VCU to celebrate Social Justice Day on March 26

By Mary Beth Alford

RICHMOND, Va. – Creating a society that provides all residents with equitable access to resources, opportunities, rights, goods and services will be the focus of this year’s Social Justice Day, sponsored by Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Social Work.

David Baugh, well-known Richmond attorney and First Amendment activist, will deliver a keynote address on economic justice at 9:30 a.m. in the VCU Student Commons, 907 Floyd Ave.

A lunch event beginning at 11:30 a.m. at the Temple Beth Ahabah, 1111 W Franklin St., will dramatize the world’s unequal distribution of resources and wealth. Some guests at the lunch will be served entire meals; others will be given small portions of food.

Breakout discussions in the VCU Student Commons include:

• Mental illness and economic justice, led my Val Marsh, executive director of the Virginia Chapter on the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

• The living wage, led by Mary Lou Decossaux, director of community development at the William Byrd Community House in Richmond.

• Economic justice for women and children, led by state delegates Viola Baskerville,

  D-Richmond.

• Art and social justice, led by Laure Chessin, master of fine arts, assistant professor of communication art and design in VCU’s School of the Arts.

The program also will feature musical, theater and dance selections by social work students and community members.

"This is a perfect opportunity to help students, faculty and the community focus ways to contribute to social and economic justice in our communities, " said Frank Baskind, Ph.D., dean of VCU’s School of Social Work and president of the Council of Social Work Education.

VCU’s School of Social Work is the fifth-largest school of social work in the country with about 900 students. It is the oldest school of social work in the South.

For more information on Social Justice Day events, call (804) 828-1030.