Overview

Social justice means equal rights and equitable opportunities for all. The state of social justice issues in the United States and within areas local and regional to the University of Virginia is complex, with progress in some areas alongside ongoing struggles and challenges. Major social justice issues include racial inequality, economic disparity, gender inequality, LGBTQ+ rights, criminal justice reform, immigration, healthcare access, housing, education and environmental justice.  

Many of these issues are deeply interconnected with broader issues of inequality, racism, and systemic injustice. For example, where a family lives often determines the quality of the education their children receive due to school district boundaries, which are tied to property values. This perpetuates cycles of inequality: children from low-income families and communities of color are more likely to attend underfunded schools, limiting their opportunities for upward mobility. Additionally, students experiencing housing instability, such as homelessness, often struggle to succeed academically, as they lack the necessary stability to focus on their education.

Significant activism and advocacy for social justice are often driven by grassroots movements and not-for-profit organizations supported by philanthropic donations or government funding. However, many of these issues are deeply entrenched in historical systems of inequality, and progress can be slow and uneven. Legislative battles, political polarization, and economic inequality present ongoing challenges to achieving broader social justice goals. Addressing these issues requires a commitment to policy changes that promote equity.

Your task is to develop a technical solution using your programming, AI, ML, data visualization, and application development skills that will support efforts to address a social justice issue. Because of the complexity of impacting social justice, you must also consider the feasibility and adoptability of your solution – how will people use it? Is it difficult to understand and interact with? How easy is it to distribute it to everyone who needs it? End users of your solution could be frontline providers, policy makers or those lobbying for policy change such as not-for-profit organizations. The goal is to create solutions that foster fairness, equal opportunities, and a more inclusive society.