Social Work | Penn Today

Graphic illustration of essential worker delivering groceries to an older couple

The pandemic’s impact on individual generosity

How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect people’s volunteering, donating, and helping behaviors? A report by SP2 faculty and students summarizes a nationally representative study aiming to answer this question.

How Twitter became one of the world’s preferred platforms for sharing ideas

PIK Professor Desmond Upton Patton says that Twitter has issues that need to be fixed, but that the tool has more hope and potential than negativity.

Abolition and the child welfare system w/ Dorothy Roberts

On an episode of “Law and Disorder,” PIK Professor Dorothy Roberts addresses the widespread impact and damage done to Black Americans by agencies like Child Protective Services.

A depressed African American woman looks out a window.

Researching depression in low-income women

The importance of addressing depression among low-income women in multiple contexts is a theme of recent research by April Ivey, Jacqueline Corcoran, and others at Penn’s School of Social Policy & Practice.

What we learned from Philadelphia’s vaccine lottery

In an op-ed, Katy Milkman and Linnea Gandhi of the Wharton School and Angela Duckworth of the School of Arts & Sciences explain what policy answers they learned by developing the Philly Vax Sweepstakes, a citywide regret lottery.

How health systems can truly value Black lives: Help close the racial wealth gap

In an op-ed, the Perelman School of Medicine’s Atheendar Venkataramani, Eugenia C. South, and George Dalembert, also of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, write that health systems are uniquely positioned as economic engines to address the racial wealth gap.

The 2022 Best Countries Report ranks Switzerland as No. 1 in the world

The Wharton School has contributed to the U.S. News & World Report 2022 Best Countries ranking, placing Switzerland at No.1 for the fifth time.

International Institute of Minnesota launches guaranteed income pilot program for refugees

The Center for Guaranteed Income Research at the School of Social Policy & Practice is noted as having more than 50 pilot programs running nationwide in cities of varying size.

Milwaukee’s Housing First programs shows how lifting people out of homelessness can improve health, and cut costs

Dennis Culhane of the School of Social Policy & Practice estimates that the homeless population older than 65 will triple by 2030 and says that rental assistance works better than building shelters.

A woman wearing a mask and a white lab coat sits at a table covered in a colorful tablecloth, pills, and packages of medication

Sex workers’ rights

A Fulbright award augments Toorjo Ghose’s work to document and support the social movement happening among sex workers in India against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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