Historical Perspective and Mission

Historical perspective School mission University mission

Historical perspective

The roots of the School of Social Work go deep into the welfare system of North Carolina. In 1919, the State legislature passed a law that required every county to organize for public welfare services and to employ a superintendent of public welfare. Just one year later, in September 1920, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill established the School of Public Welfare, which was the forerunner of our present School. From the beginning, the School had a strong commitment to public service with a basic orientation to sociology and social problems. Its mission was to offer instruction in social problems, to prepare students for social work practice and for community leadership, to provide service to North Carolina, and to carry on research and publish findings. The School was productively and cordially related to county welfare departments and to the North Carolina Department of Public Welfare.

In 1932, the School of Public Welfare was expanded into the School of Public Administration, with the Division of Public Welfare and Social Work as one of its components. Later, the Division was known as the Division of Public Welfare and Social Work of the Graduate School. In 1950, by action of the Board of Trustees of the University, the Division became the School of Social Work. At this time, the School affiliated with the American Association of Schools of Social Work and the National Association of Schools of Social Administration. In 1952, when these organizations were merged into the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the School became an accredited member.

While the School's educational program has changed substantially since it was organized in 1920, there has been consistent emphasis on integrating the essence of academic instruction with the substance of practical field instruction. Public and voluntary agencies have provided field learning experiences in full cooperation with the School. The arrangements for field experience have varied through the years from the concurrent to the block system. The pattern in recent years has been the concurrent system with block placements available on a selective basis.

The School began with a strong commitment to education for the public social services. It shared the post-World War II preoccupation with a clinical emphasis, achieving eminence as a functional casework school. It responded to America's awakening to poverty and civil rights with a range of field and classroom learning opportunities in work with groups and communities. By the early 1970s, it widened its base of instruction. Today, the School seeks to prepare its students for direct practice with individuals, families and groups and macro practice with organizations and communities in the broad areas of public service as well as for the essential programs offered under voluntary auspices.

School mission

The mission of the School of Social Work is to prepare students for careers in strengthening families and communities through public and nonprofit settings, to develop and test knowledge related to Social Work and to provide leadership in addressing social problems.

Curriculum Emphasis

Specific curriculum concerns support the mission and recognize the uniqueness of the region served. These concerns are for disadvantaged, vulnerable, and oppressed individuals, families and communities.

Goals

Prepare students for advanced social work practice in nonprofit and public settings using a social intervention framework. Develop knowledge and technologies to enhance individual, family, organization and community functioning and capacities. Provide leadership for policies, programs and intervention strategies that inform and strengthen families and communities. Disseminate knowledge through training, publication, and consultation locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally.

MSW Program Objectives

The purpose of the Master's Program in Social Work is to prepare students for agency-based practice, management of nonprofit and public agencies, community practice, and leadership positions in the social work profession. The following outcomes were adopted by the faculty on March 22, 2001. On completion of this program, students should demonstrate these outcomes:

1. Apply knowledge of human development in the social environment, including individual development within the context of families and communities, to social interventions in a field of practice.
2. Understand and adhere to the NASW Code of Ethics and other relevant professional standards. Practice in a manner that validates and enhances assets and capacities.
3. Recognize economic and political forces in the evolution of the response to social need in the United States. Understand the precedents of con-temporary policies, programs, practices, and ideologies of social welfare; the historical antecedents of poverty, discrimination, and inequality; and the emergence of the social work profession.
4. Practice in a manner that validates and enhances the assets and capacities of all client systems and communities, particularly diverse populations and dis-advantaged, vul-nerable, or oppressed groups.
5. Employ strategies for change that promote empowerment of clients and social justice.
6. Understand the effect of organizational and social policies on client systems of all sizes, service delivery systems, and practitioners within public and nonprofit settings. Develop responsible policies that build on capacities and strengthen individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
7. Engage in family-centered practice that reflects an understanding of social, economic, and political forces and regional issues that affect disadvantaged, vulnerable, and oppressed persons and families.
8. Demonstrate the professional use of self in practice, including the capacity for self-examination, insight, and self-awareness and the ability to establish and maintain effective helping relationships that facilitate planned change.
9. Working with clients, assess multiple systems and make practice decisions using theoretical frameworks selected for their utility and effectiveness. Apply decisions in a range of practice settings with a variety of systems of different sizes and capacities.
10. Plan and implement social intervention strategies appropriate for use in direct practice or in management and community practice.
11. Monitor the effectiveness of one's own professional practice and the effectiveness of programs through the appropriate application of research techniques and evaluation methodologies. Demonstrate ability to evaluate social work research and apply it to practice.
12. Demonstrate the skills necessary for constructive work within an organization, including the ability to communicate effectively orally and in writing, use technology in support of effective social work practice, and perform both maintenance and task functions in a group.
13. Use supervision and consultation to support prudent and ethical practice.
14. Understand the importance of continued professional renewal; resolve to remain abreast of emerging social work literature; and commit to participation in continuing education opportunities.
    

Educational Functions

The educational functions of the school are designed for four groups: students seeking the Master of Social Work (MSW) degree, practitioners receiving professional training and technical assistance, administration and legislative policy makers, and advanced students seeking a PhD. These functions prepare social work students and other participants to serve as leaders, teachers, researchers, and scholars; and they prepare students for agency-based practice.

A primary educational function of the School is to offer all students the opportunity to learn to evaluate their practice with individuals, families, small groups, organizations, and communities. The aim is to help develop competent and accountable social workers who can strengthen families and their communities and who will contribute to the generation of practice knowledge.

Another important function of the school is to explore and test human service ideas, issues, and practices. This is carried out, in part, by The Jordan Institute for Families, a component of the School that conducts research on a variety of issues and offers technical assistance and short-term training to individuals and human service agencies.

A third significant function is to offer continuing education and consultation to people and programs across the state, throughout the country, and abroad in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Central America, and South America.

The School conducts its work in the rich climate of multidisciplinary exchange available at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. University partners include the schools of Public Health, Medicine, Nursing, Education, and Law; the departments of Public Administration, City and Regional Planning, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology; and the Institute of Government and the Odom Institute for Research in the Social Sciences.

Social Work Purposes

The following social work purposes inform the mission of the School:

1. To contribute to relationships among individuals and between individuals and social institutions in order to promote social justice, to create opportunities for people to live with dignity and freedom, and to improve the quality of life;
2. To enable individuals, families, groups, communities, and organizations to function more effectively by helping them to prevent distress and to use resources beneficially;
3. To plan, develop, and implement social policies and programs to meet basic human needs and to aid people in the full development of their own capabilities;
4. To use legislative advocacy and other forms of social political action to pursue needed policies and programs;
5. To prevent and eliminate discrimination against any person or group on the basis of age, color, gender, marital status, mental or physical disability, national origin, political belief, race, religion, sexual orientation, or any other preference or personal characteristic, condition, or status; and
6. To develop and test professional knowledge and skills related to the purposes listed above.