Global and Community Practice

As social problems become more globally intertwined, the need for social workers who can address issues in a broader, more comprehensive context has become essential. Monmouth’s Global and Community Practice (GCP) specialization will give you the opportunity to address the concerns and needs of communities, organizations, and groups in local and global contexts through the development of specialized assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation skills relative to:

• Environmental justice
• Global development
• Global women’s issues
• Environmentalism
• Community organization
• Politics
• Policy
• Political Science, and more

Community Practice

The GCP specialization augments generalist social work practice and is grounded in the values of the professional service, social justice, the dignity and worth of the person, the importance of human relationships, integrity, competence, human rights, and scientific inquiry.

Community practice involves taking planned action to build and strengthen capacity to address unjust systems and collective concerns of people in communities, groups, and organizations through supporting and developing local and global leadership. Community practitioners engage and collaborate with local and global stakeholders to meet their community’s needs and to thrive in the context of shifting social, economic, and environmental arrangements.

Global and community practice encompasses macro and mezzo dimensions of social work practice in communities; this specialization is referred to as a form of macro social work practice. Within this specialization, you will develop the practice skills, knowledge, and experience necessary for practice emphasizing the interconnectedness of local and global communities such as advocacy, community organizing, program planning and development, and administrative leadership. Moreover, you will benefit from being taught by our skilled faculty, who are engaged globally through involvement with the International Federation of Social Workers at the United Nations and the International Red Cross, as well as through local organizations in Monmouth, Ocean, and Middlesex counties of New Jersey. Of note, Monmouth’s School of Social Work helps to organize the annual Social Work Day at the United Nations conference.

Field Placements

During the fieldwork portion of the curriculum, you will have the chance to put your coursework into practice as you encounter opportunities to develop effective programs, advocate for policy changes, work with community groups to build capacity, develop peer-based support systems, design and implement social media campaigns, raise funds through grant-writing, plan and implement events, provide prevention education and community outreach, and more – depending on your field location(s) and focus.

Internships are available locally, throughout New Jersey, and in the Philadelphia and New York City areas. In the spring semester of the specialization year, students can go abroad for their field internship to Costa Rica, Vietnam, Guatemala, and Ireland.

A small sample of the internships that some of our recent graduates were placed in includes:

• United Nations, International Federation of Social Workers
• Garden State Equality, Asbury Park, NJ
• Valley Against Sex Trafficking, Allentown, PA
• Financial Success Center Initiative at the Affordable Housing Alliance, Neptune, NJ
• Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Monmouth and Middlesex Counties, NJ
• Monmouth University Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life
• Ironbound Community Corporation (environmental justice), Newark, NJ
• UN University for Peace, Costa Rica
• Visiting Nurse Association of Central Jersey Community Health Center, Asbury Park, NJ
• Youth Advocate Program/Siempre Bien, Guatemala
• Dottie’s House (post-domestic violence empowerment), Brick, NJ
• Interfaith Refugee and Immigrant Services and Empowerment, Highland Park, NJ
• Redeem-Her (support for women reentering the community from rehab, jails and prisons), Neptune, NJ
• Juvenile Justice Commission, throughout NJ
• Fulfill, (hunger prevention), Monmouth and Ocean Counties, NJ