Faculty Strengths
Family and Child Welfare, Family Violence and Family Centered Practice
The use of family-centered and community-based practice approaches is central to the School’s curriculum. We prepare culturally competent social work scholars and practitioners with a commitment to social justice and social work values and ethics. The application of these theories and practice approaches to the development, implementation, and evaluation of social welfare policy and practice with vulnerable populations, is a focal point for curriculum, faculty research, and the activities of the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice (NRCFCP). The NRCFCP is a project of the School with a mission of promoting family-centered, culturally responsive practice across human service systems through research and evaluation, training and technical assistance, and information dissemination.
The National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice has had a home at The University of Iowa for more than thirty years. Beginning as a small training project funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the center was one of the first organizations in the country to promote home-based, family-centered services- later known as "family preservation." Over the years its scope has expanded to many different service systems and it now provides a range of services throughout the United States, in several U.S. protectorates, and through collaborations in Europe; Asia; North, Central and South America;, and Australia.
Organizations, Communities and Rural Perspectives
Social work has a long tradition of working with communities and organizations to improve the quality of life for individuals and families. To improve culturally competent practice and to benefit vulnerable populations, social change at the community and organizational levels is essential. The curriculum teaches students to apply family-centered and community-based practice approaches to build strong communities, make organizations more humane, and improve social policy. Developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions with communities, organizations, and social welfare policy are focal points for curriculum, faculty research and School outreach efforts.
Communities of immigrants and refugees have added diversity to the population of Iowa and created social change in its communities. The School of Social Work is involved with outreach projects to communities in Iowa where students can apply culturally competent practice and community building approaches.
Health and Mental Health Promotion and Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment
At Iowa, students have opportunities to work with faculty interested in health, mental health, substance abuse prevention and treatment, child and adolescent development, resiliency, and youth interventions. The School offers an approved program of preparation for School Social Work endorsement in Iowa. The university is home to the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics which offers practicum and research opportunities for students.
Life Course Development and Aging
Addressing the needs of older persons and their families is of particular concern as the population of the United States is aging rapidly, with 20% of the population expected to be 65 years and older by the year 2030. This creates a need for more social workers who are prepared to work with the older population and their families.
At present, there is a severe shortage of social workers who have the knowledge and skills required to work with older persons, with an estimated 60,000-70,000 more needed. The need for all social workers to have basic knowledge and skills about aging is particularly evident in the state of Iowa, which consistently ranks fourth or fifth in percentage of persons aged 65+. The School of Social Work is committed to increasing the number of students who are prepared to serve older persons and their families.
In recent years, the School has been involved in many projects funded by the John A. Hartford Foundation of New York to increase the number of gerontologically-prepared social workers. Faculty work closely with the UI Aging Studies Program and the College of Nursing Aging Studies Center. BA and MSW students may choose to earn a Certificate in Aging Studies (21 s.h.)or MSW students can choose aging studies/gerontology as an area of specialization.. Many courses in the School are cross-listed with the Aging Studies Program, carrying credit in either program. The PhD program is noted for its strong mentorship for research in the area of area of aging.
End-of-Life Care
The School of Social Work developed its innovative End-of-Life Care Field of Practice to foster social work leadership in the important work of providing services in end-of-life care, palliative care, and bereavement. Acknowledging the growing need for professionally trained social workers who can provide high quality services to people at end-of life, to their families and to those who are bereaved, the program prepares students for practice in hospice programs and in hospital pediatric and adult oncology, palliative care units and other settings that focus on the needs of individuals and their families, at the end of life. It is based on the family-centered and community based principles which permeate the entire curriculum in the MSW program.
The end-of-life care field of practice also emphasizes cultural competence in serving the needs of rural Iowans.. Students learn to value and build on the cultural strengths that diverse groups use in dealing with end-of-life and bereavement. Diverse populations in Iowa include Latinos, Native Americans, African Americans, many refugee and immigrant groups, and populations from varied ethnic backgrounds and who may speak a range of languages, for example Scandanavian, German, Dutch, and other groups. Diverse groups also include people with disabilities, people of different ages and age cohorts, people of different socio-economic groups, and people with diverse sexual orientations.
