Program Description
The Bachelor of Social Work Degree Program prepares majors for entry-level professional practice in social work or for graduate study. The program curriculum is structured to provide students with an opportunity to develop a broad background in social and behavioral sciences, which includes integral components of theoretical knowledge of human behavior, practice skills, policy practice, research skills, and a field practicum. The BSW Program is a CSWE-accredited program.
The School utilizes an autonomous social work practice model to prepare culturally competent practitioners capable of intervening and working with systems of all sizes and resolving problems that particularly affect African American children, families, and males within the context of family and community. The curriculum builds upon a liberal arts base, integrating an Afrocentric perspective guided by humanistic values. Graduates are prepared to address social and economic justice issues at the local, regional, national, and international levels.
In addition to the development and modification of social policy, practice skills in interviewing, research, and methods of intervention are also required courses in the major. These courses prepare students for social work generalist practice. Students gain practical experience through a field practicum in a social work agency during the last semester of their senior year (See BSW Program Field Manual).
Program Objectives
The Baccalaureate Social Work Program has four objectives, which reflect the stated mission of the Whitney M. Young, Jr. School of Social Work and Clark Atlanta University, and are consistent with the purposes, values and ethics of the social work profession. The goals embrace each other by the depth, breath and specific knowledge and skills that students are expected to synthesize and apply in practice. The goals listed below reflect content from the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards for baccalaureate degree programs.
Objective 1: Prepare students for generalist practice with diverse groups without discrimination and with respect, knowledge of age, class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, family structure, gender, marital status, national origin, race, sex, religious, sexual orientation and the relationships between human behavior and the social environment across the lifespan which incorporates the Afrocentric Perspective and the values and ethics of the social work profession.
Objective 2: Prepare students as social work generalist practitioners who link social research and social service practice by applying research findings to practice, and by evaluating their own practice.
Objective 3: Prepare students for generalist social work practice with systems of all sizes.
Objective 4: Prepare students for lifelong learning and critical thinking through an educational process that combines a liberal arts foundation with professional social work education and prepares them for graduate education in social work.
Student Learning Outcomes
Graduates in the Bachelor of Social Work Program will be able to:
- Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior.
- Engage diversity and difference in practice.
- Advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.
- Engage in practice-informed research and research informed practice.
- Engage in policy practice.
- Engage with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
- Assess individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
- Intervene with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
- Evaluate practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
- Demonstrate knowledge of the Afrocentric Perspective with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities.
