DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK
Welcome message from the Social Work Program Chair!
Welcome to our social work department at Northeastern Illinois University. It is an exciting time for our program and for the university as we strive to prepare competent professional social workers for the challenges ahead. Part of our mission is to continue to disseminate knowledge and engage our communities. We invite you to join us. We have both baccalaureate (BSW) and Masters (MSW) programs in our department. Our BSW program has been continuously reaffirmed every 8 years since 1988. Our MSW program received initial accreditation in 2019 and will be reaffirmed in 2023. Our BSW program is probably the second largest major in the College of Arts and Sciences and our BSW and MSW are the fastest growing programs in the college.
Our dedicated faculty are recognized for their exceptional teaching, research, mentorship, service, and scholarship in a variety of areas: clinical social work practice, policy, research, supervision, child welfare, public health, domestic violence, trauma, homelessness, school social work, and social activism, and so on. This faculty continuously engage with state and private agencies to enhance the social and economic wellbeing of the most vulnerable and underserved populations among us. Many thanks for the many ways these professors support and enhance our program and our college.
Our student interns are placed in a variety of social service settings including Nursing Homes, Schools, Homeless Shelters, Hospitals, Mental Health Facilities, Juvenile Justice Systems, Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), Department of Veteran Affairs, Domestic Violence Shelters, and so on. Together, our interns in the BSW and MSW programs provide more than 90,000 hours of service per year to our local agencies through our signature pedagogy - the field education.
Learn more about our history, our mission and the amazing career opportunities in the social work field.
Sincerely, Job Elom Ngwe, PhD., MSW, M.Ed. Program Chair and Professor
Our History
Since 1988, our Bachelor of Arts in Social Work (BSW) Program has been accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). CSWE accreditation signifies that our BSW program meets nationally accepted standards in eight areas:
- Mission, goals and objectives
- Curriculum governance, structure and resources
- Faculty
- Student professional development
- Non-discrimination and human diversity
- Program renewal
- Program assessment and continuous improvement
Our Mission
The Social Work Program’s mission is to produce generalist practitioners who are prepared for entry-level social work positions and admission into graduate schools of social work. Our students become critical thinkers, gaining social work values, professional identities and knowledge through self-reflection and service learning. The NASW Code of Ethics highlights the core values that govern our work and program curriculum, which is integrated into both the undergraduate and graduate programs.
We train a diverse student body to engage with their own strengths and the strengths of diverse communities. We emphasize the intersections among this diversity across local and global contexts to promote social justice and human rights. As the only publicly funded BSW and MSW program in the Chicago area, Northeastern provides affordable, socially responsible and community-based, quality undergraduate social work education.
Career Opportunities in Social Work
Careers opportunities in social work are numerous and include such areas as mental health; health services; substance abuse; school social work; local, state and federal government; corrections; homelessness outreach and services; services in international settings; domestic violence treatment and prevention; hospice services; and many others. After the completion of Northeastern’s Social Work Program, social work graduates are regularly offered positions by the agency at which they completed their field practicum.
If you have any questions about your educational opportunities in Northeastern’s Social Work Program, please feel free to contact our office at (773) 442-4760 or at csbudd@neiu.edu.
Accreditations
Northeastern Illinois University Social Work Program offers a bachelor's of arts degree in social work, which is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation.
Accreditation of the baccalaureate social work program by the Council on Social Work Education’s Commission on Accreditation indicates that it meets or exceeds criteria for the assessment of program quality evaluated through a peer review process. An accredited program has sufficient resources to meet its mission and goals and the Commission on Accreditation has verified that it demonstrates compliance with all sections of the Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards.
Accreditation applies to all program sites and program delivery methods of an accredited program. Accreditation provides reasonable assurance about the quality of the program and the competence of students graduating from the program
NEIU's Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) degree program has been continuously accredited by the Council on Social Work Education since 1988. Our current accreditation document can be found below.
NEIU's Master of Social Work (MSW) degree program has been accredited since February 2019.
For more information about the accreditation process, please review the information on CSWE's website.
