School of Social Welfare

Dr. Eunju Lee, Director

The New York State Social Work Education Consortium - which includes state and New York City agencies, county social services commissioners, associations, and many others - aims to improve the quality, status, and stability of the public sector child welfare workforce. The primary goal is to identify and implement programs with a forward-looking approach to training and education.

The Social Work Education Consortium was established in 2000 as a formal partnership between the Office of Children and Family Services, Bureau of Training, the New York State Dean’s Association, the social work education community and local social services designed to impact the child welfare workforce. Sixteen graduate and 28 undergraduate social work programs participate in the Consortium, along with 57 county social service districts and NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services.

Email: [email protected]

The primary goal of the consortium is the identification and implementation of programs and activities, which promote a forward-looking approach to training and education, emphasizing workforce stabilization and professionalization. This goal is achieved through a wide array of activities including:

• Raising awareness about the importance of recruitment, selection and retention of a professionally trained workforce
• Regional collaborations between local social service districts and social work education programs across New York State which implement programs to achieve our goal. There are seven active regional groups operating currently, which are open to all local social service districts.
• Research and evaluation activities designed to develop knowledge about approaches that facilitate retention and support workforce professionalization and implement effective strategies to achieve the goal.

The Social Work Education Consortium promotes:

• Public sector-university collaborations that support the education and training of child welfare staff. 
• Research driven practice and policy innovations in workforce recruitment and retention. 
• Policy and program partnerships with OCFS, the legislature and local district leaders in child welfare. 
• Professionalization activities and workforce development for child welfare workers and those interested in a child welfare career.

Programs

• Six Regional Groups develop region-specific programs designed to promote workforce professionalization and stabilization activities appropriate to their area.
• Tuition Support provides tuition funding to cover tuition and fees for MSW and BSW courses for current employees in Child Welfare Services.

• Leading Change: Improving the Child Welfare Workforce (2015)
• PA Planning Framework for Agencies Adopting Team-based Supervision and Practice: A Starter List of Operational Principles Along with Key Indicators of Their Implementation (2008)
• Preparing Facilitators for Retention-focused Design Teams (2008)
  • Participant Handbook
  • Toolkit
• Team Facilitation Seminar-Handbook and Toolkit (2008)
• Child Welfare: Improving Services and Training (2006)
• Current State of Knowledge and Future Directions (2006)
• Executive Summary - Workforce Retention Study (2006)
• Planned Change and Workforce Retention (2006)
• Promising Practices (2006)
• Workforce Retention Study - Statistical Report (2006)
• Causes and Effects of Child Welfare Workforce Turnover (2005)
• Enabling Bureaucracy (2005)
• Five Year Compendium of SWEC Work (2005)
• Professionalism Brief (2005)
• Reducing Workloads (2005)
• Turnover in Public Child Welfare (2005)
• Two Approaches to Leadership and Management (2005)
• Wicked Retention Problems (2005)
• Executive Summary - Low Turnover Quantitative Study (2004)
• Executive Summary - High Turnover Qualitative Study (2003)
• Executive Summary - High Turnover Quantitative Study (2002)
• Child Welfare League of America

Website: National Child Welfare Workforce Institute

Nancy Claiborne and Mary McCarthy, Co-Principal Investigators
The $21.5 million National Child Welfare Workforce Institute is increasing child welfare practice effectiveness through diverse partnerships that focus on workforce systems development, organizational interventions, and change leadership, using data-driven capacity building, education, and professional development.

Website: National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services

Heather Larkin and John Records, Co-Directors
The National Center for Excellence in Homeless Services strengthens homeless services by creating partnerships, supporting leaders and sharing excellence. The Center identifies, creates and teaches state of the art, evidence-based and emerging approaches to transform the lives of all homeless children and adults.

Eric Hardiman, Director
The Center for Innovation in Mental Health Research focuses on evidence-based direct practice, service delivery, and social welfare policy that support individuals who face behavioral health issues.

The School of Social Welfare at UAlbany has partnered with a consortium of local agencies to provide MSW students with the opportunity to specialize in macro or clinical practice with aging populations.

IAP features rotations within an expanded internship to expose students to a range of aging issues as well as both macro and clinical practice interventions. This three day per week internship includes financial assistance to allow expanded time in field. Students also participate in a specialized curriculum within the MSW program and integrative seminars to bridge classroom instruction and hands-on internship experience. For more information, email [email protected]. 

