Jordan Institute for Families May 2025

Trees with sunshine pouring through the branches

Thank you for your commitment to families and support for the work of the Jordan Institute for Families!

Supporting Social Work Leaders During Challenging Times

Being a social work manager and leader is both a deeply fulfilling and extremely challenging undertaking. Bolstering leaders in their journey also supports the people on their teams and the families they serve. This year the Jordan Institute has been exploring ways to better engage and encourage social work leaders across our state. We are deeply grateful to our advisory group which includes Valerie Arendt, Sarah Reives, April Parker, Monica Kearney, Vaughn Crawford, Sherenne Simon and Ellen Barnard. This team has invested many hours in thoughtfully creating our approach to professional training and community building. Click here to learn more about this amazing team.

As we've been exploring learning formats, we have held a series of lunch meet ups which are lightly structured virtual gatherings where social work leaders can connect and share. Our first session focused on managing overwhelm (click here for a summary) and the second focused on rest (click here for a summary). Our third and final session for this round will be held on June 18th and will focus on staying centered during challenging times. We will be posting a series of interviews with social work leaders and related content this summer. Please follow us and reach out if you would like to join the conversation. We need each others wisdom and support, now more than ever.

the Hive Leadership Webinar Series - Listening, Sharing and Learning from Each Other

We began our 3-part leadership series known as "the Hive" with a rich and timely conversation about social work leadership during uncertain times with Dr. Justin Harty, Marisol Jimenez and Monica Kearney. Dr. Harty shared information about past social movements highlighting ways that social work advanced change and fell short. He offered a series of strategies at multiple levels for taking on the challenges of this moment. Read more and watch his presentation here. Marisol highlighted her work and what it means for organizations to survive in these times. Monica focused on the importance of address organizational trauma. Follow our blog as posts will be available shortly along with links to their videos.

The second part of our series focused on Building Power for Collective Well-being featuring Michelle Cassandra Johnson, Amy Burtaine, Olatunji Oboi Reed, and Joanne Hessmiller. There has been much talk about mutual aid and community care - this session gave us the chance to really unpack what this means. We also got a sneak peak into the just released book - the Wisdom of the Hive - What Honeybees Can Teach Us about Collective Wellbeing. A recording and blog will be posted in June. We will be hosting a third webinar in this series on June 25th from 3-4:30 ET focusing on Working Across Difference. Mark your calendars and keep an eye out for registration information.

Welcome: Rakiah Anderson, MPH

In January 2025 we welcomed Rakiah Anderson to our team as our evaluator and research associate. Mrs. Jordan talks about the importance of being able to demonstrate measurable success and we agree! Bringing Rakiah to the team full time addresses a 5-Year review recommendation. Her expertise and energy have been transformative in propelling our new initiatives forward. Rakiah is providing significant leadership to our care giving research initiative and is providing support to a research team in the School of Medicine - allowing JIF to continue to expand our reach and service. Rakiah brings years of experience in evaluation to the team as well as her commitment to culturally responsive practices.

Sherenne Simon, MPH is the CEO of the Global Simon Group. She has spent 20+ years leading initiatives, products, and pipelines to enhance health outcomes, improve corporate ecosystems, and advance social progress in the United States, Africa, and India. She is the author of “Own Your Influence: An Unconventional Journey to Making an Impact at Work.” At the helm of Global Simon Group, a social impact company, Sherenne continues her dedication to the health and well-being of communities around the world. Sherenne has been working with JIF since April 2024 and serves on our advisory group. Follow our blog for an upcoming interview with her about her new book!

Ellen Barnard is a producer and partner at Tomorrow Pictures, Inc. Along with producing documentary films that have been distributed on Prime and PBS, she has developed a niche practice consulting with brands and organizations about how to best communicate their stories and develop digital media assets to engage audiences. A graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill (B.A.) and Emory University (M.A), Ellen serves on the Board of Advisors for UNC School of Social Work, and as a consultant and advisory group member for the Jordan Institute. With Ellen's support, JIF has been able to significantly 'up' our social media and communication game. This aligns with recommendations from our 5-Year review.

Supporting New Families

A team from the Jordan Institute along with Dr. Lindsey Yates from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health has been consulting with The Duke Endowment Health Care Division in the design of a new multi-million dollar, North Carolina / South Carolina Maternal Infant Health initiative. The Request for Applications was released in early May. Pilot projects will be funded to implement a unique program using texts to screen pregnant and postpartum mothers and care navigators to ensure their needs are met. The JIF team is thrilled to begin working with the Medical University of South Carolina to provide training and technical assistance to the pilot sites.

Sarah Verbiest has been honored to represent JIF on the NC Perinatal Health Equity Collaborative and the Nurture NC Collaborative. She also serves on the Durham County Board of Health.

JIF welcomed research assistant Casey Buisson to the team over the academic year. Casey lent much of his time to support the work of the Child Fatality Task Force - a legislative study commission where Sarah Verbiest serves as an appointed member. This role gave Casey the opportunity to build his skills and provide over 200 hours of community service to a key partner. Casey wrote a blog about his experience which you can read here. We appreciate Casey's hard work and wish him all the best as he takes on the world with his MSW in hand!

Engaged scholarship is central to Jordan Institute values. As such we have been honored to lead a project funded through the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Initiative Eugene Washington Engagement Award. In this project we designed and hosted 5 Community Engagement Studios which connected patients and researchers to improve chronic condition and reproductive care. Click here to learn more about this project as well as to watch a webinar sharing the findings.

The Jordan Institute was excited to co-host the October 2024 Wicked Problems of Child Welfare Virtual Institute - Unlock the Power of Lived Experience through True Collaboration. This national gathering brings together thought leaders, people with lived experience and 'on the ground doers' to wrestle with pressing issues in child welfare. A graphic illustrator captured key concepts and discussions from the event (see above image). Read more about the convening here.

We are excited about the development of the Jordan Institute's Care Giving Across the Lifecourse Research Network. We invested time this past year doing a deep dive into the care giving literature and identifying potential partners in this work. We are currently getting to know UNC researchers and recording short interviews which we will begin posting in June. For an overview of our directions, read our post here. We were very fortunate to meet Dr. Erin Kent, an Associate Professor at the Gillings School of Global Public Health and a researcher on this topic who has agreed to serve as an advisor in this work. We are engaging with the NC Caregiving Collaborative and the NC Serious Illness Coalition. We aim to host at least one summer meet up to pre-launch fall activities. We are pleased to offer research support to Drs.Tess Thompson and Bridgette Thom with their newly funded caregiver project later this year.

Hurricane Helene brought devastation to western North Carolina. Knowing how to respond appropriately was not always clear in the immediate aftermath of the devastation. Dr. Verbiest joined a small team from UNC Rural to lend a hand and meet the community leaders working on the ground. Click here to read more about UNC's hurricane response.

Economic supports such as tax credits can help families stay out of poverty and can reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect. JIF has been fortunate to partner with MDC, Inc. (and the NC Tax Coalition), the Positive Childhood Alliance of North Carolina, and the Institute for Family, a program of the Children's Home Society of NC to focus on this issue. Check out the new Family Insight Dashboard.

Help us build our reach on LinkedIn and Facebook! Please follow our work and share with your networks.