 | HISTORY OF OUR PROGRAM: |
The Social Work program was initially developed in 1970 through NEIU’s Uptown People’s Center. Located off-campus, this center offered services to multi-ethnic, multi-racial Uptown-Lakeview community on Chicago’s northeast side. From 1970 to 1975, the primary goal of the center was to identify and develop potential leaders in the community who could assist in the development of solutions to community problems. The Uptown People’s Center demonstrated NEIU’s commitment to its urban mission. The Uptown-Lakeview community was considered an oppressed community, and oppression was viewed as a class issue. Student and community members of the Center were of diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds: primarily Asians, Hispanics, American Indians, Blacks, and Appalachian Whites. If students from different racial/ethnic backgrounds could learn from and about each other in the process of a united struggle against injustice, these students' understanding of justice could be utilized as a working tool to solve community problems.
In 1975, the Board of Governors of State Colleges and Universities (BOG) approved the Human Services major, which offered courses that led to a Bachelor of Arts degree in Human Services. In 1976, the Human Services degree program became an academic unit independent of the Uptown People’s Center, and began offering courses almost exclusively on the main campus. The Human Services major was geared toward undergraduate students who desired pursuit of a career in the human services. The program was conceptualized as interdisciplinary, stressing the generic skills of human service tasks. The coordinator of the program at that time believed that preparation for social work would direct students to specialized jobs rather than to the more general human service profession. In 1976, the first MSW social work faculty member was hired. As more social workers joined the faculty, the program began making incremental curriculum changes more oriented to social work. In 1980, the Board of Governors granted departmental status to the Human Services Program. By 1985, the Board of Governors granted both a name change to social work and a degree change to a BASW, clearing the way for the department to pursue professional social work accreditation. Initial CSWE accreditation granted in June 1989 was retroactive to September 1, 1988. In 1991, our accreditation was reaffirmed until Year 2000. We have just completed our next cycle and have been granted re-accreditation until Year 2009.
| MISSION OF THE PROGRAM |
The mission of the Social Work Program is to provide quality education to social work students that will enable them to become competent, beginning level, generalist practitioners. Our mission is consistent with the University’s mission of providing an accessible, quality education to students from a wide variety of ethnic, socio-economic, and academic backgrounds.
We believe education in social work goes beyond mere training in that education develops critical thinking skills and enhances a student’s ability to analyze, evaluate and synthesize concepts and ideas. We also believe that social work education is responsible for socializing students into the values and ethics of the profession, thus guiding students to incorporate values and attitudes into their educational and professional careers. This ensures that students will be flexible and competent to practice with diverse population groups.
| GOALS OF THE PROGRAM: |
The goals of the Social Work Program are to prepare beginning level social work practitioners who:
| Engage in generalist practice with diverse populations, |
| Incorporate the values and ethics of the social work profession with commitment to the development of a professional identity, |
| Appropriately and effectively respond to and actively seek needed changes in social and economic injustices, |
| Participate in on-going professional development activities and are continuously involved in the evaluation of practice. |
More specially you will learn:
Knowledge of the:
| interface between the biological, social, and environmental contexts in which behavior is manifested over the life span; |
| provisions of major social welfare programs as well as an understanding of the interrelationship between political, economic, and social factors in shaping these provisions; |
| institutional policies and practices that foster or suppress oppression and discrimination that impact the development and functioning of people of color, women, the elderly, the disabled, and those vulnerable because of their sexual orientation; |
| scientific process of inquiry and of the interrelationship of research and practice; |
| roles and activities of social workers engaged in generalist practice. |
Values that reflect:
| respect for social and cultural diversity, and the incorporation of this orientation into their perspective; |
| an identification with the values and ethics of the profession, and a recognition of how professional values and ethics interface with personal values and with those of persons of diverse backgrounds; |
The Skills to:
| consume, critically assess, and produce social work research; |
| use research methods in the evaluation of one’s own practice; |
| engage in activities that will stimulate the development of adequate social welfare services; |
| engage in conversations of empowerment with individuals, families, groups and communities of diverse backgrounds; |
| use communication skills differentially, |
| use supervision appropriate to Generalist practice; |
| function within the structure of organizations and service delivery systems; |
| seek necessary organizational change under appropriate supervision. |