Class Descriptions

SW661

Budgeting and Fiscal Management

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Management & Leadership (Host), Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research
Description:
This course will present the fundamental knowledge and skills needed to develop and manage the budget and finances of a social impact organization and its programs. Students will learn to use the techniques necessary to: 1) Plan, develop, display, revise, monitor, and evaluate a program budget using different kinds of budget formats; 2) Evaluate past financial performance; 3) Evaluate and propose financial changes for the future; 4) Monitor and evaluate the cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness of social impact programs and organizations. The course will include exercises to develop and manage a budget for a program in an organization, along with a review of relevant policies and procedures in these organizations. Students will learn to understand cost analysis, and calculate income and expense estimates. The pros and cons of using various types of budgets will be compared. Students will receive an introduction to the process of overall organizational financial planning and auditing, including such topics as the role of boards of directors and consultants in financial management, planning, and evaluation. Calculation of indirect (overhead) costs, allocation methods, and issues of continuation funding will be discussed. Students will learn to develop an annual budget. Development of a budget will include estimating and allocating all costs, including that of personnel, which is the major expense in human service programs. Students will learn how basic financial transactions are reported through standard accounting procedures, how revenues and expenses are monitored and how all the finances of the agency are consolidated into typical financial statements. Additional topics are introduced to highlight contemporary issues affecting financial stability and sustainability.
View Course

SW662

Frameworks for Understanding Social Impact Organizations

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Foundation Essentials required
Pathway Requirement For:
Management & Leadership (Host)
Pathway Elective For:
Community Change, Global Social Work Practice, Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research, Social Work Practice with Older Adults and Families from a Lifespan Perspective, Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
This course will provide an overview of traditional and contemporary organizational theories and strategic frameworks relevant to understanding social impact organizations. A wide range of topics will be covered including but not limited to: organizational survival and adaptation to environmental changes, power asymmetry/dynamics between service providers and clients, staff and client diversity and inclusion, and informal strategies that providers develop to legitimize their practices while satisfying multiple stakeholders’ expectations. Using multiple theories and perspectives, students will develop a conceptual framework for recognizing how various environmental-, organizational-, and individual-level attributes shape social impact organizational behaviors and service provider’s practices. The framework will help students to reflect on organizational experiences and critically analyze institutionalized assumptions and beliefs that reside within social impact organizations. Using the conceptual basis acquired from this course, students will be asked to analyze a social impact organization and recommend strategies to improve organizational functioning.
View Course

SW663

Fundraising and Grant writing

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Community Change, Management & Leadership (Host), Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research
Description:
Social impact organizations secure resources through a variety of methods, including fees, grants, contracts, financial gifts, in-kind (non-cash) contributions, and investments. This course involves assessing an agency’s resource mix and developing tactics and strategies to sustain or expand its revenue streams. Students will explore the range of possible income sources that organizations can allocate to advance social justice by expanding and improving services, empowering groups, reaching populations in need, improving social conditions or anticipating and responding to new challenges. The implications of using alternative approaches of income generation and of changing the income mix will be analyzed in terms of mission accomplishment, program viability, adherence to ethics and values, and organizational sustainability. Skill development will be emphasized in areas such as grant seeking, proposal writing, donor development, direct solicitation of gifts, service contracting, and strategically communicating missions. Students will learn how to identify prospective funding sources, build relationships with potential donors, funders and collaborators, write, package and submit grant proposals, and communicate strategically. This course will also address emerging and changing trends in philanthropy.
View Course

SW665

Social Impact Leadership and Governance

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
Foundation Essentials Required
Pathway Requirement For:
Management & Leadership (Host)
Pathway Elective For:
Policy & Political Social Work, Children, Youth, and Families
Description:
This course will examine the attributes, skills, behaviors, problems, and issues associated with leadership in social impact organizations, both in the public and private sectors. Students will explore multiple styles of leadership, as well as the application of those styles in various settings. Some emphasis will be placed on the basic rudiments of executive positions and roles in relation to decision-making and facilitation, organizational governance, and relationships with boards of directors and external stakeholders. Issues pertaining to intersectional dimensions of identity (ability, age, class, color, culture, ethnicity, family structure, gender, gender identity and gender expression, marital status, national origin, race, religion, spirituality, sex, sexual orientation) will be given special attention, particularly as students develop their own identity as leaders and manage relationships and conflict in the workplace. Leadership will also be analyzed in relation to the stages of organizational development. Concomitant with the above executive roles and skills, this course will address strategies for organizational development that are directed toward advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as enhancing adaptability, effectiveness, and efficiency to serving populations that have traditionally experienced marginalization.
View Course

