The University of Wisconsin Oshkosh’s Whitburn Wednesday event series continues April 13 with “Reimagining Social Welfare: Past, Present and Future.”
The panel discussion, presented by UWO’s Whitburn Center for Governance and Policy Research, will consider how increasing polarization, budget cuts, stigma and other challenges have made it increasingly difficult to meet the needs of the most socially vulnerable.
The event will be held from 5 to 7 p.m. April 13 both virtually and in person in Reeve Union, Room 227AB. Please RSVP by April 12 to attend.
This conversation will reimagine how to advance social welfare and wellbeing to advance racial and economic equity. The panel will provide a historical account of public assistance programs in the United States, which were historically extensive and run by local governments.
Further discussion will examine how programs of the past have evolved, now requiring more collaboration between the public and nonprofit sectors. This conversation also will tackle the question of how government and nonprofit leaders can more effectively work together, promising practices that can foster collective impact, and why such partnerships are critical to address present and future issues.
Lynnsey Erickson
UWO public administration graduate student Lynnsey Erickson, a community health strategist with the Winnebago County Health Department, will be among the panelists. She collaborates with the community to advance equity and improve access to housing and transformation.
“It’s important for us to examine if we’re actually meeting the needs of our community. We can build more effective systems by improving access and opportunity for people, especially for those who are underserved and systematically marginalized,” she said. “The pandemic put a spotlight on many of the systemic challenges that people face, including unstable housing and eviction, lack of child care, and reliance on low wage jobs without benefits. This is about building communities that work for people and fixing the conditions that force people to need these types of programs.”
Erickson said many programs that come to mind when thinking about social welfare are actually focused downstream and deal with symptoms of the issues.
“It’s important for us to focus policies, decisions and resources upstream to address the overall conditions and drivers of inequities so that people aren’t stuck in these cycles of poverty. By focusing on equity and access to the things we need to thrive, we can have healthier communities and be more effective in our policies and programs,” she added.
Additional panelists will include: Jennifer Considine, UWO communication studies professor; Stuart Kuzik, executive director of the Oshkosh/Winnebago County Housing Authority; and Gabriel Loiacono, UWO associate professor of history. UWO alumnus Ahmed Hassan MPA ’19, president and executive director of Community Services Agency, will serve as the moderator.
The Whitburn Wednesdays monthly event series covers a wide range of pressing issues and features panelists representing a diversity of viewpoints. This month’s event is part of the UWO Social Justice Week programming.
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