Advanced Topics in Macro Social Work

This mini-course offers an interdisciplinary approach to explore policies, procedures and practices designed to assure the safety of minors engaged in on-campus or University affiliated activities including research, clinical training internships, pediatric health and mental health care, student volunteer and service learning, and extracurricular activities involving children (e.g., sports camps, sibling campus visitation, etc.). Cutting edge topics relevant to minor safety will be included in the context of recent local and national breaches to child safety on University campuses. Presentations and discussions will focus on federal and state child protection policies, institutional policies for safe-guarding minor safety, gaps in safety promotion and risk management, and challenges to reporting and investigating breaches. Professional mandates for reporting suspicions and disclosures will be explored including the compatibility of legal protection for both institutions and victims.

Students will learn factual information regarding the scope of the problem. Additional knowledge will focus on strengths and limitations of institutional protections, risk and protection factors focused on minor safety on campus, and institutional policies, procedures, and practices designed to safe-guard minors while engaged in University sponsored or affiliated activities.

In terms of core competencies and associated skills, students will be able to:

• Analyze, formulate and advocate for changes in social policies to advance social and economic well-being and to deliver effective social work services
• Apply social work values and ethical principles to guide professional practice
• Apply critical thinking within the context of professional social work practice
• Practice without discrimination, with attention to power, and with respect for diversity and intersectional differences
• Promote visions of social and economic justice that advance human rights
• Respond to contexts that shape practice and knowledge