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Department of Social Work
The Department of Social Work is one of two departments in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. Accredited since 1965, we prepare social work professionals with undergraduate and graduate degree programs. While our faculty have a variety of areas of expertise, faculty specialties are in child welfare, gerontology, and behavioral health. We house the Center for Addiction and Behavioral Health Research (CABHR), the Center for Age and Community, and the Child Welfare Training Program.
Our Mission
The mission of the Department of Social Work is to provide scholarly leadership for the profession of social work through teaching, research, and service. Reflecting the metropolitan mission of UWM and the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, the Social Work Programs particularly focus on metropolitan social problems, with a commitment to social and economic justice, cultural diversity, and the empowerment of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities to effect change.
Through our Undergraduate Social Work program, we prepare social work practitioners who demonstrate the knowledge, skills, values and ethics of the profession and who are competent for generalist practice at the BSW level.
Our goal in the MSW program is to educate and train advanced social work practitioners who demonstrate the knowledge, skills, values and ethics of the profession and who are competent for specialized practice and scholarly pursuits at the MSW level.
The Ph.D. Program in Social Work prepares students to make significant contributions to social work education and the knowledge base of the profession.
Additional Goals
The social work faculty are committed to the following goals:
- To engage in the development and/or dissemination of social work and/or interdisciplinary research and discourse that address either (1) the prevention and/or amelioration of social and psychosocial problems, and/or (2) the promotion of positive development and functioning of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and/or communities;
- To apply empirically supported methods to prevention and intervention strategies, including practice at all levels of systems.
To address social and economic injustices by enhancing public understanding; and, - To advocate for the prevention and resolution of contemporary social problems, particularly for populations-at-risk.