DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL WORK

Welcome message from the Social Work Program Chair!

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the NEIU Social Work Program as we celebrate our 30 year anniversary! We are an energetic group, ready to welcome you. 

The Social Work Program has a long history of excellence at the undergraduate level and now we continue to build our legacy with the addition of our Master of Social Work (MSW) program. Our program is the third largest major at NEIU and we continue to graduate exceptional students who are ready to tackle some of the most difficult social problems we face in our communities and in our country. Many of our students move forward to MSW programs at NEIU, across Chicago and the country. I am personally excited to share that our new MSW program is thriving with our first cohort of 36 students graduating this May 2018! The program is also on schedule for accreditation through the Council on Social Work Education with a final site visit scheduled for Spring 2018. We are excited to offer the high quality social work educaiton that will train the future clinical social workers, generalist social workers, and the social policy-makers of tomorrow.

Learn more about our program and get involved. We look forward to meeting you very soon. 

Sincerely, Jade Stanley, Ed.D, MSW, Program Chair and Professor

Our History

Since 1988, our Bachelor of Arts in Social Work (BASW) Program has been accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE). CSWE accreditation signifies that our BASW 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 us at (773) 442-4760 or at kl-wilkens@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.

(UPDATED) NEIU's Master of Social Work (MSW) degree program is on track for accreditation by the Council on Social Work Education. All new programs have to go through a process which involves three stages: Benchmark I, Benchmark II and Benchmark III that also involves a rigorous self study. To date, we have passed both Benchmark I and Benchmark II. Benchmark III, along with a self study, was submitted and we are on schedule for our final CSWE site visit on April 9, 2018. All documents will be reviewed at the October 2018 meeting of the Council on Accreditation for the final determination of the MSW program's accreditation. 

For more information about the accreditation process, please review the information on CSWE's website.