Goals

The primary mission of the Social Work Program at UW-River Falls is to provide a learning environment conducive to developing appropriate skills, knowledge, and values necessary to prepare students who are enlightened as citizens, appreciative of diversity, committed to social justice, prepared to be life long learners, and able to serve as entry level generalist social work practitioners.

Program and/or curriculum

The UWRF BSW program is accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE), the nationally recognized accrediting organization in professional social work. The BSW is a professional course of study grounded in a liberal arts foundation. Students pursue a broad area major of course work and engage in a 450-hour internship supervised by accredited social work field instructors. All students conduct individual research as part of their curriculum and may be eligible for advanced standing at graduate programs in social work.

Faculty

The Social Work Program consists of three full-time professors who teach and advise within the academic program. Each department member comes from a direct practice background from a wide array of social work experiences. They are committed to helping students become skilled professionals.

The Profession of Social Work

Social Work is an active "doing" profession with a long history of caring for persons and social change. Social workers are involved in wideranging tasks in many different public and private services. Some of the kinds career paths include:

• child protection, school social work, family welfare services, youth social recreation
• health care practice in hospitals, long term care facilities, community clinics
• counseling and mental health services, developmental disabilities, crisis and violence intervention
• criminal justice practice in probation and parole, juvenile justice diversion and pre-trial forensics
• international practice with public or international humanitarian organizations such as Peace Corps, Red Cross or others
• business or industry practice in employee assistance programs, substance abuse, organizing
• social action or social change practice with community organizations, religious work, political advocacy and policy change groups.