Preparing Social Workers to Improve People’s Finances

In 2020, the China Association of Social Work Education created the Financial Social Work Commission, acknowledging the potential benefits of equipping social workers to guide their clients in financial matters. But what do social workers need to know about finances, and how will they learn it? In this Perspective, Margaret Sherraden shares an address given during “Localization of Financial Social Work Education: Goals, Textbook, and Strategies,” a panel discussion convened as part of Theory and Practice for Financial Social Work: Promoting Common Prosperity, the first national Forum of the Financial Social Work Commission, Beijing, China, January 8, 2022. Panelists discussed the forthcoming Chinese translation of Financial Capability and Asset Building in Vulnerable Households: Theory and Practice, the 2018 textbook Sherraden coauthored with Julie Birkenmaier and J. Michael Collins. The textbook provides a roadmap for training social workers in financial capability