SW670

Qualitative Methodologies for Socially Just Inquiry

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
SW507
Pathway Requirement For:
Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host)
Pathway Elective For:
Global Social Work Practice, Policy & Political Social Work
Description:
This course is designed as an introduction to the process of qualitative inquiry with a particular focus on the challenges of engaging in anti-oppressive, socially just, culturally sensitive, and decolonizing research activities. It will introduce students to the philosophical underpinnings of qualitative inquiry as well as expose them to basic issues in designing and implementing qualitative research projects. Students enrolled in the Evaluation and Research Pathway must select from one of two required foundational courses before completing their specialized electives in methodologies and methods. This course will meet that foundational requirement.
View Course

SW671

Quantitative Methodologies for Socially Just Inquiry

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
SW507
Pathway Requirement For:
Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host)
Pathway Elective For:
Global Social Work Practice, Policy & Political Social Work
Description:
This course is designed to advance the foundational ideas of quantitative research in social work and the social sciences, with a particular focus on applied quantitative research dedicated to the study of social problems and the development of social interventions at the macro, meso and micro levels. The course will deepen students’ understanding of such issues as sample selection, measurement, and questionnaire design, research design, and basic analytic approaches.
View Course

SW672

Data Visualization Applications

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Management & Leadership, Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host)
Description:
With today’s world increasingly revolving around data, skills in data management, analysis, and visualization have become essential and in demand across industries, especially social work. This course empowers students without a math or statistics background to work effectively with data and data management systems. Strong computer competencies are required. The course covers three major areas to help you acquire practical skills for working with data across various settings. - Data Preparation: Learn the challenges of dealing with messy, real-world data. Hands-on exercises teach you how to clean, organize, and manage data. - Data Visualization: Discover how to create charts and graphs to bring out key insights and patterns embedded in your data. You will learn to select optimal strategies based on your type of data and your audience’s information needs. - Data Storytelling: Tie together all the knowledge and skills by learning to design interactive dashboards with engaging data narratives. We'll explore essential design principles concerning layout, color, and typography. The course culminates with a capstone project, where you'll apply and display your new skills by building an interactive dashboard on a topic that interests you. This project will be a valuable addition to your professional portfolio, displaying a diverse set of in-demand skills.
View Course

SW673

Advanced Statistics

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host)
Description:
This course is designed to introduce students to statistics and statistical methods. It is intended and designed for students who already have some familiarity with statistics. Students in this course will acquire the skills to create and comprehend statistical reports related to program evaluation and research practice. Students will be able to assess the value and limitations of measures of central tendency (means, medians and modes), rates, and statistical estimates such as correlations and regression parameters. This course will help students develop the ability to use advanced quantitative methods to describe and analyze real world situations in social work settings and to make ethical inferences and decisions based on the statistical results. Students will learn to choose methods of statistical analysis to improve social policy decisions, service delivery, and intervention programs. Students will learn to understand and use appropriate language with their statistical analyses to clarify meaning and to explain the inferences (e.g. causal inferences) that can be appropriately made from specific data. 
View Course

SW682

Immigration, Forced Migration, and Transformative Social Work Practice

Grading Method:
Graded
Credits:
3 Credit Hours
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Community Change, Global Social Work Practice (Host), Policy & Political Social Work
Description:
This course focuses on immigration - one of the most volatile and hotly debated issues of our time. How we respond to the myriad questions about immigration and immigrants and the problems generated by public policy responses to various kinds of immigration will determine how our society and economy will look and function in the future. Students will gain historical, structural and critical analyses of theories and debates related to immigration and forced migration, such as: political economy perspectives about the supply and demand of migrant labor; identity, culture and intersectionality based on Critical Latinx Theory; the challenges of ‘integration’; and tensions between citizenship rights activism versus No Borders activism. Students will understand policies and systems that both facilitate and delimit social work practice with immigrants and refugees, including the family, child welfare, refugee resettlement, asylum, health and mental health, community and legal systems. This course imparts and aspires for social work practice with immigrants and refugees that is forward-looking, transformative and just.
View Course

SW686

An Introduction to Human Rights

Grading Method:
S/U
Credits:
1 Credit Hour
Prerequisites:
None
Pathway Elective For:
Community Change, Global Social Work Practice (Host), Policy & Political Social Work
Description:
The course aims to provide a basic introduction to international human rights, their conceptual and historical foundations, as well as the main international legal instruments and institutions aimed at protecting and promoting human rights worldwide. The course has three purposes: to define and explore the terms, histories, and theories of human rights; examine alternative or competing definitions of human rights; and apply human rights thinking to local and international issues using a case-based approach. Throughout the course, concrete case studies will be used to illustrate the range of human rights problems, as well as the utility of the accountability paradigm to current international and national events and problems. More specifically, students will unpack the rights of particularly vulnerable groups, such as women, children, refugees, people with disabilities, and members of LGBTQIA+ communities. The course includes lectures, group discussions, and guest lectures by representatives from local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and international organizations.
View Course