Master of Social Work

Western Michigan University

The mission of the Masters program is: we value scientific inquiry, service, integrity, ethics, competence and the power of justice to educate and co-create a diverse, equitable, and accessible Program focused on human rights and enhanced quality of life for persons and communities, locally and globally. Our vision is a learner-centered school that develops social work leaders to impact social, economic, environmental, and racial justice through excellence in research and practice. The goals of the Masters program are to:provide a professional education that prepares advanced practitioners to enhance, advocate, and support social, economic, and environmental justice and personal well-being for all people.prepare advanced practitioners who demonstrate the knowledge, skills, values, cognitive and affective processes necessary to work effectively with diverse, vulnerable, and marginalized populations. prepare advanced practitioners who possess the needed knowledge, embrace social work values, and have the requisite skills needed to formulate and realize a vision of a just society. prepare ethical, reflective, and competent advanced practitioners in Clinical Social Work to work with individuals, families, and groups and in Policy, Planning, and Administration to work with organizations, communities, and institutions within a global and changing environmentprepare advanced practitioners to effectively engage, assess, and intervene with individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, and institutions by utilizing evidence-based knowledge and theories and guided by trauma informed, culturally responsive, and anti-racist models of practice.prepare advanced practitioners with the knowledge, skills, values, cognitive and affective processes necessary to engage in practice informed research and research informed practice, and the ability to evaluate social work practice at micro, mezzo, and macro system levels. prepare advanced practitioners who are grounded in a cultural-bio-psycho-social-spiritual framework, understand the historical roots of the social work profession, and can analyze, develop, and utilize social policy to advance justice policy to advance justice.

College of Health and Human Services