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School Mission and Goals
The School of Social Work shares with the University a commitment to the advancement of knowledge and applies that knowledge for the fulfillment of human potential through the prevention and amelioration of social problems. The School prepares social work and child development and child care students for competent professional practice and research seeking to maximize human development, human dignity, social justice, and social equity for diverse populations. The School is dedicated to achieving excellence in scholarship through teaching, community service, research, and the dissemination of knowledge. Consistent with the University's mission to serve the metropolitan area, the School has special concern for the social issues associated with urbanization. The School views these elements of its mission as continuing its historic commitment to the elimination of human suffering and the provision of opportunities for maximizing human capabilities. The goals of the School are to:
1. Develop knowledge and skills and promote values and ethics for the social work and child development and child care professions.
2. Prepare undergraduate, graduate, and post graduate students to use problem-solving interventions and to use research to respond to personal and social problems that affect people as individuals and as members of family, group, community, and/or organizational systems.
3. Promote the values of social justice and social equity; promote commitment to professional service with populations who are disadvantaged, discriminated against, or economically oppressed; and promote understanding, development and/or application of strategies to relieve oppression, and to reduce the divisive and destructive effects of all forms of discrimination.
4. Provide education at each degree level to diverse populations.
5. Prepare students to participate in research and to utilize research findings to enhance professional practice and influence social policies.
6. Engage in scholarly activities to develop and disseminate knowledge about human behaviors, needs, social problems, policies, and services.
7. Assist and support faculty to advance and expand their knowledge, teaching, and research skills.
8. Provide professional training and consultation to improve the quality and delivery of human services.
9. Develop and participate in collaborative and interdisciplinary programs with other schools, departments, and programs of the University, and with social agencies, communities, organizations, government, and other universities.
Thus, the mission of the School of Social Work is to foster in its graduates the impetus to promote social equity and to enable students to develop their fullest potential for professional practice. Toward this end, the School offers programs at all levels of education in an integrated curriculum that attempts to be sensitive to societal changes.
Changing times continue to call for a large cadre of professionally educated social workers to meet the needs of a society in flux. To meet these demands for social work personnel, the School offers a full continuum of social work educational programs on the undergraduate, master's, and doctoral levels. The social worker with a bachelor's degree is trained to provide direct services to various populations who seek help from a variety of public and private social agencies and institutions. The master's degree curriculum has been designed to meet the perceived demands for specialists prepared to serve as skilled practitioners and for specialists prepared to carry leadership roles in a variety of direct practice fields. The organizing principle of the master's degree program is to prepare graduates with a repertoire of professional skills. The curriculum includes content in social policy, planning, evaluation, administration, and community organization/development. The doctoral program emphasizes the development of knowledge and skill in research, program evaluation, teaching, social policy formulation and planning, and social welfare administration.
The program in Child Development and Child Care focuses on the infant, child, and adolescent, both normal and with special needs, within the context of the family and the life span. The developmental-ecological perspective emphasizes the interaction between persons and the physical and social environments, including the cultural and political setting.
The scholarly foundation for the emerging profession of child development and child care is a multidisciplinary and multitheoretical concentration in the behavioral and social sciences and in physical and mental health. Professional practitioners are equipped to promote the optimal development of normal and special needs children and youth in a variety of settings including: community mental health, day treatment, group homes, residential centers, detention centers, day care, pre-school, home-based care and treatment, psychiatric centers, and pediatric health care programs.
This includes skills in making complex assessments and decisions about client and program needs, designing and implementing programs and planned environments, integrating therapeutic and developmental requirements into the life span, contributing to the development of knowledge and practice, and participating in systems interventions through supervision, administration, teaching, consultation, and advocacy. The program is also committed to providing leadership for the field of child development and child care by emphasizing personal and professional growth, the development of articulated ethics, and the discussion of professional issues. Preparation provides for full career development in Child Development and Child Care, career expansion into the full range of human development, as well as for the integration of the knowledge and skills of this field into other areas of human services.
A continuing education program is also available for those practicing social workers and human-service workers who wish to refine and update their knowledge and base of skills in their particular areas of interest.
In setting and implementing the School's goals, faculty and students, consumer groups, and agency, institutional, and community representatives have been involved in the planning and development of the program. The School sees its goals as fostering in its graduates the impetus to promote social equity and to individualize students' programs so as to foster their fullest potential for professional practice. Thus, the School of Social Work offers programs at all levels of education in an integrated curriculum that is sensitive to the needs of a changing society.
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