Diversity, Inequality, and Social Justice
The University of Iowa, School of Social Work values students with diverse academic and cultural perspectives. We actively recruit first generation college students, under-represented minorities and others who can contribute to a heterogeneous graduate program. The University of Iowa provides diversity scholarships to students who qualify.
The School strives continuously to enhance the cultural competency of its faculty, staff, students and curriculum. The faculty participates in monthly diversity training and the School was honored with the UI Catalyst Award for strengthening diversity within the university community. At the Des Moines MSW program, the Alumni of Diversity group has been particularly successful in conducting outreach activities in the community, and mentoring diverse students.
Faculty members conduct research and publish their findings in a variety of areas that increase understanding of diverse populations and also improve practice and policy applications. Their areas of interest include: organizational cultural competence, immersion education and service learning with diverse cultures, rural elders, diverse family structure and well-being, same sex partner child rearing, diversity issues in recovery programs, hidden disabilities and mothers, gender, age and health, reducing the overrepresentation of minority children and youth in the Iowa juvenile justice and child welfare systems among others.
Since 1998 the School of Social Work has been a major sponsor of the Strengthening and Valuing Latino/a Families and Communities in Iowa conference. The conference is an opportunity to explore the changing demographics and dynamics of Latina/o communities in Iowa, as well as, the responsiveness of policy makers, business leaders and community-based organizations to the fastest growing population in Iowa.
The conference has grown to be a cherished gathering of Latinos and non-Latinos as a place to emphasize cultural strength and provide networking opportunities for Latino/a leaders who live and work in Iowa.
In 2009, the School received approval to administer the Critical Cultural Competence Certificate to undergraduates at the University. The certificate is designed to augment a liberal arts education by preparing students to be critical thinkers about issues of human diversity and be active citizens and leaders in a pluralistic, multicultural, democratic society.
Critical Cultural Competence focuses not only on individual responses but also on systemic change in order to create environments conducive to cross-cultural collaboration. Some current university certificate programs focus on particular types of human diversity (e.g., sexuality, aging), but Iowa has the only program that includes the multiplicity of human diversities as its focus, and critical cultural competency as its primary outcome. The certificate program is both interdisciplinary and intercollegiate.
The immersion learning programs at the School of Social Work are designed to complement classroom didactic learning by putting students into intensive learning experiences where they encounter people who live in dramatically different environments, who come from very different cultures, and in some cases, who speak a different language. Applying social work knowledge, skills, and values in these intensive immersion experiences can produce rapid learning. The immersion learning experiences enrich the education of students and faculty, help them to become more culturally competent, and prepare students for practice in a diverse, multicultural, and global world. The School has sponsored trips to Mexico, India, the Kensington Welfare Rights Union in Philadelphia and the Central City Lutheran Mission in San Bernardino, CA.
Since 1975 the School of Social Work has sponsored Wild Bill’s Coffeeshop, a service learning opportunity for social work students. The Coffeeshop is staffed by persons with physical and intellectual disabilities. It provides a way to reduce the isolation many people with disability experience and provides social work students with what Jane Addams called “learning through mutual exchange.” By sponsoring the Coffeeshop, the School of Social Work helps to empower a marginalized group of people, as well as help the able-bodied to overcome their stereotypes about people who are differently-abled.
The National Resource Center for Family Centered Practice is a project of the School of Social Work with a mission of promoting family-centered, culturally responsive practice across human service systems through research and evaluation, training and technical assistance and information dissemination. The NRCFCP has had its home at the University of Iowa more than thirty years and was one of the first organizations in the country to promote home-based, family centered services.
Also within the NRCFCP is the Disproportionate Minority Contact Resource Center. The DMC Resource Center assists statewide and community efforts to reduce disproportionality and over-representation of minority youth in the juvenile justice and child welfare systems and conducts research and technical assistance on issues of health and educational disparities. The DMC Resource Center is a coordinated effort between the Iowa Department of Human Services, Iowa Department of Human Rights, Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning and the University of Iowa School of Social Work. Each year the DMC Resource Center sponsors a national conference.
The NRCFCP is an excellent resource for students interested in developing research and program evaluation skills.
