by Charles E Lewis Jr | Mar 18, 2025
CRISP 2019 Award Winners We are pleased to announce the winners of our 2025 CRISP Awards. Each year, we recognize social workers and others who have contributed significantly to pursuing social work values and principles through Congress and the federal government....
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Feb 3, 2025
From Left: Dr. Carrie Pettus, Legislative Aide Santos Marino, Dr. Angelique Day, and Rebecca Goodwin of WSIPP. It is fitting to title my first blog during Black History Month with this lyric from Billie Holiday’s iconic song, “God Bless the Child,” as it...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Jan 12, 2025
The funeral service for former President James Earl Carter was an event of the magnitude deserving of someone who lived a life dedicated to helping others. The theme of that event attended by President Joseph Biden, who delivered the eulogy, and four remaining living...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Dec 22, 2024
If you are planning to arrive in Seattle early for the Society for Social Work and Research annual conference, we invite you to join CRISP, Wellbeing and Equity Innovations (WEI), and the University of Washington School of Social Work for an Innovation Day workshop on...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Dec 16, 2024
From left: CRISP Director Charles E. Lewis, Jr, CSWE CEO Dr. Halaevalu Vakalahi, Rep. Barbara Lee, Rep. Sylvia Garcia, NASW CEO Dr. Anthony Estreet. Dozens of social workers braved the cold, rainy, and swirling winds Wednesday evening to gather in the Rayburn House...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Nov 6, 2024
I spent the morning communicating with family, friends, colleagues, and students, devastated by the thought of Donald Trump returning to the White House in January. The depressing news hit me like a ton of bricks this morning when I learned the election results. I...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Nov 2, 2024
I expect Vice President Kamala Harris to be the 47th President of the United States soon after the polls close on Tuesday. She has the intelligence, temperament, and experience to lead post-MAGA America. Despite the polls reporting half of likely voters supporting the...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Oct 21, 2024
The Social Work Democracy Project (SWDP) has launched a campaign in four battleground states to energize social work students and inspire young people to participate in the democratic process. Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina students have been...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Oct 6, 2024
The Institute of International Education, a global not-for-profit organization facilitating international exchanges, requested CRISP meet with three senior-level professionals participating in the Distinguished Humphrey Fellowship Program on Leadership sponsored by...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Aug 21, 2024
If you have not watched former First Lady Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention, you owe it to yourself to watch what CNN’s Anderson Cooper called the most powerful political speech he’s ever heard. It is an extraordinary and necessary message...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Aug 19, 2024
The Social Work Democracy Project, a 501(c)3 nonprofit and nonpartisan organization created to encourage social workers to step up our civic engagement in the wake of increasing threats to destabilize and end democracy as we know it in the United States, is embarking...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Jul 30, 2024
One of the toughest things about growing old is seeing family, friends, colleagues, and people you admire end their life journeys. It is a fate that awaits us all, but we are never prepared for it when we learn of the passing of someone we cherish. It is with sadness...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Jul 25, 2024
The political landscape appears to be a swirling sandstorm with Kamala Harris’s ascension to the top spot of the Democratic ticket. After agonizing weeks of waiting to see if President Biden would accept the bleak prognosis for his reelection, he finally...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Jul 11, 2024
On Sunday, July 21, 2024, at 2:00 p.m., family and friends of former Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns will gather at the Berean Baptist Church to celebrate 90 years of a life well lived. He will share his big day with his son, Darryl C. Towns, whose 63rd birthday falls...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Jun 12, 2024
Who is Angela Alsobrooks? Barring any unforeseen developments, she probably will be the next United States Senator from the great state of Maryland, the first African American from Maryland to hold the prestigious office, and just the fourth black woman to serve in...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | May 21, 2024
With so many issues filling the airwaves, from political polarization, roiling campus protests about the war in Gaza and its antisemitic antecedents, the growing threat of global warming, and threats even to our democratic system, the sad plight of the many thousands...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Mar 20, 2024
With the capable Lead Organizer, Amani Desamours, and her Student Leadership Team handling Thursday’s virtual Student Advocacy Day, I had the privilege of attending the pivotal Children’s Bureau’s National Convening on Kinship Care. This gathering, which...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Mar 10, 2024
Former Congressman Edolphus “Ed” Towns, a distinguished figure in the U.S. House of Representatives, will return to the Hill on Wednesday, March 13, to celebrate another Social Work Day on the Hill, an event he created shortly after retiring from Congress in 2013...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Mar 3, 2024
I am late sharing my thoughts on Black History Month this year because I have been concentrating on our upcoming Social Work Day on the Hill and Student Advocacy Days. Each year, I look for history that helps me understand the current circumstances of black people in...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Feb 28, 2024
CRISP will resume in-person events on Wednesday, March 13, to celebrate March as Social Work Month after a four-hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year’s theme is Lifting Every Voice: The Power of Storytelling in Social Work. Our Social Work Day on the Hill day...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Feb 8, 2024
Tuesday was a bad day for the Republican Party, both in substance and appearance. The catastrophes were led by House Republicans’ failure to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. This was not surprising because the Republicans’ slim majority of 219...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Jan 5, 2024
With so much madness in the world, vulnerable populations are being left further behind. Children with incarcerated parents are of those forgotten groups. My dissertation completed in 2002 focused on fathers as part of the Fragile Families study. The prison population...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Dec 13, 2023
The title of this post is taken from a song popularized by the late Gwen Guthrie that made it to the top of the R&B charts in 1986. In the song, Guthrie sings about the reality of paying the rent and that money talks. “No romance without finance,” she croons....