MSW Full Time Curriculum

MACRO

Fall

• Research Methods in Program Evaluation for Social Welfare Management
• Practice with Mature and Aging Adults
• Human Service Organizations in a Changing Environment
• Community Building
• Integrative Seminar for Internship in Aging Project
• Field Instruction III

Spring

• Social Gerontology: Policies, Programs, and Services
• Management Systems in Human Service Organizations
• Advanced Macro Practice: Select one course as advised
• Integrative Seminar for Internship in Aging Project
• Field instruction IV

Clinical

Fall

• Research Methods in Program Evaluation for Social Welfare Management OR Evaluation of Clinical Practice
• Practice with Mature and Aging Adults
• Human Service Organizations in a Changing Environment
• Advanced Clinical Practice: Select one course as advised
• Integrative Seminar for Internship in Aging Project
• Field Instruction III

Spring

• Social Gerontology: Policies, Programs, and Services
• Management Systems in Human Service Organizations
• Advanced Clinical Practice: Select one course as advised
• Integrative Seminar for Internship in Aging Project
• Field Instruction IV

Application to the Internships in Aging Project (IAP)

Full-time students apply to IAP in the spring semester of their foundation year.

If you intend to enter the MSW program with advanced standing, you need let us know that you want to be considered for this opportunity when you apply for admission to the MSW program. 

Part-time students should apply during their second year to avoid missing required classes.

To apply to IAP, email [email protected].

Funded in partnership with the New York State Office of Mental Health (NYSOMH), the Albany Internships in Mental Health (AIMH) is a competitive internship opportunity available to full time MSW students in either the clinical or MACRO concentrations. Students accepted into the AIMH program will receive specialized training in the use of evidenced-based mental health interventions for adults in the community. AIMH students are placed through a matching process in community-based field placements that have been selected and certified by NYSOMH. Examples of evidence-based practices include: Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), Personalized Recovery-Oriented Services (PROS), Wellness Self-Management (WSM), Integrated Dual Disorder Treatment (IDDT) and Motivational Interviewing (MI) techniques. Students in the AIMH program are also required to take the advanced clinical practice course “Evidence-Based Practice and Mental Health” and participate in a special colloquium series.

Financial stipends are provided to AIMH students upon completion of the requirements along with a certificate of completion from the New York State Office of Mental Health. The program seeks to help build the state workforce of MSW graduates who hold specialized training in the use of evidence-based mental health practices. The colloquium series provides students with additional opportunities to integrate classroom and field placement experiences in advanced mental health practice.

For more information email Dr. Eric Hardiman ([email protected]) or [email protected].

Application to the Albany Internships in Mental Health (AIMH)

Full-time students apply to AIMH in the spring semester of their foundation year.

To apply to AIMH, email  Dr. Eric Hardiman ([email protected]) or [email protected].

The application deadline for Fall Semester MSW program will be January 31, 2025 .

We start releasing decisions to degree applicants in early February. Starting in early February, you will receive an answer approximately 3-4 weeks after submission of your complete application.

When looking at GPA, we also take into consideration trajectory, coursework, and other life events.  For students who have a GPA of 3.0 or below, we recommend you mention this in your personal statement and discuss how you have grown. Students with a lower GPA may also consider taking graduate level classes as a non-matriculated student to show how they can meet the academic rigor of the MSW program.

We require transcripts from all schools attended after you graduated from high school.

There are scholarships and assistantships available both within the Graduate School and the School of Social Welfare.
Learn more about opportunities available to all graduate students. 

The School of Social Welfare additionally offers over 40 different scholarships, and several assistantships. Scholarships for the School of Social Welfare open in Mid-Spring, and close in early summer, and applications for assistantships can be found within the application.

We only require the “Statement of Background and Goals”. We do NOT require a writing sample.

Class schedules vary for each individual.  Generally, classes are offered once a week for 3-hour periods. Part-time students take 2 classes in the Fall and Spring semesters and 1 during the summers, along with field placement in the 2nd and 4th year of the part-time program. A Full-time student takes 3-4 classes a semester, along with field in both years of the full-time program.

Classes are offered weekdays at a variety of times (morning, afternoon, evening, weekend) and in various modalities. Modalities include in-person, online and blended/hybrid (mixture of in-person and online). Classes are usually offered in 3-hour time blocks. The Brightspace learning platform is used to host online classes and augment in-person classes.    

If you are accepted into the program, we will begin communicating with you about signing up for classes and field instruction in mid-to-late March.

Advanced Standing is a program available to BSW graduates to complete their MSW in a shortened period. Up to 21 credits from your BSW studies can transfer to your MSW Advanced Standing program. Advanced Standing students are informed at the time of their admission regarding the number of credits they receive.

