed among us.
Every January, we designate the third Monday of the month as a day to celebrate and honor the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., American civil rights leader whose work continues to reverberate around the globe. I was recently thinking about the stories shared with me as I was taking a civil rights pilgrimage through Mississippi and Alabama to learn about faith communities' works within the civil rights movement. Hearing from folks who walked across the Pettus Bridge in Selma linking arms with their friend and colleague "Marty" was powerful, but even more moving for me was listening to people talk about civil disobedience and nonviolent protest. Looking into the eyes of their attackers as they were beaten, they refrained from shielding themselves, and their fiercely brave approach finally led to the federal government's inability to turn away from the racist violence being doled out.
Also of note this month, we recognize Slavery and Human Trafficking Awareness, Poverty Awareness, and on the 27th we honor the millions of lives lost to state-sponsored persecution under the Nazi regime through International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
So that I can be an informed consumer and not perpetuate modern-day slavery through unjust labor, I try to purchase items that I know pay a fair wage and treat workers justly. These 20 Ways You Can Help Fight Human Trafficking provide numerous resources to help combat trafficking and forced labor.
Lastly, when I lived in Wisconsin and taught social policy to MSW students, I became familiar with the Institute for Research on Poverty. This research center continues to create scholarly, as well as practical-for-the-interested-consumer, resources on poverty and economics that can be accessed by all of us. On Wednesday, Jan. 22, the institute will present, A New Era in Poverty Policy? The Social Safety Net in the Second Trump Administration, free and online. As with any new administration, changes to current policy will carry out the platform shared during candidacy. Experts in public policy will be addressing probable changes to poverty-relief policies, including food assistance (SNAP), Medicaid, child care subsidies and benefits provided through the tax system, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). I encourage you to stay informed about what we can expect for our communities.
One last event I want to share: CWRU's Office For Diversity, Equity and Inclusive Engagement and the Department of History are presenting, Undocumented: Writing a Korean-Japanese American Memoir, featuring Dr. Junko Takeda, as part of their Power of Diversity Lecture Series on Thursday, Jan. 23, at 3:30 p.m. Takeda will share her memoir, a first-person Asian American and immigrant narrative.
In gratitude and solidarity,
Sherry Warren
Director of Equity & Lecturer