USU's Transforming Communities Institute and Assistant Professor Earn National Awards

LOGAN — Utah State University’s Department of Social Work has earned recent recognition in the field of community impact, thanks to the work of the Transforming Communities Institute and Assistant Professor Chesney Ward.

Recently, TCI and Ward received national awards from the Council of Social Work Education in recognition of their work to address social issues and promote well-being and belonging.

TCI’s Community Partnership Action Award

The Community Partnership Action Award, presented at the Council of Social Work Education’s annual conference, celebrates TCI’s commitment to creating community partnerships. Led by Jayme Walters, assistant professor of social work, TCI brings Utahns together to find solutions for social issues that matter to their communities.

“We have the privilege of working side-by-side with community leaders, practitioners and residents who care deeply about the well-being of others,” Walters said. “It is a testament to the power of authentic partnerships and shared purpose in creating meaningful change through research and solution building."

Some of TCI’s recent projects include developing the WAB Warming Center, which is the only winter shelter available for several counties in northern Utah. Recently, TCI collaborated with several USU partners, including the Student Nutrition Access Center and the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics and Food Sciences to conduct a study on food security issues among students and how the student pantry assists them.

TCI is also in the process of developing a program to increase access to limited legal services to underserved Utahns by training social workers as community justice advocates. The CJA program is under review by the Utah Supreme Court, and if approved, the first focus area for CJAs will be debt collection issues.

Additionally, TCI is dedicated to the continuing education of Utah's professionals who are working to improve community well-being. Collaborating with the Department of Social Work, they provide a free monthly continuing education series via online video conference for social workers and other human service professionals. In 2023, they trained more than 600 professionals, totaling nearly 14,000 continuing education hours.

Chesney Ward’s Feminist Manuscript Award

Chesney Ward, an assistant professor in the Department of Social Work, received the CSWE Feminist Manuscript Award for her work exploring the experiences of Black women in academia. As the only Black woman in her Ph.D. program when she started, Ward navigated the isolating experience until she connected with another Black woman who joined the following year. This connection evolved into a friendship, and together they embarked on a journey to research and address the challenges faced by Black women in higher education.

Ward’s award-winning research offers a framework for inclusive mentorship that she and her colleague developed through their experiences.

“Writing this manuscript was a cathartic experience that allowed us to process and find meaning in the challenges we encountered during our doctoral journeys,” Ward said. “This insight led to the creation of the Celebration Mentoring Model, an approach that provides a constructive alternative to the conventional mentoring framework prevalent in academia.”

Ward and her colleague took their work further by earning a GADE Cross-Institutional Grant to conduct a mixed-methods study on Black women pursuing doctoral degrees in social work across the United States. Their study investigated the levels of social support and stress experienced by these women, delving into the factors contributing to the disparities in graduation rates and providing insights into the barriers Black women face in academia.

"By inviting women to tell their own stories, we’re giving back the voice that has long been taken from us," Ward noted. “This award … reminds faculty, staff and support persons to check on their people and to create space for Black women to be vulnerable and to show up authentically. We hope this work gives more Black women the courage to share their stories.”