The field office places many students in and around the Capital Region. You will let the field office know your preferred counties of interest and the field office will do its best to place you within a reasonable distance from your residence. We help students find placements in areas such as Plattsburgh, Kingston, Utica, Western Massachusetts and Connecticut, Vermont, and more.

The in-person MSW has at least one asynchronous section of every first-year course. Many courses are also offered in modalities such as synchronous online courses (where you meet with your class via zoom) or in a blended format (where you meet sometimes in person and sometimes the work is either via zoom or asynchronous). While classes are offered in a variety of online and in person formats, in person full time and part time students are not guaranteed enrollment in a particular class modality.  If you need asynchronous classes only, you should apply to the 3-year online MSW program. 

Classes are offered at a variety of times to help students meet their needs for flexibility. We have a variety of class offerings, including in-person, online, hybrid (mixture of in-person and online), evening, and weekend. The field office understands that students need to balance class, field, work, and other responsibilities. The learning opportunities that comprise quality field placements with appropriate supervision are mainly available on weekdays during regular business hours. 

As a MSW student, you will be required to be available on two weekdays during regular business hours, and you will have the opportunity to alert us of how your responsibilities may impact your ability to engage in a field internship on your field application. The academic and field team members are always willing to meet with you to discuss further questions.

There are several levels of licensing that graduates of the MSW are qualified to obtain. When you graduate from UAlbany with an MSW, you are eligible to take the LMSW exam. We offer weekend workshops in the spring for graduating MSW students, in order to help prepare for the exam. The next step after the LMSW is the LCSW. This involves working under an LCSW in a clinical setting for 3 years, and then taking another test.

The School of Social Welfare has a commitment to social justice, equity, and human dignity. Based on these values, we are committed to acknowledging and doing our part to reverse systemic oppression, including the disproportionate targeting and sentencing of people of color in the criminal justice system. We are committed to this systemic change, and part of our commitment is shown by supporting individuals with a criminal history to pursue meaningful education and employment in social services. We understand that some applicants' criminal history may have been the inspiration that led them to pursue an MSW. It is important and in your best interest that the School of Social Welfare be transparent about the challenges students with criminal histories may face in their social work education and career.  

Process in Admissions and Enrollment at the School of Social Welfare  

All applicants who are offered admission to the School of Social Welfare are asked if they have ever been convicted of a felony as an adult.  Response to this question is a condition of enrollment. In New York State, a felony is defined as a crime for which more than one year in prison may be imposed. If you report that you have been convicted of a felony as an adult, further documentation about that felony will be requested. The School requires disclosure of criminal background in order to evaluate and enable your successful completion of the field placement requirement of your degree and continued success in the social work profession.  
  

Impact on Field Practicum 

After you enroll, students with a felony history will need to work directly with the Field Office regarding the field practicum requirement of the MSW degree.  Students with criminal histories may be precluded from participating in some field education experiences, which are required to graduate; the Field Office will work directly with these students to attempt to place them with a qualified field practicum.  While the School will make every reasonable effort to assist students in securing an appropriate field placement, the School cannot guarantee a field placement.  If a student is unable to be placed into a field practicum, the Field and Academic Offices will work with the student to determine feasible steps toward degree completion. 

Impact on Licensure  

MSW graduates with a criminal history may find additional challenges getting licensed. In New York State, you may need to provide additional documentation about your criminal history when applying for licensure. View more information on how criminal history may impact licensure in New York State. Each state has different policies and procedures regarding criminal convictions, ethical violations and eligibility for a social work license. Students are responsible for investigating the licensure requirements in the state(s) in which they plan to practice.  

The School of Social Welfare has a radio show. The Social Workers Radio Talk Show airs live on UAlbany's WCDB 90.9FM in Albany, NY. Our mission is to use the medium of radio to educate and enlighten our university and extended communities about social work trends and current practices provided by social workers.

Hosted by Dr. Eric Hardiman and Alyssa Lotmore, LMSW.

For all episodes, visit the show's website.

For more than 35 years, the Community and Public Service Program (CPSP) has been central to community engagement efforts at the University at Albany. Find out more about this credit-bearing undergraduate community service initiative.

