The UW-Madison School of Social Work seeks to enhance human well-being and promote human rights and social and economic justice to achieve an equitable, healthy, and productive society. The school aims to:
- Create, advance, strengthen, and integrate interdisciplinary knowledge for students and the profession through research, scholarship, teaching and practice.
- Educate students to become highly skilled, culturally competent and ethical practitioners who will provide effective leadership for the profession of social work within the State of Wisconsin, nationally, and internationally.
- Promote change at levels ranging from the individual to national policy, including empowering communities and populations that are disadvantaged and developing humane service delivery systems.
- Create and disseminate knowledge regarding the prevention and amelioration of social problems.
BSW Program Mission and Goals
Guided by the core values of the social work profession and grounded in the generalist practice framework, the BSW program mission is to provide social work education that will nurture competent, ethical entry-level social work professionals committed to scientific inquiry, evidence-based practice, respect for human diversity, the promotion of human and community well-being, human rights, and social, economic and environmental justice.
We aim to cultivate skilled social work professionals and social change leaders capable of creating and advancing knowledge and addressing pressing social problems via multimethod and multilevel approaches.
Derived from the BSW program’s mission and context, the program goals are to:
- Provide a BSW curriculum that builds on a liberal arts based education, grounded in a person-in-environment, empowerment, and strengths perspective that promotes the values, ethics, and purposes of the profession.
- Prepare students for entry-level generalist practice that is transferable among diverse contexts, locations, and problems by providing knowledge, values, and skill training regarding:
- Social, health, and/or human services systems and policies;
- Systems of oppression, privilege, and power;
- Multilevel and multimethod approaches based on scientific inquiry and best practices;
- Advocacy and social, economic, and environmental justice;
- Research informed practice, and practice and program evaluation methods that contribute to the profession’s knowledge base.
- Develop and maintain an inclusive environment that will attract, nurture, and support diversity within the School among students, faculty, and staff.
- Cultivate and maintain partnerships with a variety of social, health, and/or human service organizations to provide meaningful field experiences and supervision while respecting and contributing to their respective mission.
MSW Program Mission and Goals
Guided by the core values of the social work profession and grounded in the advanced generalist practice framework, the MSW program mission is to provide social work education that will nurture competent, ethical autonomous social work professionals committed to scientific inquiry, evidence-based practice, respect for human diversity, the promotion of human and community well-being, human rights, and social, economic and environmental justice.
We aim to cultivate skilled social work professionals and social change leaders capable of creating and advancing knowledge and addressing complex pressing social problems via multimethod and multilevel approaches.
Derived from the MSW program mission and context, the program goals are to:
- Provide an MSW curriculum that builds on a liberal arts base, grounded in a person-in-environment, empowerment, and strengths perspective that promotes the values, ethics, and purposes of the profession.
- Prepare students for generalist and autonomous advanced generalist practice that is transferable across diverse contexts, locations, and problems by providing knowledge, values, and skills training regarding:
- Populations and related social problems/issues;
- Social, health, and/or human services systems and policies;
- Systems of oppression, privilege, and power;
- Multilevel and multimethod approaches based on scientific inquiry and best practices;
- Ethical advocacy and social, economic, and environmental justice;
- Reflective leadership;
- Research informed practice, and practice and program evaluation methods that contribute to the profession’s knowledge base.
- Develop and maintain an inclusive environment that will attract, nurture, and support diversity within the School, among students, faculty, and staff.
- Cultivate and maintain partnerships with a variety of social, health and/or human service organizations to provide meaningful field experiences and supervision while respecting and contributing to their respective mission.