Social Work

Return to: College of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Vanessa G. Hodges, PhD, MSW, Department Chair
Telephone: (919) 530-6287
Fax: (919) 530-7924
Email: vhodges@nccu.edu

Blenda Crayton, PhD, MSW, BSW, Program Director
Telephone: (919)530-7329
Email: bcrayton@nccu.edu

Accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (2003-2011)

Program Statement Of Generalist Social Work

The Department of Social Work at North Carolina Central University prepares students for generalist practice. The complexity of life in America at the beginning of the 21st century requires a broadly educated practitioner possessing a versatile repertoire of knowledge and skills essential for intervening in a number of human systems. Our generalist model fosters in students the view that individuals and society are of human systems. Our generalist model fosters in students the view that individuals and society are synergistically linked to each other for mutual well-being and survival. That is, individuals’ needs are met through participating in the contributions of individuals occupying productive social roles.

The essential focus of the Department of Social Work at NCCU is “the person and the social environment.” Individual and societal needs reflect a breakdown in the mutual exchange between the individual and society. Thus, the point of baccalaureate social work intervention is where the individual and society reach out for each other through mutual need for self-actualization. On the other hand, the stability, health, and goal attainment of society is ensured through individuals learning and occupying useful roles within small groups, such as families and informal support networks, and also large formal groups, such as political, economic, educational, and religious organizations.

Given the above stated focus, the purpose of the program may be viewed as producing beginning social work practitioners who are adept at intervening at the micro, mezzo, and macro level of the human experience. We provide an educational experience through which the student acquires the knowledge, skills, and values essential for matching the needs and resources of the individual with the need and resources of society in order to promote the development of both.

Given the generalist focus, students at NCCU develop specific skills in delivering direct services. As direct service professionals, they function as frontline professionals having face-to-face contact with clients at all levels of intervention. As generalist/direct-service professionals, students are expected to develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and values associated with several key social work roles. The most important of these roles include; counselor, advocate, case manager, and broker. Initial exposure to the professional Social Work curriculum occurs during the sophomore year. Students take the courses Social Work as a Profession and Social Welfare Institution as prerequisites for formal admission to the social work program. An average of 2.5 or C+ in those courses is required for admission.

Students are formally admitted to the BSW Program at the end of the sophomore year. Students return to NCCU for their junior year as proud and fully accepted social work majors. Students complete the Social and Behavior Sciences Foundation component during this time through courses focusing on cultural diversity, at-risk populations, technical writing, and statistical methods. The Professional Social Work component exposes students to the Human Behavior and the Social Environment courses, social policy, research methods, and social work methods. The social work methods component serves to focus the junior year as students begin to acquire the practice skills essential for generalist social work practice.

The senior year is described at NCCU as “crunch time.” That is, students are expected to “show what they know.” The major learning activities center on the field practicum experience, research, and the Senior Seminar in Social Work. Students end their learning experience at NCCU by demonstrating that they can apply the knowledge, skills, and value base of generalist social work practice to assessing the outcomes of social work interventions.

Return to: College of Behavioral and Social Sciences