Data Visualization Applications
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
Social Media & Social Change
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
Women in Leadership
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
Advanced Proseminar in Jewish Communal Leadership
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
Methods for Socially Just Policy Analysis
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
Project and Program Design and Implementation
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
Fundraising and Grant writing
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
Human Resource Development and Management
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
Data Visualization Applications
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
Social Work Practice in the Era of Fake News
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