MSW Concentrations

Clinical Practice with Families and Children

The Clinical Practice with Families and Children concentration (CPFC) teaches students how to directly empower families at risk. Through a selection of strengths-based approaches, the concentration works to address family- and child-focused concerns across a needs spectrum from poverty and homelessness to communication and interpersonal counseling. Students prepare by working with a variety of different populations, leaving the program with practice “tools” in their pocket.

Students in the Clinical Practice with Families and Children concentration have the opportunity to apply their classroom learning in field placements geared specifically to their chosen specialty.

Many direct practice roles are available and include counseling in school- based programs and in non-traditional schools, working as a family therapist, counseling in hospitals and specialty health care facilities, counseling in addiction recovery programs, counseling in therapeutic nursery schools with post-trauma children and their families, and more. Internships are available locally, all over the state of New Jersey, and in the Philadelphia and New York City areas.

International and Community Development

This concentration prepares students for grass roots organizing, international social work careers, and more. Fieldwork is evaluated within the context of the classroom or in seminars. Students focus in depth on the application of theory and research particular to the practice of international and community development.

“Development” is understood as people’s capacity to accomplish their goals. It is a process aimed at improving the requisites for a higher quality of life, including income level, equity, human rights, social and economic justice, democracy, environmental protection, and peace. Community development involves taking planned action to deal with the common concerns of people who share a geographic locality, cultural or philosophical identity, or crucial social and economic relationships.

Community development is based on tapping into and building the integrity and leadership of the members of the community. An essential component in building on the strengths of a community is recognizing, respecting, and allowing approaches to development to emerge from the communities served. Students in this concentration may elect to do a local or international internship.