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Blog
What Is Social Policy?
What is social policy? This is the question that Sanford started out March asking and answering on Instagram as the kickoff for our inaugural Social Policy Month theme. Sanford’s remarkable faculty and students examine critical aspects of social policy - a wide-ranging category - domestically and internationally. Their data-driven work produces research that is anticipated by academic peers, informs policymakers, and makes a meaningful difference in communities around the world.
Sanford gives students the analytic tools, communication skills, and ethical framework, to use evidence-driven policies to support the wellbeing of people and communities. Social policy at Sanford explores the impact of laws, regulations, market forces, and individual behavior on social outcomes. We hope to improve the lives of people of all ages by supporting research and teaching on education, work, health, and well-being. We also identify and address inequalities in access to support and services for individuals and communities.
We recognize that 31 days is not nearly enough time to showcase the amazing breadth and impact of Sanford’s work in social policy, so please consider this as Part I, with additional stories and articles to follow later this year. And since March is Women’s History Month, we also celebrate the important intersections of women and social policy throughout the month.
Recognized Expertise
Social policy touches nearly every dimension of daily life, from how families make ends meet to how children are raised and educated to how communities support health and well-being. At Sanford, our faculty continue to shape these conversations through rigorous, timely research. Lisa Gennetian’s work examines how safety net programs affect family stability and child development. Christina Gibson-Davis studies economic insecurity and its consequences for children and families. Marcos Rangel helps inform K-12 educators through an understanding of racial bias. Ann Skinner (with co-authors Jennifer Godwin and Emmy Reilly) measures the long-term health outcomes of Ukrainian children as they face the tremendous stress of living in a warzone.
Social policy encompasses the full scope of the human experience. Across the school, faculty are organizing conferences, presenting groundbreaking research, publishing acclaimed books and articles, writing op-eds, and offering students innovative classroom experiences that give them the chance to conduct their own research and grow into leaders who will be tackling the complex social policy challenges of our time.
Exciting New Support
Sanford’s work in social policy continues to be recognized and valued by partners around the world. Last month, Bukhman Philanthropies, a London-based foundation focused on improving the mental health and well-being of children and young adults, made a generous gift of $10.5 million to support Sanford’s Center for Child and Family Policy (CCFP) and its groundbreaking research on issues facing children and families today.
We are thrilled that this generous gift will continue CCFP’s research directed toward solving real-life problems facing children and families. This support will enable research to improve education and well-being for children using recognized and innovative tools and technologies. The projects supported by this gift are:
- Conducting a multi-phase research initiative aimed at scaling early relational health—a principle that young children thrive when their earliest relationships are safe and nurturing—to promote intergenerational family and infant well-being
- Evaluating a statewide project in North Carolina that trains early childhood professionals as coaches in trauma-informed care
- Developing a professional learning framework for middle and high school English as a Second Language teachers that promotes adolescent well-being through literacy instruction for students with immigrant and refugee backgrounds
- Conducting a youth-centered research initiative dedicated to redesigning how artificial intelligence-driven mental health tools can equitably serve student populations
- Developing, piloting, and testing a digital book-building platform designed to strengthen connections among multilingual learners, their families, teachers, and peers through co-created storytelling to improve students’ literacy and emotional well-being
We are deeply grateful for this investment in work that has lasting impact.
Social Policy Alumni Stay Connected
Current students need not look far to find Sanford alumni who have built meaningful careers after studying social policy. One recent example illustrates how Sanford alumni who studied child policy research continue to support students and the Sanford learning environment. In February, CCFP hosted a panel “Professional Directions of Child Policy Research Certificate Alumni” with five alumni who had earned the CCFP Child Policy Research Certificate. The panelists confirmed for current students that the skills they gained from the CCFP capstone project continue to help them throughout their careers. Current student Charlotte Sutcliffe’s reflection on the event offers a wonderful summary of the panel. This growing multidisciplinary, undergraduate certificate program had 22 students receive the credential last year, the most ever.
And Sanford alumni are making significant contributions that fit under the wide umbrella of social policy around the world and close to home. As executive director of North Carolina Education Corps, for example, John-Paul Smith (MPP ’20) is leading a statewide effort to ensure every child has the support they need to learn to read and thrive. Several alumni of Sanford’s PhD program are now tenured professors at some of the best universities in the country.
Follow Along
I hope you will follow Sanford’s Social Policy Month on social media and our website. I’m especially excited to see examples of social policy undergraduate honors theses, PhD candidates’ work, and women in leadership classroom experiences. It’s a wonderful chance to showcase how Sanford experts are examining domestic and global systems and offering powerful policy evaluations, insights, and solutions that, when heeded, will improve lives.
Warm Regards,
Manoj Mohanan, Interim Dean