Social Work

Objective 

The accelerated bachelor’s degree in Social Work program provides students with foundational knowledge and experience to support human rights, social justice, access to resources and well-being in all people, particularly those with marginalized identities. Students will learn real-world skills to support individuals, families, groups, and communities to address their challenges. The program provides hands-on learning through over 500 hours in social service internships and prepares students to be culturally competent, compassionate, and effective in making a difference with vulnerable populations. This program is CSWE accredited.  

Graduates are prepared to immediately enter the workforce in careers in child welfare, direct care, CBRS, Behavioral Intervention, adoptions, community outreach, and case managers. An ABA in Social Work allows students to move directly into an advanced placement in an MSW graduate program which allows them to work in clinical behavioral health settings, school social work, substance abuse counseling, and other roles.  

Program Student Learning Outcomes 

1. Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior
   • Make ethical decisions by applying the standards of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics, relevant laws and regulations, models for ethical decision making, ethical conduct of research, and additional codes of ethics within the profession as appropriate to the context.
   • Demonstrate professional behavior; appearance; and oral, written, and electronic communication.
   • Use technology ethically and appropriately to facilitate practice outcomes.
   • Use supervision and consultation to guide professional judgment and behavior.
2. Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice
   • Advocate for human rights at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community system levels.
   • Engage in practices that advance human rights to promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
3. Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice
   • Demonstrate anti-racist and anti-oppressive social work practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, community, research, and policy levels.
   • Demonstrate cultural humility by applying critical reflection, self-awareness, and self-regulation to manage the influence of bias, power, privilege, and values in working with clients and constituencies, acknowledging them as experts of their own lived experiences.
4. Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice
   • Apply research findings to inform and improve practice, policy, and programs.
   • Identify ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive strategies that address inherent biases for use in quantitative and qualitative research methods to advance the purposes of social work.
5. Engage in Policy Practice
   • Use social justice, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lenses to assess how social welfare policies affect the delivery of and access to social services.
   • Apply critical thinking to analyze, formulate, and advocate for policies that advance human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
6. Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
   • Apply knowledge of human behavior and person-in-environment, as well as interprofessional conceptual frameworks, to engage with clients and constituencies.
   • Use empathy, reflection, and interpersonal skills to engage in culturally responsive practice with clients and constituencies.
7. Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
   • Apply theories of human behavior and person-in-environment, as well as other culturally responsive and interprofessional conceptual frameworks, when assessing clients and constituencies.
   • Demonstrate respect for client self-determination during the assessment process by collaborating with clients and constituencies in developing a mutually agreed-upon plan.
8. Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
   • Engage with clients and constituencies to critically choose and implement culturally responsive, evidence-informed interventions to achieve client and constituency goals.
   • Incorporate culturally responsive methods to negotiate, mediate, and advocate with and on behalf of clients and constituencies.
9. Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities
   • Understand that evaluation is an ongoing component of the dynamic and select and use culturally responsive methods for evaluation of outcomes.
   • Critically analyze outcomes and apply evaluation findings to improve practice effectiveness with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Administrator: Faculty Director, Social Work  

Requirements: A total of at least 40 credits in Social Work, and additional 20 credits in the aligned Understanding Human Behavior certificate.