SSW Gateway

Urban Leadership Program

Certificate in Urban Leadership in Clinical Social Work

The goal of the Urban Leadership Program (ULP) in Clinical Social Work is to educate students about leadership roles in multicultural urban agencies and to prepare them with skills for promoting positive change for their clients, organizations, and the profession. In addition to core MSW courses complete by all Simmons School of Social Work student, those pursuing an Urban Leadership certificate take two required courses in leadership and four mini-courses covering topics such as oral presentation, grant writing and community politics.

Urban Leadership Field Placements

ULP students address clinical practice issues with urban populations through their field placements in Year I and Year II. The agency provides an opportunity for leadership activity for Year I (Foundation Year) students and supports a leadership project for Year II (Concentration Year) students.

Agencies that accept ULP students must be prepared to support students in fulfilling the ULP's specialized requirements at the school and in the field. Faculty Field Advisors work closely with agencies to help them promote students' leadership learning.

Foundation Year (Year I Placement)

During the foundation year field placement, the goal for ULP students is to begin to understand the functioning of the field placement organization and the community it serves, and to participate in carrying out the mission of the organization. Assignments in the Leadership I course are designed to help students develop this broader focus. While students are not expected to carry out a leadership project as they are in Year II, they are expected to pursue opportunities to move beyond the level of direct service to clients. These opportunities, primarily involving observation or low-level participation, should be identified in consultation with the field supervisor and faculty field advisor. Examples of low-level participation include, but are not limited to, attending board meetings, serving on a quality assurance committee, helping to conduct a needs assessment, participating in a community event hosted by the organization or supporting implementation of a new policy or procedure.

Concentration Year (Year II Placement)

The second year Urban Leadership project requires students to identify a leadership challenge, develop appropriate intervention plans, and take leadership for facilitating change which benefits the agency or the community it serves. The goals of the project requirement are to: 1) provide students with an opportunity to integrate leadership coursework into practice; 2) enable students to develop their leadership skills; 3) allow students to assess their own skills as leaders and determine areas needing further development; and, 4) support leadership learning and activity by exposing students to agency leaders who share their own experiences of leadership. With careful planning, the UL project can and should make a contribution to the agency.

Choice of projects involves a process of negotiation between student, supervisor, field advisor, and the ULP faculty. There are many different kinds of leadership activities which ULP students pursue in carrying out their projects. These might include marketing, fundraising, community liaison work, needs assessment, and program, board, staff or policy development. Negotiation about the choice of project should begin during the initial field placement interview and involve ongoing discussion of the agency's needs during the students' first weeks of placement.

Students must develop and implement projects in addition to managing a caseload, but should be able to fulfill this requirement within the 24 hour per week field education commitment. There may need to be some slight adjustment in caseload size in order to accommodate the project requirement. The project may be completed during a concentrated period of effort rather than week by week. In some cases, the project may require additional time beyond normal coursework and field placement demands.