Research Professor Julie Birkenmaier from Saint Louis University School of Social Work and Professor Jin Huang from Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis will give a Practice Research Talks speech via Zoom on Tuesday November 18th at 14:30-16:30 (EET) with the title “Financial social work in the global context: Interventions to address poverty”. No pre-registration required.
After the keynote Dr. Katri Viitasalo will give a comment speech. There will also be time for a joint discussion. See an abstract and biographies for Birkenmaier, Huang and Viitasalo below.
Financial social work in the global context: Interventions to address poverty
Financial social work represents a critical dimension of contemporary practice that responds to the economic challenges faced by individuals, families, and communities. This practice domain, implemented as a standalone intervention, integrated within comprehensive service delivery frameworks, and as policy work, addresses the complex intersection of financial hardship and overall wellbeing.
The landscape of financial social work in the US reflects both domestic policy imperatives and global trends toward economic empowerment strategies. Central to this practice are evidence-informed poverty interventions and policy advances. Child Development Accounts, a policy intervention, demonstrates promising outcomes in fostering long-term economic stability and asset-building among vulnerable populations. Additionally, financial coaching interventions have emerged as a significant practice modality, with a recent systematic review providing evidence needed to move the intervention forward in enhancing financial capability.
This multifaceted approach to financial social work necessitates continued scholarly examination, and policy and practice innovation to address persistent economic inequalities and promote sustainable financial wellbeing across vulnerable client populations.
Speakers
Julie Birkenmaier, Ph.D., MSW, is a William and Helen Reichmann Research Professor at Saint Louis University School of Social Work. She is also a Faculty Director in Financial Capability at the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, and a Fellow for the Society for Social Work and Research. Her research focuses on financial capability and asset building practice, financial access, and financial social work. Her research has been funded by the National Endowment for Financial Education, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research.
Jin Huang is the Irving Louis Horowitz Professor in Social Policy at the Brown School of Social Work and the Co-director in the Center for Social Development, Washington University in St. Louis. Huang’s research aims for universal policies that offer financial capability and structured asset building for all. Huang has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and was named among Stanford University’s 2024 list of the top 2% of social work scientists globally. A fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, he holds MSW and PhD degrees from Washington University.
Katri Viitasalo, Ph.D., MSW, is a senior researcher at the INVEST Flagship, University of Turku, and a senior lecturer in Social Work at the University of Helsinki. She received her doctoral degree in 2018 from the University of Jyväskylä. She co-leads a randomized controlled trial study on a financial social work intervention, FinSoc. Her research interests include financial social work research and education, social work methods and programs for client work, and generally the implementation of research-based practices. Additionally, she has studied adult social work, motherhood and Capabilities Approach, and financial counseling within social services.
Meeting information
Meeting ID: 642 9850 1835
Passcode: 897614