Algorithms in social work: Data-driven practice or dystopian future?

by Melanie Sage, PhD, MSW

Watch the recording of the 2023 Lecture

Bio:

Melanie Sage, PhD, MSW, conducts research at a Fortune 100 company, where she informs strategy about how to increase equity, safety, and trust for the public. Formerly on the faculty at University at Buffalo School of Social Work, she has numerous publications about the impact of social media and resilience with technology in child welfare. She is a co-author of the book Teaching Social Work with Digital Technology, a trauma-informed motivational interviewing consultant and trainer, and a goldendoodle mom, which isn't offensive at all to her grown children.

Media coverage via UAlbany News

"Calling In the Calling Out Culture: Lessons from a Lifetime of Feminist and Anti-Racist Activism"

Loretta Ross 

Watch the recording of the 2022 Lecture 

Bio:

Loretta Ross is an award-winning, nationally-recognized expert on racism and racial justice, women's rights, and human rights. Her work emphasizes the intersectionality of social justice issues and how intersectionality can fuel transformation.

Ross is a visiting associate professor at Smith College (Northampton, MA) in the Program for the Study of Women and Gender, teaching courses on white supremacy, race and culture in America, human rights, and calling in the calling out culture.

She has co-written three books on reproductive justice: Undivided Rights: Women of Color Organize for Reproductive Justice, winner of the Outstanding Book Award by the Gustavus Myers Center for the Study of Bigotry and Human Rights; Reproductive Justice: An Introduction, a first-of-its-kind primer that provides a comprehensive yet succinct description of the field and puts the lives and lived experience of women of color at the center of the book; and Radical Reproductive Justice: Foundations, Theory, Practice, Critique. Her current book, Calling In the Calling Out Culture, is forthcoming in 2021.

Ross appears regularly in major media outlets about the issues of our day. She was recently featured in a New York Times piece, "What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In?"

She was a co-founder and the National Coordinator, from 2005 to 2012, of the SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, a network of women of color and allied organizations that organize women of color in the reproductive justice movement. Other leadership positions have included:

• National Co-Director of the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives in Washington D.C., the largest protest march in U.S. history with more than one million participants.
• Founder and Executive Director of the National Center for Human Rights Education (NCHRE)
• Program Research Director at the Center for Democratic Renewal/National Anti-Klan Network where she led projects researching hate groups and working against all forms of bigotry with universities, schools, and community groups
• Founder of the Women of Color Program for the National Organization for Women (NOW) in the 1980s
• Leading many women of color delegations to international conferences on women's issues and human rights.

Ross is a rape survivor, was forced to raise a child born of incest, and is a survivor of sterilization abuse. She is a model of how to survive and thrive despite the traumas that disproportionately affect low-income women of color. She is a nationally-recognized trainer on using the transformative power of Reproductive Justice to build a Human Rights movement that includes everyone.

Ross serves as a consultant for Smith College, collecting oral histories of feminists of color for the Sophia Smith Collection which also contains her personal archives.

She is a graduate of Agnes Scott College and holds an honorary Doctorate of Civil Law degree awarded in 2003 from Arcadia University and a second honorary doctorate degree awarded from Smith College in 2013. She is pursuing a PhD in Women’s Studies at Emory University in Atlanta. She is a mother, grandmother and a great-grandmother.

“White Supremacy: Psychological and Social Impacts in the U.S."

Dr. Joy DeGruy Biography

Dr. Joy DeGruy is a nationally and internationally renowned researcher and educator. Her pioneering publication, Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome (PTSS): America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing, addresses the residual impacts of trauma on African descendants in the Americas.

With this book, and decades of research and practice experience, Dr. DeGruy has established a framework for understanding how the past has influenced the present. She has developed multiple evidence-based interventions for communities of color that eliminate non-productive attitudes, beliefs and behaviors and build upon the strengths gained from the past to heal.

For over two decades, Dr. DeGruy served as an Assistant Professor at Portland State University’s School of Social Work and now serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Joy DeGruy Publications Inc. She holds Master’s degrees in Social Work and Clinical Psychology, as well as a PhD in Social Work and Social Research.

Lecture Resources

Dr. DeGruy spoke about the psychological and social impacts of white supremacy in the United States, and the responsibility of social work to mitigate these impacts.

Below are some of the resources mentioned in Dr. DeGruy’s lecture:

Hounmenou, C. (2012). Black settlement houses and oppositional consciousness. Journal of Black Studies, 43(6), 646-666. Retrieved April 29, 2021.

Little, B. (2021, March 26). How the Nazis were inspired by Jim Crow. History.

McDermott, S.P. (2018, August 22). Jane Addams, Ida B. Wells, and racial injustice in America. Jane Addams Papers Project.

