Mission Statement

The mission of the Social Work program at Plymouth State University is to prepare students with knowledge, skills, and values for entry-level generalist practice. Our mission is to educate students to support and enhance human well-being, understand mechanisms of oppression, discrimination, and inequality, and apply strategies of advocacy and social change to promote social and economic justice. Our purpose is also to educate students to respect human diversity in the practice of social work, develop a strengths-based approach to intervention, and advance social work practice through the development and use of research, knowledge, and skills.

The Social Work program at Plymouth State University supports and values human rights, human diversity, and self-determination. Individual and group differences based on race and ethnicity, national origin, culture, gender, sex, sexual orientation, economic status, family type, religion, age, and physical and mental abilities are respected. We oppose social and economic injustice, prejudice and discrimination, and violence. The Social Work program and its curriculum are rooted in these principles.

(Adopted by the faculty September 28, 1993; updated February 22, 2006)

Program Goals

1. The social work program will prepare students to become complete entry-level social work practitioners in a wide range of settings, with emphasis on direct service.
   
   
2. The social work program's curriculum will provide the foundation knowledge, skills and values that prepare students for graduate study in social work.
   
   
3. The social work program's faculty and students should engage in a continual professional development and activity that supports and enhances the delivery of social services and the practice of social work, particularly in New Hampshire.