Mission, Values, and Goals

Mission

The mission of the Seattle University Master of Social Work (SU MSW) program is to educate students for social justice-focused and community-based advanced clinical social work practice. The program seeks to advance equity in access to excellent clinical social work practice for historically marginalized populations by preparing competent and effective practitioners who restore, maintain, and enhance human and community well-being with unwavering attention to social and economic justice. The program is committed to respectful engagement and collaboration with community partners in its scholarship, teaching, and service.

Values

The SU MSW program adopted as its program values eight core values of the social work profession delineated in the CSWE Educational Policy 1.0: service; social justice; the dignity and worth of the person; the importance of human relationships; integrity; competence; human rights; scientific inquiry.      

Goals

The goals of the SU MSW program are to prepare social work students to:

  1. Affirm the purpose, ethics, and values of social work profession in their professional use of self.
  2. Respect human diversity; critically consider the impact of intersectionality on human development and functioning, and clinical relationship from a person-in-environment framework and a global perspective.
  3. Promote well-being and empowerment of individuals, families, and groups through competent and effective advanced clinical social work practice.
  4. Understand manifestations and mechanisms of oppression and collaborate with communities to advocate for policies and practices that advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice. 
  5. Apply critical reflection, respect for diverse paradigms of knowledge, and critical thinking to engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practice.
  6. Develop the capacity for empowering leadership roles in community-based clinical social work practice as advanced practitioners, supervisors, consultants, and administrators.