Within the Leadership, Mezzo, and Macro Practice (LMMP) area of specialization is the Leadership, Community, Advocacy, and Policy (LCAP) track. This track prepares students for a range of mezzo and macro practice roles within a variety of organizational and community settings. Historically social workers have been called upon to assume leadership and facilitative roles in areas related to personnel supervision and development, program management, agency/organizational administration, community organizing, policy development, and advocacy.

Whether rooted in a generalist or clinical model of professional education, social workers must have the requisite knowledge, skills, and values to perform their roles and have an impact as leaders, advocates, organizers, and administrators. Social work supervisors, program managers, administrators, community organizers, policy developers, and advocates must know how to work with diverse and multicultural communities, organizations, personnel, and clients. For social workers providing leadership in organizations that provide direct services, they must ensure quality and affirming service provision for all client populations.

The advanced track in Leadership, Community, Advocacy, and Policy is critical to effectively prepare the social work profession to maintain expertise in the operation of human service organizations, mobilization of communities in creating change, creation of policy, and promotion of legislation that promotes equity.

Curriculum

Students are required to complete the following courses:

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
SOWK 650	Leadership & Supervision in Service Organizations	3
SOWK 652	Organizations, Program Development, and Evaluation	3
SOWK 653	Community Organizing and Policy Practice	3
Total Hours		9

Graduate & Professional Standards and Regulations

Students in graduate and professional programs can find their Academic Policies in Graduate and Professional Academic Standards and Regulations under their school. Any additional University Policies supersede school policies.

MSW Program Specialized LMMP Learning Outcomes

Competency 1: Demonstrate Ethical and Professional Behavior 

Social workers understand the value base of the profession and its ethical standards, as well as relevant policies, laws, and regulations that may affect practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers understand that ethics are informed by principles of human rights and apply them toward realizing social, racial, economic, and environmental justice in their practice. Social workers understand frameworks of ethical decision making and apply principles of critical thinking to those frameworks in practice, research, and policy arenas. Social workers recognize and manage personal values and the distinction between personal and professional values. Social workers understand how their evolving worldview, personal experiences, and affective reactions influence their professional judgment and behavior. Social workers take measures to care for themselves professionally and personally, understanding that self-care is paramount for competent and ethical social work practice. Social workers use rights-based, antiracist, and anti-oppressive lenses to understand and critique the profession’s history, mission, roles, and responsibilities and recognize historical and current contexts of oppression in shaping institutions and social work. Social workers understand the role of other professionals when engaged in interprofessional practice. Social workers recognize the importance of lifelong learning and are committed to continually updating their skills to ensure relevant and effective practice. Social workers understand digital technology and the ethical use of technology in social work practice.

Social workers: 

• Practice self-reflection and self-evaluation in working through competing personal and professional values. 
• Apply and anti-racist and anti-oppressive framework to macro practice decision-making, considering NASW and IFSW ethical codes, research and practice-based knowledge, and applicable legal and policy information. 
• Promote policies for organizational, community, and policy change that reflect social work values and challenge inequities. 
• Demonstrate an understanding of social work supervision as an accountability mechanism in supporting ethical and professional social work practice. 
• Identify discrimination and marginalization and prioritize the voices of affected populations. 

Competency 2: Advance Human Rights and Social, Racial, Economic, and Environmental Justice 

Social workers understand that every person regardless of position in society has fundamental human rights. Social workers are knowledgeable about the global intersecting and ongoing injustices throughout history that result in oppression and racism, including social work’s role and response. Social workers critically evaluate the distribution of power and privilege in society in order to promote social, racial, economic, and environmental justice by reducing inequities and ensuring dignity and respect for all. Social workers advocate for and engage in strategies to eliminate oppressive structural barriers to ensure that social resources, rights, and responsibilities are distributed equitably and that civil, political, economic, social, and cultural human rights are protected.

Social workers:

• Integrate knowledge of international human rights conventions and covenants, as well as human rights theories and frameworks, into practice that addresses social, economic, and environmental justice. 
• Critically examine the political process to participate in organizational, community, and policy change addressing human rights and social justice 
• Identify human rights and justice issues of clients and constituents. 
• Develop strategies to address human rights and justice issues and to evaluate outcomes with key stakeholders. 

