Community Organization, Planning and Administration (COPA)
COPA prepares students to become administrators, planners and community organizers in urban settings. Emphasis is placed on a macro practice – one that focuses on the big-picture service improvements and policy changes that aid individuals and enhance the well-being of communities. Students develop skills in management and finance, program development and evaluation, and community organization.
Families and Children
This concentration emphasizes a “family-centered” model and prepares students for practice with families and children in multicultural urban communities. Students learn developmental/preventive services, problem solving, crisis and remedial services, and protective services for children and adolescents. Graduates are trained to work in schools, health or mental clinics, child guidance clinics, juvenile justice or child protection agencies and community-based organizations.
Health
Health social workers help people navigate an increasingly complex health care environment and make thoughtful decisions about treatment options. Students learn to offer culturally sensitive services in a variety of health care systems to a range of diverse consumers and have the opportunity to earn a case management certificate. The curriculum emphasizes interdisciplinary practice and integration of ethically driven psychosocial services that promote health and improve quality of life.
Mental Health
With an estimated one in five American adults suffering from a diagnosable mental disorder in any given year, the role of mental health social workers is crucial. Students develop skills in the psychosocial assessment of commonly encountered mental health problems, design of appropriate intervention plans and delivery of preventive and rehabilitative mental health services. They learn to deal with issues relating to outreach, advocacy, program evaluation and organizational or governmental policies.
Work & Life
One of the nation’s few social work programs that prepares students for careers in the workplace, this concentration teaches students how to deliver such services as mental health counseling, family therapy, crisis intervention, program development and organizational consulting within a work setting. Because work influences self-image and family and social relationships, social work can play a vital role in enabling employees to handle work-related challenges such as stress, restructuring and unemployment and personal issues such as disability and substance abuse, which can affect job performance.
