Social Work Association

The Social Work Association (SWA) is a Student Government Association (SGA) recognized organization, consisting of Social Work Students. The intent of SWA is to promote fellowship between social work students and give students further opportunity to be active in the community. Over the years, SWA has participated in many community service activities such as, clothing and food drives, adopted families at Christmas, participated in the Day of Caring, planning and setting up campus vigils, and helped bring speakers and exhibits to campus.

Since SWA is an SGA-acknowledged association, it has the same rights and responsibilities as all other SGA-recognized campus organizations. Some of these include representation at SGA meetings, attendance by association members at the Leadership Conference, and SGA monies for association activities.

1. Students have for several years collaborated with local social service agencies to write grant proposals for funding services.
2. The Title-E Training Grant Projects has raised $1,284,287 for the University and made possible scholarships for the preparation of BSW social workers for public practice with the WV Dept. of Health and Human Resources and the training of new and current non-social work credentialed DHHR staff. This grant allows coordinated pre-service training to foster and adoptive parents in our region. Thus far over 700 foster families have benefited from training.
3. Phi Alpha-Phi Beta, the Shepherd University social work honorary society was established in 2008 and recognized by the national Phi Alpha office. The mission of Phi Alpha is to promote excellence in scholarship and education among social work students.
4. Members of Phi Alpha and SWA work together in the Shepherd community to promote social work and strengthen the community. SWA has also hosted projects to promote awareness of many causes and social justice issues such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, and GLBT issues.
5. The Shepherd Social Work Program was selected to participate in the Cycle 1 BSW Experiential Learning (BEL) Program funded by the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative and CSWE Gero-Ed Center. This grant for $7500 will focus on building community-based connections between students and senior citizens during 2008-2010.