Course provides a bird's eye view of professional social work--its development, values, ethics, and principles. Students are introduced to intervening methods of social work practice, delivery processes, and professional/practice environments. The elements of practice exhibits competence within framework of knowledge, values, skills and experiences for culturally competent, ethical, and spiritually-sensitive social work practice.
At the conclusion of this course, students: 1) demonstrate the knowledge of major concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings and historical trends within the social work field; 2) develop an understanding of social work related careers; 3) become familiar with standards of the National Association of Social Workers Code of Ethics.
Spiritually sensitive social workers can apply faith to practice and produce environments in which the Mission of God is reflected in the secular profession.
The Mission of God is a historical core value of social work practice. It is to "bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners (Is. 61: 1)".
Meeting the needs of the "least of these" is being about the Mission of God.
A spiritually aware practice professional integrates faith and witness while involved in the challenges of others.
Just as needs are universal, meeting needs is a universal language.
Students learn how faith can be integrated in the core principles of social work practice.
Students learn through practice, presentations, papers, and questioning perceptions of practice.