Competency 3: Engage Anti-Racism, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ADEI) in Practice 

Social workers understand how racism and oppression shape human experiences and how these two constructs influence practice at the individual, family, group, organizational, and community levels and in policy and research. Social workers understand the pervasive impact of White supremacy and privilege and use their knowledge, awareness, and skills to engage in anti-racist practice. Social workers understand how diversity and intersectionality shape human experiences and identity development and affect equity and inclusion. The dimensions of diversity are understood as the intersectionality of factors including but not limited to age, caste, class, color, culture, disability and ability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, generational status, immigration status, legal status, marital status, political ideology, race, nationality, religion and spirituality, sex, sexual orientation, and tribal sovereign status. Social workers understand that this intersectionality means that a person’s life experiences may include oppression, poverty, marginalization, and alienation as well as privilege and power. Social workers understand the societal and historical roots of social and racial injustices and the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination. Social workers understand cultural humility and recognize the extent to which a culture’s structures and values, including social, economic, political, racial, technological, and cultural exclusions, may create privilege and power resulting in systemic oppression.

Social workers:

• Demonstrate proficiency in choosing and using a variety of communication styles to engage with people of various political ideologies, religious and cultural backgrounds, and points of view. 
• Create engagement strategies that are inclusive and consider systems of power and intersectional identities, including areas of racism, sexism, nativism, etc.  
• Recognize the discrepancies that may arise between respecting cultural differences of clients and constituencies and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 
• Develop leadership and other teams that reflect the diversity of the communities in which they work. 

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

Social workers use ethical, culturally informed, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive approaches in conducting research and building knowledge. Social workers use research to inform their practice decision making and articulate how their practice experience informs research and evaluation decisions. Social workers critically evaluate and critique current, empirically sound research to inform decisions pertaining to practice, policy, and programs. Social workers understand the inherent bias in research and evaluate design, analysis, and interpretation using an anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspective. Social workers know how to access, critique, and synthesize the current literature to develop appropriate research questions and hypotheses. Social workers demonstrate knowledge and skills regarding qualitative and quantitative research methods and analysis, and they interpret data derived from these methods. Social workers demonstrate knowledge about methods to assess reliability and validity in social work research. Social workers can articulate and share research findings in ways that are usable to a variety of clients and constituencies. Social workers understand the value of evidence derived from interprofessional and diverse research methods, approaches, and sources.

Social workers:

• Critically analyzes research results on best practices in management and supervision from a variety of disciplines. 
• Develop research questions with input from stakeholders and analysis of how the research process may impact, both positively and negatively, clients, programs, organizations, communities, and/or policies. Intentionally include the voices and experiences of those most affected by any type of inequality into the research process 
• Critically analyze research findings and practice models to inform practice at all levels of macro practice, including teams, organizations, community, and policy 
• Identify possible barriers and resistance to the conduct and dissemination of research, as well as any ethical, political, and other dilemmas that may arise. 

Competency 5: Engage in Policy Practice 

Social workers identify social policy at the local, state, federal, and global level that affects wellbeing, human rights and justice, service delivery, and access to social services. Social workers recognize the historical, social, racial, cultural, economic, organizational, environmental, and global influences that affect social policy. Social workers understand and critique the history and current structures of social policies and services and the role of policy in service delivery through rights-based, anti-oppressive, and anti-racist lenses. Social workers influence policy formulation, analysis, implementation, and evaluation within their practice settings with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers actively engage in and advocate for anti-racist and anti-oppressive policy practice to effect change in those settings.

Social workers:

• Communicate to stakeholders and policymakers the implications of policies and policy change in the lives of clients. 
• Conduct and design a plan of organizational analysis and change, working with relevant constituencies, to evaluate interventions that impact clients and communities utilizing best practice models reflecting social work values, ethics, and the mission of the organization. 
• Collect, maintain, interpret, and analyze data from both internal and external organizational environments, the community of stakeholders and diverse client groups to identify and prioritize social problems. 
• Recognize how oppression and social injustice affects client groups, organizations and communities and being proactive in intervening for human rights and justice.  

• Understand strategies and techniques for advocating at local, state, and federal levels in policy development. 

