School of Liberal Arts and Education
Social Work Program

Thank you for your interest in the Social Work Program at Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York. Very soon, you will receive specific information, which will outline the policies and procedures of the Program and the social work curriculum.

You will find that social work is not only an exciting profession, but a challenging one as well. Social Work is a profession that is concerned with transactions between people and the institutions of societies that affect the ability of people to meet the responsibilities of daily living achieve their goals and minimize negative stress. The purposes of social work are to:

  1. Help people solve their problems;
  2. Develop their coping capacities and obtain needed resources;
  3. Work to improve the operation of social institutions; and
  4. Contribute to the development of social policies to meet the needs of people more effectively in various socio-economic, cultural and ethnic settings.
The particular beliefs and values of the social work profession that are incorporated into the program’s philosophy include:
  1. The dignity and the worth of the individual.
  2. The right to self-determination.
  3. the provision of opportunities to allow each person to develop his or her full potential. end, a core program belief is that an adequate standard of living should be accessible to all people to include adequate housing, food, clothing, and medical care.
Professional social workers adopt certain common professional values that pervade all aspects of their helping activities and pledge to follow a Code of Ethics. Regardless of the setting and/or function, social workers view the person-and-situation (PAS) or person-in-environment (PIE) as the basic unit of attention and the enhancement of social functioning as the overriding purpose of practice. To become a professional social worker, one must earn a baccalaureate degree (BSW), a master’s degree (MSW), or a doctoral degree (PhD or DSW) in Social Work.