Social Work Practice with Community and Social Systems

This course will prepare students to engage in integrated practice focused on utilizing community and social systems to support and empower individuals, families, and communities and envision and work towards social justice goals. This will include skills for entering, assessing, and working collaboratively with client systems and their social networks, including assessment of power differences and building on diversity within the community. This course will build on practice methods presented in the foundation courses and give special attention to partnership, strengths based, and empowering models of practice and those that further social justice goals. Special emphasis will be placed on conducting this work in a multicultural context with vulnerable and oppressed populations and communities and to identify and reduce the consequences of unrecognized privilege.