Alternative Practicum Opportunities

Meeting Competencies through Virtual Field Opportunities

While there may still be agency aspects that the student can engage in remotely, such as meetings that are attended through Zoom, using telehealth, etc., the following can be used as a means to help engage students in the knowledge, skills, attitudes and cognitive and affective processes that CSWE’s competencies demand.

Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior

Once you’ve completed the articles and videos, craft a 2-3 page reflection that addresses the central concepts that were most meaningful to your professional growth and continued self-care. [6 hours]­­

  • Suicide Attempt Survivor collection of stories – https://livethroughthis.org/. Craft a 2 page reflection speaking to perseverance and the influence of survival on individual’s lives. [3 hours]
  • Select a standard in the NASW Code of Ethics and contrast with a separate one.  Reflect on differences or points of tension between the Standards in the Code, 2-3 pages.[4 hours]
  • Review and rewrite your personal statement related to an ethical dilemma that you submitted as part of your application to the MSW program.  What have you learned since then? [3 hours]
  • Identify three media sources other than those indicated in this document that help to inform social work practice related to demonstrating professional social work behavior. [2 hours]
  • Taking Care of Your Behavioral Health: Tips for Social Distancing, Quarantine and Isolation During Infectious Disease Outbreak (2 hours) https://store.samhsa.gov/system/files/sma14-4894.pdf
    Read the article and write a paper on how marginalized individuals might experience obstacles implementing some of the suggestions in the article. 
  • Technology Safety-Exploring Technology in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence (2 hours). https://www.techsafety.org/digital-services-during-public-health-crises

    While reading the article, think about ways suggested in the article that a clinician could use to work with a domestic violence victim. Create an outline that highlights (4) major points of the article.   

Competency 2: Engage Diversity and Difference in Practice

  • Public Transportation – for those living in communities with public transportation, plan a trip to the grocery store using public transportation from your home to the store. Identify the route, the number of buses and time in comparison to you driving yourself there. [2 hours]
  • Utilize self-reflection to think about how your personal identities and biases impact practice, 2-3 pages. [3 hours]
  • Create an edible menu for a month based on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) average of $1.39 per day. Then virtually “shop” for your foods, including a total for each meal.  [3 hours]
  • Identify the unique cultural composition of the client population served by the agency.  Identify ways in which the agency meets the needs of the client population and identify how this could be improved. [5 hours]
  • Identify three media sources other than those indicated in this document that help to inform social work practice related to engaging diversity and difference in practice. [2 hours]
  • Out South Oral History Project. https://nunncenter.net/outsouth/gallery
    Choose 3 Oral Histories from the list, and listen to them in the presentation.  After listening to the oral histories, design a persuasion PowerPoint that uses quotes, key phrases, images, and other visual elements that support and enhance what you want to communicate. 

Competency 3: Advance Human Rights and Social, Economic, and Environmental Justice

  • Complete 3 page writing assignment about strategies that promote social justice and human rights considering agency mission and practice. [4 hours]
  • Create list of ways your field agency advocates for social, economic, environmental justice and human rights [3 hours]
  • Identify an agency comparable to yours but in another state. How is that agency’s mission related to human rights and justice similar to your own agency? How does it differ? [3 hours]
  • Translate agency materials – if you’re fluent in another language, consider translating agency information to provide better access to all clients. [TBD]
  • Transcribe media for your agency’s clients, again providing better access to all clients. [TBD]
  • Identify three media sources other than those indicated in this document that help to inform social work practice related to advancing human rights and social, economic and environmental justice. [2 hours]
  • Can Health Care Make Suicide a Non-Event – Podcast  (3 hour)
    http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/2016/09/zerosuicide.html

    Complete a 2 page paper describing your perception of the presenting problem in the podcast, your professional opinion about the information given, and how you think it relates to advancing human rights of individuals.
  • Multilingual Resources for Schools – article (3 hours)
    https://www.colorincolorado.org/coronavirus

    Read about multilingual resources for schools and prepare a visual metaphor that will communicate important points to individuals, families and groups.
  • Frontline Podcast  (24 hours total with assignment, 2 hours per film)
    View each 1 hour film.  Reflect on how it connects to your community.  Produce a PowerPoint using graphics to summarize the content.

    https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/films/

    Girls incarcerated – juvenile incarceration – Netflix; Hate: Charlottesville; Separated Child at the Border; Sex Trafficking in America; Flint Deadly Water; Targeting El Paso; Trafficked in America; Poor Kids ;The Way We Get By—; The Abortion Divide; Right to Fail—Mental Health, Left Behind America-Economic Struggle

Competency 4: Engage in Practice-Informed Research and Research-Informed Practice

  • Intervention paper – select one method of intervention at your agency then identify three research articles that support the intervention as evidence informed. Develop a 2-3 page summary of the articles along with an example of intervention with an anonymized client. [4 hours]
  • Identify a survey with psychometric properties from the literature that can be used with the client population at your field agency. How can the survey inform the agency? One page response. [3 hours]
  • Infographic- work with your agency to determine what makes a difference for your clients then create an infographic for your agency to help inform others, templates at https://doitgenially.com. [3 hours]
  • Identify three media sources other than those indicated in this document that help to inform social work practice related to research informed practice and practice informed research. [2 hours]

Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice

  • Institute for Research on Poverty Center – includes brief essays summarizing current poverty and policy research for non-researchers, https://www.irp.wisc.edu/resource_type/focus-focus-plus/. Explore local, state and federal policies that impact organization and/or the affected community, write a one page summary. [3 hours]
  • Write a letter to the editor about a policy issue impacting the population your agency serves [2 hours]
  • Complete an analysis of a political candidate’s plans for policy change related to social welfare (e.g. healthcare, Green Deal, etc). [6 hours]
  • Identify the primary funding sources for your agency and provide a synopsis of the policy that provides the funding. [2 hours]
  • Identify three media sources other than those indicated in this document that help to inform social work practice related to engaging in policy practice. [2 hours]
  • Creating Trauma Informed Systems (2 hours)
    https://www.nctsn.org/trauma-informed-care/creating-trauma-informed-systems

    Read the article and write a 2 page paper, or prepare a PowerPoint presentation that describes implications for policy in your child welfare agency.  If you are not in a child welfare agency, describe how aspects of the article might apply in another service setting.

Competency 6: Engage with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

  • MACRO SOCIAL WORK CHAT or listen to a #MacroSW Podcast https://macrosw.com/, articulate what you did/why you chose this/how it relates to your current field placement and one of your learning goals.  [2 hours]
  • Jonathan Singer’s social work podcast, covers multiple areas, http://socialworkpodcast.blogspot.com/. Choose a podcast to listen to then write a one page reflection on how the content will be incorporated into your social work practice.  [2 hours]

Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

After watching these three Ted Talks, summarize the key take away from each of these as they relate to social work practice and disaster/pandemic preparedness. Identify three key take aways from each talk. Reflect on the ways in which you think your community is doing a “good job” and the ways in which your community may be falling short during the current COVID-19 pandemic. (be sure to define “community” for the sake of the assignment!) [3 hrs]

  • Identify three media sources other than those indicated in this document that help to inform social work practice related to assessing individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. [2 hours]

Competency 8: Intervene with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

  • Identify three media sources other than those indicated in this document that help to inform social work practice related to intervening with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. [2 hours]
  • Volunteer at: A Caring Place, a non-denominational church based non-profit intended to reduce social isolation for older adults.  Given the CoVid pandemic, they are in need of volunteers to make phone calls to seniors in Lexington and surrounding areas to check in on them, offer companionship, and connect with resources (if needed).
  • Ways to Overcome the Emotional Effects of Social Distancing (2 hours)
    https://psychcentral.com/blog/ways-to-overcome-the-emotional-effects-of-social-distancing/
    Read the article and choose a method, (PowerPoint, Infographics, Media presentation) to communicate the content to a targeted audience of your choice.
  • Psychological First Aid Training
    https://www.coursera.org/learn/psychological-first-aid#about

    Learn to provide psychological first aid to people in an emergency by employing the RAPID model: Reflective listening, Assessment of needs, Prioritization, Intervention, and Disposition.

    Participants will increase their abilities to: – Discuss key concepts related to PFA – Listen reflectively – Differentiate benign, non-incapacitating psychological/ behavioral crisis reactions from more severe, potentially incapacitating, crisis reactions – Prioritize (triage) psychological/ behavioral crisis reactions – Mitigate acute distress and dysfunction, as appropriate – Recognize when to facilitate access to further mental health support – Practice self-care  ( 7 hours for completion of all modules).

Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

  • The Community Tool Box is a free, online resource for those working to build healthier communities and bring about social change, offering over numerous modules on community assessment, planning, intervention, evaluation, advocacy, and other aspects of community practice. https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents. [up to 30 hours – work with your practicum instructor to determine projects and the number of hours for each]
  • Rural Health Toolkit, provides 21 different training opportunities on evidence informed practice within rural communities. https://www.ruralhealthinfo.org/toolkits    [4 hours each]
  • Pandemics and Social Work Planning: Research what your agency has in place for pandemic or epidemic planning protocol. Research what your community has in place/has communicated. Spend some time looking at web pages/social media from organizations similar to your practicum site – how are organizations getting messaging out to clients and constituents around what’s open/closed/available. Reflect on how these service interruptions/changes are impacting vulnerable and oppressed clients and client groups. What are you reading in the social work social media/twitter world about what we need to do? Write a thoughtful 2-3 page reflection that pulls together these questions/answers. This can be in first person, should be professional in nature, and should follow all typical guidelines for APA formatting, etc.  [5 hours]
  • Review effectiveness of evidence-based practice models and discuss ways that model could be implemented in field placement agency
  • Review case study for strengths, challenges and systemic factors impacting the intervention and or implementation of the intervention
  • Create a literature review that identifies theagency populationand best practices with that population, minimum of 7 sources and 5 pages. [5 hours]
  • Identify three media sources other than those indicated in this document that help to inform social work practice related to evaluating practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations and communities. [2 hours]

Remote/Virtual Opportunities for Child Welfare/PCWCP

Child-Welfare-Virtual-Field-Tasks-and-AssignmentsDownload