BSW Mission & Goals
Mission
The BSW program aspires to restore and enhance the social functioning of individuals, families, groups, institutions and communities in this rural, urban, and suburban region. Accordingly, it focuses on creating functional social conditions in which differences within and between groups are respected, accepted, and celebrated. The program prepares entry-level, generalist professionals and potential graduate students to have professional identities as social workers.
BSW Program Goals
Goal 1 - Integrate Theory into Practice: To help graduates use critical thinking and integrate liberal arts and professional knowledge, values, and skills into the development of a generalist perspective for social work practice with individuals, families, groups, communities, and organizations.
Goal 2 - Celebrate Diversity: To help graduates recognize the intersectionality of human diversity, acquire knowledge related to diverse populations for professional practice, and acquire skills for change - including reflection and self-regulation - to achieve the goals of clients and constituencies.
Goal 3 - Conduct Policy Practice: To prepare graduates to understand social policy and its impact on the delivery of and access to social services and to participate in efforts to assure that policy advances social, economic, and environmental justice.
Goal 4 - Assume Professional Identity: To motivate graduates to assume responsibility for continuing professional growth and evidence-informed, life-long learning to inform practice, policy, and service delivery.
The department does have professional standards and expectations of students. The environment is set up to support students.
Donna Ayers, BSW 2021