About Us

Welcoming All in the Here-and-Now (W.I.T.H.) is a group of faculty, staff, and community partners who gather monthly to discuss issues and identify action steps related to anti-racism, diversity, inclusion, and equity.

History

Spring into Summer 2020 brought the rising of a movement out of the killing of Black and Brown people. There was a renewed racial reckoning on individual people, institutions, and systems that had been set in place to purposefully discriminate, oppress, divide, and marginalize specific sets of people due to race, ethnicity, income, abilities, and other socially constructed factors. These events took place during a global pandemic highlighting the economic and health disparities, again historically placed, within the confines of certain communities – African American, Indigenous, Latinx, and others.

Social work faculty and staff met in December 2020 to examine the SSW’s role in anti-racism efforts and accountability of our profession. Alumni, students, and other faculty/staff were invited to meetings through 2021. At the January 2021 meeting, seven alumnae joined the staff and faculty for the “SSW Diversity Task Group”. A “Diversity Values Statement” for the School of Social Work was developed with input from faculty, staff, students, and the community. It was acknowledged that the values statement will evolve with time.

In April 2021 a new name for the group was identified. The name chosen was Welcoming All in the Here-and-Now or W.I.T.H. The name represents the inclusiveness of the group and the ongoing work that the group will facilitate.

W.I.T.H. continues discussions on how our School might examine and make appropriate changes to infuse our diversity values statement into social work education, research, and practice, and in our community partnerships and School structure and processes.