SW-200 Intro to Social Work (3 credits)
This course is the gateway into the social work major. It is meant to provide students with an overview of the field of social work, including its history, values and ethics, theoretical frameworks, various practice areas, and philosophy of social work. Students will gain exposure to social work's role with cultural competency, social justice, social welfare, and social policy. The roles, practices, contributions, and perspectives that social work has with social welfare policy will be explored.
SW-250 Human Behavior in the Social Environment (3 credits)
In this course, students will acquire knowledge and skills about the biological, sociological, psychological, cultural, and spiritual development throughout the lifespan, conception through elder years. Human development with the social environment emphasis from individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities perspectives and various theoretical frameworks. Students will apply core social work competencies.
SW-300 Social Work Practice Methods: Individuals (3 credits)
In this introductory course, students will develop foundational skills related to individual social work practice. These skills are contextualized within ongoing learning about the profession of social work, including the global impact of mental health, theories of how people change, and a deep dive into the identities and motivations of social workers themselves - why people go into "helping" professions, and how that impacts their practice. Beyond practitioner motivation and self-examination, this class will invite students to consider the complexity of a client, understand the critical concept of person-in-environment, the ways that client behavior is an expression of an unmet need, a basic introduction to trauma, and the impact of power, privilege, and systems of oppression on client outcomes. Specific skills include conducting assessments, determining interventions, assessing systemic and environmental factors, and the ability to engage clients with self-awareness, respect, empathy, and compassion.
Prerequisite(s): SW-200
SW-320 Families and Society (3 credits)
This course examines the family, its structures, and functions. It will look at what families are, why they exist, and how they differ and change. This course is about students' lives as a family members. Students discuss society's perspective of a family, and understanding them holistically. Students study the family from the perspective of behavioral science: from the disciplines of social work, sociology, and related fields.
SW-350 Special Topics in Social Work (1 credit)
This course allows students to explore in depth a topic featured in professional research and training in the field of social work and social services, such as those emphasized in the surrounding area of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin. Topics for the course will rotate according to assessments of need and based on feedback from the community, including the Social Work Advisory Council. Sample topics may include Trauma Informed Care, Child and Family Welfare, Violence against Women, Racial Social Justice, Death and Dying, and Health Care Services Access.
SW-350A Mental Health Aid (1 credit)
This course allows students to explore in depth a topic featured in professional research and training in the field of social work and social services, such as those emphasized in the surrounding area of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin. Topics for the course will rotate according to assessments of need and based on feedback from the community, including the Social Work Advisory Council. Sample topics may include Trauma Informed Care, Child and Family Welfare, Violence against Women, Racial Social Justice, Death and Dying, and Health Care Services Access.
SW-350B Topics Course (1 credit)
This course allows students to explore the topic of mental health. This one credit course teaches students a beginning understanding of how to identify, understand, and respond regarding mental health issues. This course also allows students to attend the Mental Health Summit at Alverno College. Students will experience various learning styles: PowerPoints, Videos, Class Discussion, Role Plays, Readings, Small Group Discussion, and Self-Reflections. Assignments: A review of a website prior to the first class, attendance at both in person classes, and active participation. Class sessions will have a professional workshop/conference feel. Two dates of the class: 2/17/24 and 2/24/24. All majors are welcome.
SW-350C Special Topics in Social Work (1 credit)
This course allows students to explore in depth a topic featured in professional research and training in the field of social work and social services, such as those emphasized in the surrounding area of Milwaukee and the state of Wisconsin. Topics for the course will rotate according to assessments of need and based on feedback from the community, including the Social Work Advisory Council. Sample topics may include Trauma Informed Care, Child and Family Welfare, Violence against Women, Racial Social Justice, Death and Dying, and Health Care Services Access.
SW-400 Social Work Practice Methods: Groups & Families (3 credits)
This is the mezzo social work practice course. In this course, students establish a basic understanding of restorative justice circles as a method of healing within families and groups. Students will learn the theories and basic skills of family and group assessment, intervention, and facilitation. This class will examine and critique how the carceral logic of punishment, isolation, and compliance has permeated the normative approaches to family and group interventions, particularly with regard to case management, program management, and group facilitation. As an abolitionist alternative approach to family and group intervention, students learn about and practice the foundational restorative justice skill of "circling." Lastly, the student will gain knowledge of interprofessional team meetings.
SW-430 Systems of Oppression Groups & Family (3 credits)
Who benefits from social policy and systems of oppression? The premise of this class is that oppression persists not merely because of ideologies of prejudice, but because some people materially benefit from the oppression of others. Students will review works by thought leaders of various marginalized identities and then make connections between individual experiences of prejudice and systemic power imbalances in social policy that create oppression. We will examine issues of oppression through the lens of historical material and economic forces, distinguishing between personal prejudice and systems of power. Topics will include the economic function of the trans-Atlantic slave trade and how concepts of race and Blackness were created to justify an economy built on slave labor. Students will explore how oppressed communities are divided amongst themselves by disproportionately benefitting or suffering under such systems of power and social policy.
SW-450 Grassroots Organizing (3 credits)
This is the macro social work practice course. Change at a macro community level is something many social workers get into social work to accomplish but seems to allude to even the most dedicated practitioners because macro systems are self-reinforcing and resistant to change. This class will review the most conventional top-down approaches to macro-level change including electoral politics, social programs, and policy advocacy. Then we'll contrast those conventions with grassroots approaches including labor organizing, community organizing, and social movements. The class will include designing a mock grassroots community organizing campaign for change and student-developed grassroots approaches to modern social problems.
SW-483 Social Work Practicum Education (9 credits)
This Social Work Practicum Education course is designed to provide the student with an opportunity to apply social work knowledge, skills, and values learned in the classroom to an approved community agency/organization. This includes gained knowledge and values, practice and professional skills, exposure to evidence-based practice, and appreciation of the NASW Code of Ethics. Practicum Education is defined as a high impact practice and the pedagogical course for social work education. As students apply their academic course work to social work-based opportunities, they demonstrate and achieve the CSWE EPAS nine (9) competencies and associated behaviors and dimensions known as fundamental to baccalaureate social work. Students are supervised by both an experienced social worker and by an academic social work faculty member. The student is expected to learn a holistic and broad knowledge base of the agency/organization while practicing as a social worker in the agency/organization setting. Via this 9-credit course, students are expected to complete at the minimum 400 hours at their assigned agency/organization as well as attend regular course seminars and complete all academic assignments/assessments. Consent by instructor needed.