Philippe Shock Matthews. (2017, May 31). The axiological journey of the African-American with Dr. Edwin Nichols. YouTube.

Ross, A. (2018, April 23). How American racism influenced Hitler. New Yorker.

Skloot, R. (2011). The immortal life of Henrietta Lacks. Broadway Paperbacks.

Smith, D.L. (2012). Less than human: Why we demean, enslave, and exterminate others. St. Martin’s Griffin.

Stevenson, H.C. (1994). Validation of the scale of racial socialization for African American adolescents: Steps toward multidimensionality. Journal of Black Psychology, 20(4):445-468.

Swetlitz, I. (2016, April 4). Some medical students still think black patients feel less pain than whites. STAT.

Washington, H.A. (2006). Medical apartheid: The dark history of medical experimentation on Black Americans from colonial times to the present. Doubleday.

“A Transformative Approach for Social and Economic Integration of Vulnerable Communities: Project TELEMA”

*Postponed due to COVID-19

Dr. Aybe Tasse Biography

Dr. Tasse currently serves as Chief of Mission, Ministry of Social and Humanitarian Affairs, Republic of Congo, where he is leading the development and expansion of social work education. This assignment follows and builds upon his leadership in development of social work education and social development in Ethiopia, Mauritania, and Comoros. In each of these positions, Dr. Tasse demonstrated exceptional leadership in both academic and management skills that enabled the transfer and contextualization of knowledge to create sustainable social work education systems. His capacity to navigate complex systems and bring together academicians, policy-makers, and practitioners from many cultures to achieve the goals of social work and social development is unsurpassed.

Dr. Tasse has provided leadership in social work and social development globally for many years, including as past president of the International Association of Schools of Social Work (IASSW). An especially impactful aspect of Dr. Tasse’s work with IASSW has been his leadership of the Global Agenda, which unites the work of three international bodies: IASSW, International Federation of Social Workers, and International Council on Social Welfare. Dr. Tasse’s work has been widely recognized internationally with an Honorary Doctorate in Social Sciences and Social Work from the VID Specialized University in Norway and the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Palmes Academiques for contributions to the Ministry of Education by Decree of the Prime Minister of France.

Dr. Tasse’s personal story is as compelling as his professional accomplishments. Born in Ethiopia, at an early age he was forced to flee amid great civic turmoil after the overthrow of the Emperor Haile Selasse. He made his way to France where he claimed asylum and eventually gained French citizenship. These personal challenges have informed his scholarship. Dr. Tasse is one of the foremost scholars on migration and social work. He has published extensively and provided numerous lectures around the globe on this topic. The massive movement of peoples around the world in recent years due to civil unrest, war, and persecution based upon race, culture, religion, and poverty, and the challenges experienced by receiving countries including the United States, is a compelling and timely topic. Dr. Tasse has a unique perspective on the historical global experience of migration, the current challenges, and informing the path forward to address the many aspects of this phenomenon.

“Vulnerable Families and Social Justice: The Professional Challenge”

Dr. Carol Wilson Spigner Biography

Carol Wilson Spigner, DSW, retired from the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice after having served as associate professor/clinician educator for a decade. At Penn, Spigner directed the social policy program and taught policy and macro practice. Prior to her arrival at Penn, Dr. Spigner had been the Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Health and  Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and was responsible for the administration of federal child welfare programs. As part of that work, Spigner provided leadership in developing guidelines to the states on maltreatment and oversight of research and demonstration programs focused on neglect.

Dr. Spigner has served on the Pew Commission for Children in Foster Care, the Mayor’s Child Welfare Review Panel for the City of Philadelphia, and the Workgroup for the Michigan Racial Equity Task Force. She was a senior associate at the Center for the Study of Social Policy, Washington, DC, and the director of the National Child Welfare Leadership Center.

She has held professorships at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Spigner has published articles in the areas of cultural competency, permanency planning and relative care.

Dr. Spigner has received numerous awards including: the University of Pennsylvania’s 2008 Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching; The Black Administrators in Child Welfare’s 2008 George Silcott Award for Lifetime Achievement; University of Southern California’s Award for Lifetime Contributor to the Development of Policies and Programs for Underserved Populations; the National Association of Black Social Workers’ Outstanding Contributors Award; and the National Association of Public Child Welfare Administrators’ Award for Leadership in Public Child Welfare.

A native of Los Angeles, Dr. Spigner began her career working for the Los Angeles County Departments of Adoption and Probation and received her undergraduate degree from the University of California at Riverside and her graduate degrees from the University of Southern California.