| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | Permission of Instructor |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
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| Prerequisites: | Foundation Essentials required |
| Course Description: | In this course, students will be exposed to various theoretical frameworks informing policy development and gain an understanding of basic economic principles frequently employed in policy debates and discussions. With this knowledge, students will be able to identify, in a more sophisticated and nuanced way, policies that promote social justice and those that do not; understand how certain theoretical frameworks and ideas have been used to oppress and empower different groups, and identify points of interventions within existing institutions. One part of the course will cover different concepts of justice, fairness, and equity as they apply to public policy. Students will also interrogate ideas about neoliberalism, capitalism, globalization, and financialization and their influence on policies. Students will be introduced to concepts from economic theory that often used to promote or thwart the development of certain policies. This includes the concepts of supply and demand; market failure; and public goods. |
| Pathway Requirement For: | Policy & Political Social Work (Host) |
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| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership, Program Evaluation and Applied Research, Welfare of Children & Families |
| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | Foundation Essentials required |
| Course Description: | This course will introduce students to a set of analytic tools and skills for critical policy thinking, reading, and writing. Analytic tools introduced in this class include frameworks for policy analysis and using feminist, intersectional, and critical race lenses for policy analysis. The impact of race, gender, and class on policy development and enactment are emphasized throughout the course as well as an exploration of global approaches to policy analysis. This course will enhance critical writing skills and teach concise and persuasive writing methods, issue framing, and legislative literacy for effective policy writing. Students will learn qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis methods frequently used for policy analysis. Students will also be introduced to policy document writing, including policy briefs, memos, factsheets, op-eds, and public comments. Finally, students will learn how to locate, read, and translate policy for community consumption. |
| Pathway Requirement For: | Policy & Political Social Work (Host) |
|---|---|
| Pathway Elective For: | Global Social Work Practice, Management & Leadership, Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course examines methods of organizing people for social and political action on their own behalf or on behalf of others. Students will analyze different approaches to bringing people together for collective action, building organizational capacity, and generating power, with emphasis on the role of labor unions, coalitions, political organizing, and community-based policy advocacy. The course includes the study of skills in analyzing power structures, developing action strategies, conflict and persuasive tactics, challenging oppressive structures, conducting community campaigns, using political advocacy as a form of mobilization, and understanding contemporary social issues as they affect oppressed and disadvantaged communities. Special emphasis will be placed on organizing around social, economic, racial, and political injustice in the US and globally. Additional emphasis will be placed on organizing with communities of color, women, LGBTQIA2S+ populations, and other under-represented groups. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Community Change (Host), Management & Leadership, Policy & Political Social Work |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | Traditional project management tools enable social workers to conceive, plan, design, implement, manage, assess, and change projects effectively. Whereas projects are time-bound and discrete, programs are an ongoing collection of projects that can be managed together. Managing programs and projects in an inclusive and socially just manner necessarily requires engaging all people involved or affected by a project in meaningful and deliberate ways. Students will weave technical—and technological—tools together with inclusive structures in order to include and engage all stakeholders in the success of projects and programs. Technical skills developed in this course involve selecting and implementing tools to strategically design and manage projects in rapidly changing environments, as well as maximizing inclusion and equity with diverse populations. Management is a set of well-known processes, like planning, budgeting, structuring jobs, staffing jobs, measuring performance and problem-solving. This course will concentrate on single service projects as planned systems of action that engage the perspectives of clients, program and project staff, directors and managers, as well as the full organization. This course will prepare students to assist in tasks common to all phases of project development and assume independent responsibility for performing tasks some of these tasks (e.g., documenting program plans, developing initial budgets, program process analysis, and scheduling change). Specific attention will be given to issues in program design and development and the differential impacts on social identity groups that traditionally have been marginalized. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Community Change, Global Social Work Practice, Management & Leadership (Host), Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Global Social Work Practice, Management & Leadership (Host), Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | Foundation Essentials required |
| Course 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. |
| 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, Welfare of Children & Families |
| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course 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 mission. 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. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Community Change, Global Social Work Practice, Management & Leadership (Host), Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course will focus on how administrators of social impact organizations can increase their effectiveness by supporting quality staff performance and employee engagement through structured human resource practice methods. This course will present ways to develop an equitable, healthy, and viable workplace for employees and employers. It will explore the role of social workers as change agents within organizations and the societal level impact of those changes. Students will learn relevant skills in staff recruitment, hiring, retention and termination, staff development, compensation and performance, and the development of benefit packages. Relevant laws and legislation governing workplace relationships such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) will also be reviewed. Students will learn about work organization and job design, personnel recruitment and selection, performance monitoring and improvement, and compensation management. Students will learn that personnel management and staff development within human service organizations involve shared responsibility and active participation. Issues pertaining to dimensions of identity (ability, age, class, color, culture, ethnicity, family structure, gender [including gender identity and gender expression], marital status, national origin, race, religion or spirituality, sex, and sexual orientation) will be given special attention, particularly in the areas of recruitment, promotion, compensation, and benefits. Emphasis will also be placed on assessing and developing organizational cultures that are inclusive and maximize their positive impact. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | Foundation Essentials Required |
| Course 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. |
| Pathway Requirement For: | Management & Leadership (Host) |
|---|---|
| Pathway Elective For: | Policy & Political Social Work, Welfare of Children & Families |
| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | In an era of evidence based practice, community workers, advocates, and evaluators will likely find that they need to interpret and visualize data from a wide variety of sources. Understanding, interpreting and visualizing data (including some basic coding) can make the difference in successfully or unsuccessfully advocating for communities, clients or programs, and for understanding the impact of programs on clients. Increasingly, data relevant to community, participant and client well-being are available from a broad range of sources, whether those be databases of volunteers and donors, the Census, the World Bank, in addition to many others. This course will be focused on the acquisition of concrete applicable skills and strategies for interpreting and visualizing community data, including learning in R, Tableau and QGIS. Some learning of basic coding in R will be involved in this course. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Global Social Work Practice, Management & Leadership, Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host) |
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| Credits: | 3 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | In this course, students will be introduced to mixed methods research in the social and behavioral sciences. Mixed methods, here, include both qualitative and quantitative inquiry and can be situated in either positivistic and constructivist paradigms. The course will explore the kinds of research questions that are best answered with mixed methods, and this understanding will enable students to determine if mixed methods are advantageous, given their problem statement and research questions. In this course, less attention will be given to the single methods alone, but rather, how they integrate during each stage of the research process for a mixed methods study. The focus of the course is to consider how each method can inform each step of the research process to answer complex research questions. The course is best suited for students with comfort and familiarity using one or both of the single methods (qualitative or quantitative). |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership, Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | The term “post-truth,” the Oxford Dictionaries 2016 Word of the Year, reflects an era where everyone is a few clicks away from information that supports any goal, belief, or outcome desired whether or not that information is factual. Evaluating information and recognizing “fake news” is a critical skill for everyone. For social workers, advocates, policy makers, and others responsible for human well-being, it’s essential to find reliable data and other evidence to promote best practice and avoid the dangers of inaccurate information. Skill in locating and evaluating information can also help a practitioner work with clients and others who bring incorrect information into an interaction. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Community Change, Management & Leadership, Policy & Political Social Work (Host), Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course teaches students about the role of social media in social change. Students will explore research that demonstrates the ways that social media has changed/is changing the social world. This will include an exploration of the harmful changes that can result from social media (such as mental health issues, and increases in extremism, polarization, and misinformation), as well as the anti-oppressive changes that are possible (such as increases in social connection and community, and the use of social media for activism). Throughout this course, students will also develop their own skills in effective digital presence and activism. Core competencies including critical thinking, social justice, and social equity are also examined and discussed. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Community Change (Host), Management & Leadership, Policy & Political Social Work |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | Participatory facilitation is the process of increasing participation of diverse people within groups and community contexts. Emphasis will be placed on understanding theories of group work and group process. In this course, students will develop skills and techniques to strengthen participatory facilitation practices, including understanding intergroup dialogue, liberating structures, participatory planning activities, and alternative forms of facilitation including world cafes and online facilitation practices. Students will explore examples as well as practice skills. Special focus will be on the role of power, privilege, and social identities within a facilitation context. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Community Change (Host), Management & Leadership, Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | In this mini-course, students will learn a theoretical framework for social entrepreneurship and design thinking, as well as explore the individual skills and will necessary to respond to complex social needs both locally and globally. Students will be placed on teams throughout the course to engage in hands-on activities, case studies, competitions and a leadership project. The objective of this course is to inspire and begin equipping students to become innovative leaders in the social sector. Specifically, we will address how to understand yourself as a leader within the context of a community and how to lead with moral imagination (the ability to put yourself in the shoes of the people you are serving); understand how an entrepreneurial mindset and operational skills can create and support social change; and turn theory into action by designing and carrying out a team leadership project. