About Spiritual Diversity and Social Work Initiative

The Spiritual Diversity and Social Work Initiative is dedicated to the promotion of respect, wisdom, humility, and skill among social work practitioners, researchers, and educators regarding diverse religious and nonreligious spiritual perspectives. We encourage worldwide solidarity and cooperation among social workers and allied helping professionals who are committed to engage with the spiritual strengths and resources of clients/service users and their communities to support health, wellbeing, peace, and justice for all people and all beings.

The Spiritual Diversity and Social Work Initiative promotes research, education, and practices that advance spiritually sensitive, culturally responsive, and humble social work approaches regarding:

• Persons and communities of diverse religious and nonreligious spiritual perspectives
• Spirituality and religion as strengths and resources for wellbeing, social justice, and ecojustice
• Whole person/whole world oriented philosophies and theories of social work and social justice
• Ethical and moral reflection by social work professionals and clients/service recipients
• Practices, organizational cultures, and social policies that support the flourishing of all people and all beings
• Holistic, spiritually attuned, and creative educational resources, curricula, and teaching styles
• Research paradigms and methods that are empowering, collaborative, creative, and spiritually attuned

This website for the Spiritual Diversity and Social Work Initiative is a service of the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare. It is hosted by Edward R. Canda, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus. 

Prior versions of this website were funded primarily by the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund  (2000-2005) and the Shumaker Family Foundation (2008-2011) with additional funding from the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (through Professor Emeritus John Coates in collaboration with the Canadian Society for Spirituality and Social Work).