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

Social workers understand that engagement is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice with and on behalf of individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Social workers value the importance of human relationships. Social workers understand theories of human behavior and person-in-environment and critically evaluate and apply this knowledge to facilitate engagement with clients and constituencies, including individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers are self-reflective and understand how bias, power, and privilege as well as their personal values and personal experiences may affect their ability to engage effectively with diverse clients and constituencies. Social workers use the principles of interprofessional collaboration to facilitate engagement with clients, constituencies, and other professionals as appropriate.

Social workers:

• Demonstrate ability to identify a comprehensive range of stakeholders in the relevant practice setting: organization, community, and/or policy. 
• Demonstrate self-awareness and professional behavior in engaging with individuals, teams, community groups and organizations. 
• Demonstrate verbal, written, and digital skills to engage multiple, diverse constituencies. 
• Understand and demonstrate effective group and team facilitation and mediation process skills that facilitate engagement and collaboration. 
• Define and recognize their own and others’ leadership skills to effectively promote stakeholder engagement and change. 

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

Social workers understand that assessment is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice. Social workers understand theories of human behavior and person-in-environment, as well as interprofessional conceptual frameworks, and they critically evaluate and apply this knowledge in culturally responsive assessment with clients and constituencies, including individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Assessment involves a collaborative process of defining presenting challenges and identifying strengths with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities to develop a mutually agreed-upon plan. Social workers recognize the implications of the larger practice context in the assessment process and use interprofessional collaboration in this process. Social workers are self-reflective and understand how bias, power, privilege, and their personal values and experiences may affect their assessment and decision making.

Social workers:

• Analyze power distributions to identify influential decision-makers, whether formal or informal, among individuals, teams, organizations, communities, and other institutional entities 
• Identify and create mezzo and macro interventions based on an assessment and analysis of assets, needs, benefits, service gaps, rights, and power and resource distributions. 
• Demonstrate ability to collaborate with stakeholders throughout the assessment process. 
• Analyze collected data and communicate summaries of the data in written and oral form as appropriate.  
• Present options for intervention based on data-informed assessments. 
• Articulate the benefits and drawbacks of various metrics, analytical methods and tools, and data sources (primary & secondary, quantitative & qualitative)  

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

Social workers understand that intervention is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice. Social workers understand theories of human behavior, person-in-environment, and other interprofessional conceptual frameworks, and they critically evaluate and apply this knowledge in selecting culturally responsive interventions with clients and constituencies, including individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers understand methods of identifying, analyzing, and implementing evidence-informed interventions and participate in interprofessional collaboration to achieve client and constituency goals. Social workers facilitate effective transitions and endings.

Social workers:

• Articulates ethically sound, social work value-centered supervision strategies for employees, including performance reviews and corrective action plans.  
• Engage with stakeholders in the identification of issues and policies that impact individual well-being and the communities and organizations that support them. 
• Mobilize constituents to participate and lead in issue analysis and formulation of corresponding advocacy agendas with effective strategies and tactics to advance meaningful change for social justice, equity, and inclusion. 
• Participate in coalitions, networks, professional associations, and community based organizing efforts to leverage political capital to challenge unjust structures of power and effect positive change.   
• Formulate and persuasively communicate cogent arguments through effective written and oral formats that reach diverse audiences and utilize varied platforms.  

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

Social workers understand that evaluation is an ongoing component of the dynamic and interactive process of social work practice with and on behalf of diverse individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Social workers evaluate processes and outcomes to increase practice, policy, and service delivery effectiveness. Social workers apply anti-racist and anti-oppressive perspectives in evaluating outcomes. Social workers understand theories of human behavior and person-in-environment, as well as interprofessional conceptual frameworks, and critically evaluate and apply this knowledge in evaluating outcomes. Social workers use qualitative and quantitative methods for evaluating outcomes and practice effectiveness.

Social workers:

• Demonstrate ethical knowledge and awareness of evaluation guidelines that can be employed in assessment of practice and ensure confidentiality of engaged participants. 
• Comprehend evaluation norms, benchmarks and guidelines as approved by NASW and CSWE that allow accurate and impartial assessments at all levels of social work practice.  
• Illustrate comprehensive knowledge of human rights-based understanding of evaluation design, methods, approaches, and analysis that can be applied in simple to complex settings within social work mezzo and macro policy and organizational environments.  
• Distinguish, explain, and apply various types of theo­ries of change and logic models to understand sys­tems thinking to identify and facilitate growth-oriented evaluative mindsets among all stakeholders.