The Grand Challenges were announced in January 2016 at the Society for Social Work and Research annual conference in Washington, DC.

[50] The University of Maryland School of Social Work published an article detailing the history and progress of the Grand Challenges initiative in the Winter 2017 issue of Connections Magazine.

[51] In 2017, the Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research published a special section on implementing the Grand Challenges.

[59] On November 11, 2016, the University of Iowa, with the support of the National Association of Social Workers, held a day-long conference on the Grand Challenges.

[61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68][69][70][71][72] These recommendations are now being used to generate and inform policy and civic engagement[73] at local, state, regional, and national levels.

In 2022 The New York Community Trust funded a doctoral fellowship program which received nearly 100 applications from PHD and DSW students.