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Nov 21, 2023
Mary McKay, the outgoing President of the Board of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW), announced the results of the society’s recent elections, which selected Michael A. Lindsey as the new President of the Board and welcomed eight new...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Nov 7, 2023
The recent tragic mass shooting in Lewistown, Maine, once again focused the nation’s attention on the growing menace of guns and firearms in the United States. Planned long before the shooting, about three dozen social work researchers, scholars, and practitioners...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Oct 22, 2023
The power of storytelling in social work is the theme of our 2024 Social Work Day on the Hill and Student Advocacy Day events on March 13, 14, and 15. The very nature of social work requires lifting the voices of poor and vulnerable people so their stories are heard....
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Sep 11, 2023
It is always sad to bid farewell to great humanitarians who end their Earthly journey. It is also a time to celebrate the life and legacy of Douglas Graham Glasgow, a kind, gentle, and wise human being who devoted his life to improving the condition of black...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Aug 1, 2023
Much too soon after saying farewell to social justice champion Mit Joyner, we learned of the passing of New Jersey Lieutenant Governor Sheila Oliver, just days after temporarily assuming the duties as Governor during the absence of Governor Phil Murphy, who was with...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Jun 23, 2023
The Covid-19 pandemic and its lingering effects have captured the attention of many Americans over the past several years. It certainly has changed our lives in how we work, play, and socialize. We are sifting through its after-effects, such as surging inflation and...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | May 30, 2023
Congratulations to the thousands of social workers graduating from Master of Social Work programs nationwide. Statistics are being compiled for 2022; however, according to the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), more than 25,000 social work students graduated...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | May 25, 2023
The Democratic Party has a long history of poor communications. President Jimmy Carter helped to undermine his chances for reelection by handing Republicans a public relations gift that is enshrined in the Hall of Fame of political gaffs. Although he never uttered the...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | May 2, 2023
May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Fittingly, addressing the mental health needs of children and youth in the United States has become an issue of bipartisan concern. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey, 42...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Apr 25, 2023
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is a remarkable individual and incredibly talented political social worker. Her gifts and skills were displayed last week when she delivered her first State of the City address marking 100 days in office. She’s made reducing...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Apr 11, 2023
The Institute of Politics at the Harvard Kennedy School tracks the perceptions of young voters aged 18 to 29 years old with their semi-annual national polls. In the spring of 2021, pollsters found that despite the chaotic state of American politics, hope for the...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Feb 6, 2023
For Black History Month, the Public Broadcasting Company (PBS) series Eyes on the Prize has been the go-to source for the most comprehensive understanding of the struggle for civil rights for black Americans. It is worth reviewing for those who have not seen it or...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Jan 15, 2023
There is no way to know what Dr. Martin Luther King’s assessment of our progress toward racial reconciliation and healing the nation would be. I imagine he would welcome our progress and remind us of the need to do more. As we celebrate his birthday, it should be a...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Dec 21, 2022
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries is well-prepared to walk onto the biggest stage of his life. On January 3, 2023, he will make history when he succeeds the incomparable Nancy Pelosi as the leader of the Democratic Party. It is a tall order. Speaker Pelosi is generally...
by Charles E Lewis Jr | Nov 13, 2022
Those who favor the Democratic Party’s policies can breathe a sigh of relief that the red wave never materialized. I had my doubts. President Biden had the best outcome for a president during the midterm elections in 20 years since the Republicans gained 8 seats in...
