Special Programs
The School is fortunate to have one of the largest and most diverse social work faculties in the country. They are active in many community service initiatives and hold leadership positions in their professional associations. They are engaged in numerous and varied research, service demonstration and training projects that greatly enrich the school’s educational program. The school receives support for these projects through competitive grants and contracts from various levels of government, foundations and corporations, as well as from the university, alumni and other individual donors. Each year for more than a decade, the school has led all units of the university in the number of projects financed in this manner as well as in the total amount of dedicated, external project funding. Projects address the most critical social issues of the day. Faculty participation in such projects keeps our professors current in their responses to these issues. Beyond this, they are knowledgeable and socially active as contributors to the vanguard of the profession. Faculty expertise is brought into the classroom as, or before, it is shared with the larger academic and professional communities. Students also share directly in these projects through field placements, often with stipends, and through part-time or volunteer work. The foci of the projects include interventions to restore social functioning or prevent or limit its decline in individuals, families, groups and communities, as well as the examination of key issues in administration, policy and research. Among the populations and problems with which these projects deal are: children and families at-risk; older adults; homeless individuals and families; persons with HIV/AIDS and those who care about them; substance abuse; mental health; schools; international issues; and African-American and Hispanic/Latino populations.
Among the past accomplishments of these projects are:
• the graduation of more than 300 bilingual, Spanish-English professionals from programs tailored to their needs. The school has more than twice as many Hispanic/Latino students as any other school of social work in the continental U.S.;
• the graduation of public assistance, child welfare and other public employees who completed specially designed master’s curricula;
• the publication and dissemination of summaries and critical analyses of the literature, which include models for substance abuse prevention among young people and discussions and evaluations of innovative approaches to prevention;
• consultation, education, faculty exchanges, and research conducted on five continents, including the countries of Japan, Vietnam, Romania and the Ukraine;
• hosting international fellows and training professionals from Vietnam, Belarus, Japan and Taiwan;
• training of more than 15,000 professional and nonprofessional workers in child abuse and family violence;
• development and implementation of model service delivery programs for persons with HIV/AIDS, elderly persons, families with young children, school-age children, and predelinquent adolescents; and
• hosting distinguished visiting faculty in family therapy, social policy, gerontology and other substantive areas.
The School also provides various opportunities in continuing education, as well as a Post-Master's Certificate Program Child and Adolescent Therapy
