Mission Statement
The mission of the University of Kansas School of Social Welfare is to
educate students, conduct scholarly inquiry and perform community service
in order to promote an approach to social work practice that advances the
empowerment and well-being of individuals and communities.
In both the BSW and MSW programs, our practice-centered approach,
leading to empowerment and well-being, is guided by four themes:
- Focus on people’s strengths
- Celebration of human diversity
- Promotion of social justice
- Developing a critical perspective
The School has a commitment to educational approaches that directly and
explicitly enhance the connection of theory and concepts to the needs of
clients and the demands of everyday practice. This commitment flows from
the values and ethical base of the profession and is enriched by four
themes. We define the themes as follows:
Strengths: A perspective that recognizes and mobilizes the inherent
strengths of individuals, families, neighborhoods, organizations and
communities to discover and develop their own and communal resources and
assets in their struggle for a better quality of life.
Diversity: Understanding, valuing and engaging the broad range of
differences and commonalities based on culture, ethnicity, race,
geography, gender, race, social class, sexual orientation, and physical
and mental abilities, particularly when those differences are the cause
for discrimination.
Social Justice: A commitment to greater equality based on a complex
understanding of the effects of economic, political and social structures
on people’s life chances, particularly as it relates to economic
inequality and the availability of necessary social resources.
Critical Perspective: The capacity to engage in a deliberate and
continuing examination of the assumptions underlying theories, methods and
approaches used by social work in understanding and responding to human
need.
View BSW Goals
View MSW Goals