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership (Host), Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This course will present the fundamental knowledge and skills needed to develop and manage the budget of a nonprofit social service organization and its programs. Students will learn to use techniques necessary to: 1) Plan, develop, display, revise, monitor, and evaluate a program budget; 2) Evaluate past financial performance (e.g. financial statements); 3) Monitor and evaluate the cost-efficiency and cost-effectiveness of a nonprofit program and a nonprofit organization. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership (Host), Policy & Political Social Work, Program Evaluation and Applied Research |
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| Credits: | 1 |
|---|---|
| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | Evidence suggests that women face unique leadership challenges. Marginalization based on gender, family and work priorities, and societal expectations create a system that hinders the maximization of leadership potential. In addition, women bring diverse capabilities and hold unique characteristics in the work world today. Community benefit organizations must leverage this diversity of leadership to improve decision making, tap into diverse points of view, and inspire social change. This course will examine the social, structural and personal dynamics that differentially impact women and men as leaders. It will prepare all students to identify and harness the specific needs and capabilities of women. It will provide the knowledge and skills to succeed and contribute added value in their roles as leaders at any level. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Interpersonal Practice in Integrated Health, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse, Management & Leadership (Host) |
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| Credits: | 1 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | This minicourse focuses on trends and issues of contemporary philanthropy and their approaches to evaluation to inform allocation models. The ways in which both philanthropic entities and their grantees evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness, and impact of the programming will be explored. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership, Program Evaluation and Applied Research (Host) |
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| Credits: | 2 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | The professional seminar in Jewish communal leadership provides a critical space within the Jewish Communal Leadership Program curriculum in which students can integrate the very different approaches to knowledge, skills and experience – acquired in their SSW and Judaic studies courses and in their board and field placements – into a coherent whole. It provides opportunities for participants to meet with relevant professional and lay community leaders, to explore the relationship of personal and professional identities, to work collaboratively on soliciting and addressing communal problems gathered from the field, to participate in generating public programming related to Jewish communal issues, to consult with SSW faculty about the application of Social Work approaches to Jewish communal problems, and to gather peer feedback and establish relationships with each other. The seminar also serves as a setting for the exploration of general societal concerns from the perspective of Jewish communal interests and traditional values, and for bringing the perspectives and skills that are a part of Social Work study and practice to addressing Jewish communal concerns. The seminar serves as the intellectual home for the Jewish Communal Leadership Program, providing the forum in which students will grapple with understanding the Jewish community within its broader societal context. It provides a space for students to engage with issues of pluralism – addressing the place of Jewish community in a diverse society and the challenges of diversity within the Jewish community. The seminar will also provide a setting for students to apply their Judaic training and their practical skills in evaluation, data analysis, and social relationships to developing analytical approaches to current problems that will be presented by communal agencies for the consideration of JCLP students. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership (Host) |
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| Credits: | 2 |
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| Prerequisites: | None |
| Course Description: | The professional seminar in Jewish communal leadership serves as the academic home for the Jewish Communal Leadership Program (JCLP). It provides a critical space in the JCLP curriculum for students to integrate different approaches to knowledge, skills and experience -- acquired in their SSW and Judaic studies courses and in their board and field placements -- into a unified and meaningful experience. Within the seminar, Jewish Communal Leadership students are given opportunities to meet with local, national, and international professional and lay community leaders, to explore the relationship of personal and professional identities, to engage with historic and current approaches to Jewish community challenges, to work collaboratively on soliciting and addressing communal problems gathered from the field, to participate in generating public programming related to Jewish communal issues, to consult with SSW faculty about the application of Social Work approaches to Jewish communal problems, and to gather peer feedback and establish relationships with each other. The seminar also serves as a setting for considering general societal concerns from the perspective of Jewish communal interests and values, and for bringing the perspectives and skills that are a part of Social Work study and practice to Jewish communal concerns. Social Work 795 is intended for second- year Jewish Communal Leadership Program students. It provides them with a space to interact with first-year JCLP students and to focus on group projects in response to the needs of relevant Jewish agencies. |
| Pathway Elective For: | Management & Leadership (Host) |
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University of Michigan
School of Social Work
1080 South University Avenue
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106