What is Social Work?

Definitions of Social Work

According to Canadian Association of Social Workers, “social work is a profession concerned with helping individuals, families, groups and communities to enhance their individual and collective well-being. It aims to help people develop their skills and their ability to use their own resources and those of the community to resolve problems. Social work is concerned with individual and personal problems, but also with broader social issues such as poverty, unemployment and domestic violence.

According to The International Federation of Social Work, the social work profession promotes social change, problem solving in human relationships, and the empowerment and liberation of people to enhance well being. Utilizing theories of human behaviour and social systems, social work intervenes at the points where people interact with their environments. Principles of human rights and social justice are fundamental to social work.”

In short, social work is a profession concerned with helping individuals, families, communities and the society as a whole, particularly, the vulnerable, oppressed or the marginalized.

The Social Work Profession

Social work practice is broad in nature and often includes education, certain aspects of the law, as well as social, political and economic policies; thus, as professions require, it call for specialized knowledge and training.The University of Calgary's Faculty of Social Work is committed in equipping our students with the knowledge and training to excel in the social work field.

We offer specializations in Clinical Practice and Leadership in Human Services. These specializations, concentrations and various levels of education (BSW, MSW, PhD, PMDip, MSW/MBA) allow social workers today to specialize in an area of his/her interest.

Social workers practice in a variety of occupations ranging from mental health, schools, health care, gerontology, policy departments, correctional facilities, community development, public agencies, and employee assistance programs to private practices among others.

You can look up jobs in social work on the Government of Canada Working in Canada website.

What do social workers do?

Social work is a dynamic profession and it continuously evolves to respond to the needs of the changing world; thus, social workers require knowledge and experience in human development, cultural systems as well as social and economic policies. Concisely, social work is committed to improving not only society itself, but also individuals within the society, particularly oppressed or marginalized people.

Professional social work practice may intervene to:

• Enhance the developmental, problem-solving and coping capacities of people and systems;
• Promote effective and humane operation of systems that provide resources and services to people;
• Link people to systems that provide them with resources, services and opportunities; and
• Contribute to the development and improvement of social policy.

Contact

For more career information specific to Social Work Careers, please contact Sue Kersey at 220-2193 or skersey@ucalgary.ca . To see a full list of potential skills, careers and industries available to you, visit the Career Services website.

Also visit the ALIS Social Worker Occupational Profile (Directs to ALIS website) for more information.