About the Department
Department Overview
A degree in professional social work teaches the specialized skills needed to help diverse people in a variety of ways. Social workers provide one-on-one counseling, intervene with families, lead small groups, and facilitate change in communities and the environment. Professional social work promotes social and economic justice for all people through advocacy, and organizational and political change.
The Department of Undergraduate Social Work offers a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW). In this program, students learn theories to help them understand and assess client situations, learn direct practice skills such as interviewing, and complete a supervised internship in their senior year.
The undergraduate program in the Department of Social Work has been nationally accredited since 1982 by the Council on Social Work Education.
Department Mission
The undergraduate social work program at Azusa Pacific University seeks to develop competent generalist social work practitioners who can apply knowledge, values, and skills of social work, along with integrating a Christian perspective, in order to enhance the wellbeing of diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities, advancing social justice both locally and globally.
About Social Work
Social workers help people overcome some of life’s most difficult challenges: poverty, discrimination, abuse, addiction, physical illness, divorce, loss, unemployment, educational problems, disability, and mental illness. Social workers help prevent crises and counsel individuals and families. In addition, they work to develop organizations and communities, both locally and internationally, in order to assist people in coping more effectively with the stresses of everyday life.
The Bachelor of Social Work program has been nationally accredited since 1982 by the Council on Social Work Education. APU’s programs in professional social work maintain the following goals:
- To prepare students for professional social work practice with diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities, both locally and globally.
- To provide knowledge based on scientific inquiry, built on a liberal arts foundation, of human behavior and the interaction of person and environment.
- To prepare students for lifelong learning, critical thinking, and advanced study.
- To equip students to collaborate with the community to advocate for the development of policies, resources, and programs that seek to advance human well-being, promote social and economic justice, empower clients, and respect diversity.
- To educate students to the values and ethics of the profession, and to the integration of Christian values throughout their practice.
- To engage in ongoing scholarship reflecting the goals and needs of professional social work practice.
