Share, Explore, Engage, Discover (SEED) Mini-course

Only incoming MSW students enroll in this mini course. Mini-course Description: This mini course will introduce students to a local agency with a long history in the community. Ozone House, first founded in 1969, offers an excellent introductory case example for students linking social problems, direct practice, social service design, and policy (local, state, federal). We will examine how: • social problems are constructed and change over time;

• services are designed and delivered; • agency efforts are facilitated and constrained by policies; • service providers negotiate community resources; and • how marginalized populations are disproportionately impacted.

The instructors bring decades of practice experience (Doyle) and scholarship (Staller) on runaway and homeless youth to the classroom. We will encourage students to see the connective threads between micro, mezzo, and macro practice. Utilizing a simulation called, “Walk in their shoes”, students will encounter real-life decisions facing homeless youth. This experiential group activity will introduce content but also begin to build community through participation and discussion. From here we will use individual case vignettes to explore the practice and policy implications, focusing particularly on populations that traditionally have been marginalized (historically LGBT and youth of color are disproportionately represented). In a final project students will formulate an advocacy plan for clients: a) within the agency; b) across systems; and c) before city council. We hope to excite students about working together creatively and we aim to introduce them to the diverse content areas that they will be studying as they begin their formal education.