Social Work Program

Social work is professionally helping individuals, groups or communities enhance their capacity for social functioning and creating societal conditions. Social work consists of the professional application of social work values, principles, and technology to one or more of the following ends:

• helping people obtain tangible services
• providing counseling and psychotherapy to individuals, families, and groups
• helping communities or groups provide or improve social and health services
• participating in relevant legislative processes (NASW).

Mission Statement

The mission of the Brigham Young University–Hawaii Social Work Program is to prepare knowledgeable, competent, and effective social work professionals, with the highest degree of integrity, committed to the elimination of poverty, the alleviation of human suffering, and the promotion of peace within individuals, families, communities, and societies throughout the world. Consistent with this mission, the Social Work Program is committed to:

• preparing students to be generalist social work practitioners, who value scientific inquiry and view the world through a person-in-environment framework;
• developing empathy within students, with a deep respect for the dignity and worth of every individual, an appreciation of all forms of human diversity, and a commitment to build and nurture human relationships;
• fostering within students an abiding commitment to pursue and advocate for social justice in all its forms, including racial, economic, and environmental justice, and the realization and achievement of human rights for all people;
• maintaining a special focus on the needs of students indigenous to Hawaiʻi, Oceania, and the Asian Rim; and
• supporting the overall mission of the University and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in preparing our students to be lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ.

Career Opportunities and Graduate Study

Students who graduate with a Baccalaureate Degree in Social Work (BSW) from BYU–Hawaii are prepared as generalist social work practitioners. The beginning generalist practitioner assesses and works with consumer populations including referrals to community resources, guides consumer populations through the planned change process, intervenes with individuals, families, groups, and the community in a range of situations conducts on-going evaluations and makes appropriate closure.

BSW practitioners are employed in a variety of direct practice settings such as state departments of human services, mental health, and developmental disabilities services, children's service agencies, halfway houses, nursing homes, area-wide agencies on aging, agencies serving battered women, rape crisis centers, child-care centers, etc. In the practice setting, the generalist social work practitioner takes on various roles such as a social broker, case manager, advocate, counselor, mediator, and educator.

The Social Work Program also prepares students for graduate study in social work as well as service within their family, church, and community. The knowledge, skills, values, and ethics gained from a social work education can be well used both professionally and personally, formally, and informally.

The Social Work Profession

The human experience is filled with good fortune as well as challenges and difficulties. Sometimes we are unable to cope with or resolve difficulties such as poverty, marital conflict, parent-child relationship problems, delinquency, abuse and neglect, substance abuse, and mental/emotional stress. Social work is the profession that helps individuals, groups, and communities to enhance or restore their capacity for social functioning and work toward social and economic justice and peace.

The underpinnings of the social work profession include but are not limited to (1) social work values such as autonomy, non-judgmental attitude, and the dignity, worth, and value of all human beings; (2) social work knowledge about human behavior, research, the life cycle, group dynamics, social policy, the ecological framework, human diversity, the environment, etc.; (3) practice skills and paradigms for working with multilevel populations such as preparing, communicating, analyzing, contracting, role-taking, and stabilizing; and (4) planned change or an orderly approach to problem-solving.

Accreditation

The BYU–Hawaii Social Work Program has been accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) continuously since 1978. CSWE is the national organization that provides leadership for social work and monitors the quality of Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) degree programs in the United States.