Stipends

CalSWEC Public Child Welfare Stipend

The California Social Work Education Center (CalSWEC), the nation's largest state coalition of social work educators and practitioners, was established to improve the education and training of social workers for publicly supported social services. As a member of CalSWEC, the USC School of Social Work offers financial support equivalent to $18,500 per year for two years to qualified MSW students who commit to a public child welfare position upon graduation.

Students must be enrolled full time in the campus-based MSW program, choose the Families and Children concentration and Public Child Welfare sub-concentration, and complete field placements in public child welfare agencies. For every year of support, applicants agree to work a year within a California public child welfare agency. For more information, please contact Jolene Swain.

IUC/Los Angeles County DCFS Stipend

The Inter-University Consortium (IUC) is an alliance among the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and the four social work schools in Los Angeles County: USC School of Social Work, UCLA Department of Social Welfare and the Departments of Social Work at California State Universities at Long Beach and at Los Angeles. In an effort to attract professional social workers to public child welfare, the IUC provides a one-year educational stipend of $18,500 to full-time MSW students in exchange for a commitment to work at DCFS for one year after graduation.

Students must be enrolled full time in the MSW program, choose the Families and Children concentration and Public Child Welfare sub-concentration, and complete a one-year field placement with DCFS, where they receive specialized training in public child welfare.

CalSWEC Mental Health Stipend

The Mental Health Initiative focuses on training students to work with:
1) severely emotionally disturbed children; 2) transitional youth; 3) severely and persistently mentally ill adults; and 4) older adults with persistent or new onset mental illness. Students in the program will obtain general knowledge and skills to work with all of these populations, but may commit to a specific focus on one.

Students participating in the initiative will be eligible for an $18,500 stipend and will have a field placement in either the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health or an agency operating under contract with the department. Students must be enrolled in one of the following concentrations: Community Organization, Planning and Administration (COPA); Families and Children; or Mental Health. The stipend is received in exchange for the student’s agreement to work at the Department of Mental Health or one of its contract agencies for one year after graduation.

Note: The mental health stipend is not available to incoming first-year students. You must be in your concentration year in order to apply for this stipend.

Inter-University/Los Angeles County Mental Health Stipend (IUC/DMH) Stipend

This stipend is offered through the county of Los Angeles Department of Mental Health to encourage the development of social workers in public mental health settings that incorporate evidence-based interventions within recovery frameworks. Monies for these stipends come from Mental Health Services Act funding earmarked for training and development. Students applying for the stipends should be willing to work with persons with mental illnesses and substance abuse issues. The county experiences a high need for social workers with bi-lingual skills to meet the needs of the clients in Los Angeles. This stipend is only available to Mental Health concentration students with a sub-concentration in Systems of Recovery from Mental Illness. Students must follow the curriculum requirements for the sub-concentration and be placed—in either their foundation or concentration year—in a Los Angeles County directly-operated or county contract mental health agency. It is possible to be in the Mental Health concentration and School Settings sub-concentration earning a Pupil Personnel Services credential, if the student meets the above requirements.

GSWEC

The nation's first major multi-university regional consortium in partnership with leading agencies serving seniors, the Geriatric Social Work Education Consortium (GSWEC) offers an integrated field and academic graduate social work education experience for students interested in gerontology. The collaboration was developed to strengthen geriatric social work education, increase social workers' competency in the area of aging and recruit graduate social work students to enter this emerging, high-growth field.

GSWEC offers second-year students who specialize in gerontology a $4,000 stipend, with no pay back requirement. Students can choose any concentration but must enroll in the Older Adults sub-concentration. They can expect aging-focused field placements and competency-based geriatric training.