The history of social work in the United States and around the world to a certain extent mirrors the history of the country where it developed. In many countries that means that social work reflects the basic values, worldviews, and practices of the host country. Often those values are based on racist assumptions of how the world operates.

This course will offer a critical examination of the development of racism in the U.S. and within social work as a discipline and profession in the United States with a focus on how social work practice, theories, and interventions perpetuate racism and oppression. The course will use critical race theory and intersectionality to discuss how different forms of oppression – discrimination based on race, ethnicity, immigration status, ability, gender identity, sexual orientation, class, to name a few – are connected and how the dominant culture, both inside and outside social work, misuses power to maintain their advantage and privilege knowingly and unknowingly. It will then offer frameworks for practice that are anti-racist, anti-oppressive, abolitionist, and that promote social, economic, and environmental justice.

Social service agencies and nonprofit organizations permeate society and are a main source of enhancing well-being for individuals, families, and communities. Agencies provide critical services to some of society’s most vulnerable individuals and families. Additionally, social service agencies respond to community needs and advance policy changes that impact community members. Social service agencies and non-profit organizations are also major employers and economic forces within their communities. Social workers are often employed by these agencies for service provision and program management and development.

Increasingly, social workers are tasked with leading complex social services agencies and non-profit organizations. This course aims to provide students with the necessary skills to manage and lead in complex environments. Students will identify their own theory of leadership and how leadership applies to organizational management. Additionally, students will identify organizational structures and the processes for managing and developing programs within these structures. Students will also learn how to mentor employees and develop skills for providing supervision. Through course work, students can expect to gain knowledge in evaluating and implementing programs. Ultimately this course prepares students for the arduous, but necessary task, of transitioning from direct practice to a leadership role within the social work profession.

Advanced Integrative Practice with Children and Families emphasizes the application of advanced theory and practice principles for working with children and families in diverse practice settings. This course provides students an opportunity to consider approaches of current and emerging models of service delivery across the spectrum of settings where clinical intervention may be necessary, as well as more systemic intervention, which would address needs in a setting where social work may be one of many services offered (such as educational, healthcare or child welfare agencies). Models of child and family practice that emphasize promotion of wellbeing for the child and their family are considered.

This course builds on the foundation practice courses (SWK 541, SWK 560 and SWK 561) and explores theories and models for advanced social work practice with individuals and families with an emphasis on clinical practice methods. The course explores and critiques evidence-informed models for practice, emerging models of practice, and traditional/indigenous healing practices. The course reinforces the integration of theory and practice interventions as well as culturally sensitive, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive stances toward social work practice. The overarching goal of the course is to integrate direct practice approaches that are client-centered, strengths-based, and relational with a primary focus on individual and family well-being.