SW 359 Justice-Based Social Work Practice III
Social Work focuses on developing in students a justice-based perspective, which means understanding and being committed to the concept of distributive justice as an organizing framework for social work, that is, the fair and equitable distribution of social and material goods. A justice-based perspective seeks the promotion of human rights and social and economic justice as an explicit and sustained goal. Social work practice based on a justice perspective occurs through applying an integrated model of empowering practice that is based on understanding the contextual, transactional nature of individual and social change. Justice-based practice, in all arenas of social work - direct practice, research, and policy, is multiculturally competent, strengths-oriented, collaborative in all aspects of practice, and committed to social change through advancement of and linkages among multiple dimensions of empowerment. Building upon prior coursework in the social justice-based practice sequence, students will attend to the processes of engaging, assessing, intervening and evaluating practice with individuals, groups, families, communities and organizations.