Global and Community Practice

In the online Global and Community Practice (GCP) concentration, you’ll develop assessment, planning, intervention, and evaluation skills addressing the concerns and needs of communities, organizations, and groups in local and global contexts. Our faculty 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. In addition, Monmouth’s School of Social Work helps to organize the annual Social Work Day at the United Nations conference.

Community Practice

Community practice involves taking planned action to build capacity to address common concerns of people in communities, groups, and organizations through supporting and developing local leadership. It includes growing and strengthening diverse social networks and economic arrangements to enable communities, groups, and organizations to meet their own needs and to thrive.

There are five GCP concentration courses:

• SW-613: Social Work Leadership and Management
• SW-615: Advanced Global and Community Practice
• SW-617: Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development in Social Work
• SW-623: Social Innovations
• SW-625: Program Planning and Evaluation

The sequence of these courses will prepare you for advanced social work practice with groups at the global and community levels. These courses will help students concurrently taking their field practicum apply engagement, assessment, intervention, and evaluation theories and strategies learned in the classroom to their internships.

Field Placements

In your field placement, you may 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.

Internships are available locally, throughout New Jersey, and in the Philadelphia and New York City areas. In the spring semester of the concentration 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