The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
The Department of Social Work at the UNC Charlotte’s mission is: to prepare competent and effective social work professionals at both beginning generalist and advanced specialist levels, to develop social work knowledge, and to provide leadership in the development and evaluation of service delivery systems. This mission will be pursued with special attention to the region’s most vulnerable populations and with a commitment to, and vision of a just and caring society, free of prejudice and oppression.
In an effort to enact the Department’s mission and respond to the community needs of a rapidly growing region, faculty members in social work have sought innovative ways to educate students concerning community needs and resources. Both grant writing and fundraising have been a focus for learning. As an example, during the 2006-07 academic year, the Chair of the Department of Social Work (Dr. Dennis D. Long) developed a group project in his Social Work Practice II: Communities and Organizations course (SOWK 6222) requiring Masters of Social Work (MSW) students to design and develop a course-based approach to secure resources in response to community needs. The primary goal was to have each group of students develop a plan to secure monies that would allow the next year’s class to become a funding source for small grants (2-3k) to be allocated to social service agencies in the surrounding counties. Students identified viable funding sources and constructed sample “ask letters” that could be used to secure $15,000-30,000 to underwrite the following year’s class as a funding source. During the summer (2007), it became apparent that any contribution to the College of Health and Human Service’s Foundation for “regifting” was inconsistent with state law.
Recently, and with great excitement, the Department of Social Work learned about the Students4Giving Program and an award granted in the eastern part of our state to The Carolina Center for Public Service at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since funding for community-based agencies is provided through the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, the Students4Giving Program embraces the spirit of our ongoing curricular efforts to have graduate students learn about grant writing and fund raising in a manner that would not encroach upon North Carolina “regifting” statues.
The objectives for our program are to:
- enhance learning among faculty members and students using course-based philanthropy as a means for community engagement;
- and contribute to the well-being of the community’s most vulnerable populations.
Our program design assigns a group project for MSW students in Social Work Research I (SOWK 6131; fall semester course) requiring students to identify and analyze current community-based needs assessments in three areas: (1) children/families, (2) health/mental health, and (3) gerontology. In a unique fashion, the MSW Program at UNC Charlotte identifies these three areas as curricular “field of practice emphases” for instruction and professional development. Based upon each group’s analysis and reflection upon existing community needs using the Department’s mission to pay “special attention to the region’s most vulnerable populations”, MSW students will identify a specific community need that would benefit from a small (3-9k) grant. As an example, one group might identify a local need for therapeutic intervention involving very young children (ages 3-5) and ascertain that children service agencies would benefit from a national expert conducting a full day in-service training and follow-up education.
In Social Work Practice II: Communities and Organizations course (SOWK 6222; spring semester course), MSW students would be required to use the findings from SOWK 6131 to create a request(s) for proposals, establish criteria for evaluating proposals and allocating funding amounts, and create and implement a fundraising plan to sustain the giving account. The fundraising plan would include an award event in our relatively new College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) Building inviting and encouraging students and faculty members in the College as well as identified university and community stakeholders to attend. The award event would be held in conjunction with the annual social work alumni continuing education event held in the CHHS Building during May. Last year, over 80 alumni, students, faculty members, and friends of the Department attended this alumni-continuing education event.
A major emphasis in Social Work Practice II: Communities and Organizations course (SOWK 6222) involves sustainable social development. Hence, students in this class would draw upon their talents and abilities to identify appropriate means (e.g., giving circles, fund raising events, appeals) to sustain the giving account program. One of the books assigned in this class, Macro Social Work Practice: A Strengths Perspective (2006), c-authored by Dr. Long, emphasizes utilizing the talents, abilities, and assets of people for program development and sustainability. Students would be charged to work with university and community partners to identify viable ways and construct a fundraising plan and to replenish and sustain the fund.
With regard to assessment and evaluation, beyond the typical end of semester student evaluations, Drs. Long, Boyd, and McCarter, co-principal investigators and instructors of the designated coursework, plan to submit an Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol to assess student views concerning the contributions and challenges of the aforementioned assignments in the above courses in social work education. Of particular interest is the insight of students concerning the merits of our Students4Giving Program for learning about grant writing, fund raising, and philanthropic activities in the context of social work practice. Students will be asked if and then if so, how our program design via the Students4Giving Program was an advantage over traditional, “step by step how to do” approaches for learning about grant writing and fundraising. Students will also be asked to identify how their learning has been enhanced via a course-based philanthropy experience emphasizing community engagement. Finally, an IRB protocol will be requested to query the recipient(s) of the award(s) to explicate how receipt of funding contributed the well-being of a vulnerable populations group.
The financial goals of the program are to allocate $9,000 of the Giving Account during the spring semester of 2009 and then replenish the account to $12,000 for 2010 and $15,000 by 2011. When considering the growing and vibrant nature of the great Charlotte-Mecklenburg area and continued growth at UNC Charlotte, the College of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Social Work, these goals appear attainable.
