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 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.

• Application

IUC
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.

• Application

CalSWEC Mental Health Stipend
The CalSWEC Mental Health Stipend 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.

• Mental Health Fact Sheet
• Mental Health Stipend Application

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.

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.

• GSWEC Student Guide

Kimberly Ross
kross@usc.edu
213.740.9416