The George Warren Brown School of Social Work’s Livable Lives Initiative has awarded eight grants to faculty across the university. The selected projects investigate policies and programs designed to help those with low or moderate incomes achieve lives that are more stable, secure, satisfying and successful.
In keeping with the initiative’s multidisciplinary focus, the selected projects represent a range of academic disciplines, including anthropology, economics, education, political science, public health and social work.
The projects also represent a diversity of topics ranging from restorative environments to literacy and from the making of the middle class to living with the language disorder aphasia.
Recipients of the grants are:
Lisa Tabor Connor, Ph.D., assistant professor of occupational therapy at the School of Medicine, for her project “Livable Lives for People with Aphasia: Uncovering Barriers and Facilitators to Participation.”
J. Aaron Hipp, Ph.D., assistant professor of social work at the Brown School, for his project “Restorative Environments in Low-Income, Predominately African-American Neighborhoods.”
Korina M. Jocson, Ph.D., assistant professor of education in Arts & Sciences, and Luis Zayas, Ph.D., the Shanti K. Khinduka Distinguished Professor of Social Work at the Brown School, for their project “Literacy and Social Development Among Latino Youth in St. Louis.”
Joshua P. Lockyer, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow in anthropology and environmental studies, both in Arts & Sciences, and Peter Benson, Ph.D., assistant professor of anthropology, for their project “St. Louis Intentional Communities: An Ethnographic Study of Livable Lives.”
Juan Pantano, Ph.D., assistant professor of economics in Arts & Sciences, for his project “Optimal Moving to Opportunity and Livable Lives.”
Ramesh Raghavan, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor at the Brown School and assistant professor of psychiatry at the School of Medicine, for his project “Paradoxes in Public Health: Identifying Protective Factors in the Relationship Between Social Inequality and Well-Being.”
Mark R. Rank, Ph.D., the Herbert S. Hadley Professor of Social Welfare at the Brown School, and Thomas A. Hirschl, Ph.D., professor of development sociology at Cornell University, for their project “Measuring the Extent of Economic Hardship Across the American Life Course.”
Itai Sened, Ph.D., professor of political science in Arts & Sciences; Steven M. Fazzari, Ph.D., professor of economics in Arts & Sciences and associate director of the Weidenbaum Center; Robert W. Walker, Ph.D., assistant professor of political science; the Center for Applied Statistics; and the Middle Class Project Research Team for their project “The Role of the Middle Class in Sustainable Economic Growth.”
The Livable Lives Initiative started at the Brown School with a vision of developing a multidisciplinary, university-wide project. A competitive process, launched in August 2009, invited university faculty to propose projects that move forward the thinking, research, advocacy and policy associated with achieving livable lives.
The eight projects above represent the beginning steps of this process. Future work will include larger research studies and national conferences. The aim is to build a large body of work that informs local programs as well as state and federal policies in economic security, employment, public health, education, housing and other key areas.
The Brown School’s Center for Social Development is providing administrative and material support for the Livable Lives Initiative with resources made possible by the Ford Foundation. Partnerships and resources for future research and conferences will be developed.