Staying the Path Towards a Vibrant Future

Staying the Path Towards a Vibrant Future STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE

STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE Staying the Path Towards a Vibrant Future

From the Dean

MARIANNE R.M. YOSHIOKA, M.S.W., PH.D.

Starting in the spring of 2016, the faculty and I began an important strategic planning process. We recognized that over the past decade there have been many significant shifts in social service and agency clinical practice, in the interests and needs of graduate students, in the faculty’s composition and in the administrative processes at Smith College. Our aim was to identify a range of thoughtful and informed decisions to ensure that our School not only continues to be vibrant but more importantly demonstrates leadership and excellence in clinical social work education with an anti-racism lens.

We identified three broad objectives: 1. To identify the kinds of new investments we need to make in our programs and infrastructure to ensure that our School will continue to be a leader in clinical social work education held with an anti-racism lens.

2. To ensure that we continue to grow the resources of our School to support all SSW students in their learning and faculty in their research and scholarship.

3. To develop a plan that draws upon our strengths, addresses our challenges and identifies new opportunities for our School to lead into the future.

I am deeply grateful to the Steering Committee who met over 18 months, launching surveys, running focus groups, soliciting proposals and ensuring a process that brought forward a range of voices and perspectives. Its members included:

• Marianne Yoshioka, Dean •K athryn Basham, Professor and Co-Director of Ph.D. Program •S eth Dunn, Adjunct Professor, Faculty Field Advisor and Research Advisor • Joshua Miller, Professor • Yoosun Park, Associate Professor • Maria Torres, Assistant Professor •C ourtney Tucker, M.S.W. student at Smith SSW •N ichole Wofford, Ph.D. student at Smith SSW Our Strategic Plan was approved by the SSW faculty in 2018. It has four important domains of attention. We hold an understanding that this plan will be fluid and may require shifts throughout its course but it will serve as a north star to focus our work. The four domains are: 1. Advancing Leadership and Visibility 2. Strengthening our Resources 3. Enhancing School Climate 4. Integrating Services with Smith College In each of these domains, we have identified specific objectives that will focus the administrative priorities of the faculty and I for the next three to five years. We are invigorated and inspired. Our work has already begun as our School launches into its second century. Ours has always been an important school of social work, offering a unique and in-depth educational experience. Our plan honors our long-standing commitment to excellence in clinical social work education, deepens the integration of our anti-racism commitment through all parts of our School and most importantly keeps us on the path towards a vibrant future.

STRATEGIC PLAN: THE FOUR DOMAINS DOMAIN 1: Advancing Leadership and Visibility GOAL 1: Advance leading-edge curricula in clinical social work practice and research that is highly responsive to diverse community-based practice environments and sociopolitical issues and that promotes an anti-racism lens, a theoretically integrated approach and research evidence.

INITIATIVE 1: Strengthen students’ skills and ability to draw upon multiple theories and approaches to practice by revising, integrating and synthesizing a) research, b) anti-racism, c) gender competence and d) theoretical approaches and modalities of social work theory, practice and policy into the M.S.W. and Ph.D. curricula.

INITIATIVE 1: Advance practices of universal access through all aspects of our program delivery.

INITIATIVE 2: Address issues of M.S.W. program pacing while maintaining rigor and standards of excellence.

INITIATIVE 3: Create specific assistance for SSW students who are ESL. INITIATIVE 4: Create a program with greater flexibility for students.

GOAL 6: Expand our clinical offerings to reach beyond SSW. INITIATIVE 1: Create a vibrant Office of Professional Education to support a range of advanced clinical social work knowledge and skills.

INITIATIVE 2: Retain a clinical focus within the Ph.D. program and strengthen the role, knowledge and skills of practice research methods and content in the Ph.D. curriculum.

DOMAIN 3: Enhancing School Climate

GOAL 2: Fully adopt an anti-racism framework in all aspects

and staff by increasing tuition assistance and focusing recruitment and retention strategies.

INITIATIVE 1: Develop infrastructure for faculty training and support related to course development, structure and delivery while deepening the anti-racism and racial justice lens.

INITIATIVE 1: Increase financial assistance support to M.S.W. and Ph.D. students.

GOAL 3: Invest in faculty and doctoral student teaching to

policies, operations and curricula.

of course development, structure and delivery.

GOAL 7: Achieve a critical mass of diverse students, faculty

GOAL 8: Fully implement anti-racism practices within all

support the development of clinical social work leaders within a changing world.

INITIATIVE 1: Engage and involve 100 percent of our community in meaningful anti-racism initiatives on campus or in the community.

INITIATIVE 1: Offer courses on pedagogy for all faculty throughout the regular academic year.

INITIATIVE 2: Define the anti-racism commitment for SSW and the larger community to raise awareness of what it is and how it is manifested.

INITIATIVE 2: Train, implement and support use of the SSW Critical Conversations Model for students, faculty and staff.

INITIATIVE 3: Develop a Ph.D. student teaching program that incorporates the SSW anti-racism commitment.

INITIATIVE 4: Attract, develop and sustain a diversely capable adjunct faculty.

GOAL 4: Invest in faculty and doctoral student research and

scholarship to promote leadership in knowledge generation.

INITIATIVE 1: Leverage Smith SSW Clinical Research Institute to continuously support and advance faculty and doctoral student knowledge and skills in research methods and analysis.

INITIATIVE 2: Align faculty hires to advance our capacity in key areas of clinical social work theory, practice, research methods, race and racism.

INITIATIVE 3: Deepen the practice research curriculum for Ph.D. students.

DOMAIN 2: Strengthening Resources GOAL 5: Position SSW to meet the needs of an increasingly

diverse student population by increasing the flexibility of our 27-month program through alternative formats or time frames.

INITIATIVE 3: Support data-driven decision making around our anti-racism commitment.

GOAL 9: Create a community environment where students, faculty and staff thrive together.

INITIATIVE 1: Support a respectful, compassionate learning environment for all.

INITIATIVE 2: Annually examine all areas of school policies, procedures and programming to reinforce inclusiveness across all domains.

INITIATIVE 3: Create opportunities for shared learning and collaboration between faculty and staff.

DOMAIN 4: Integrating Services with Smith College GOAL 10: Maximize our areas of shared value.

INITIATIVE 1: Maximize and synergize shared structures and activities between SSW and the College to support teaching, learning, scholarship and student support.

INITIATIVE 2: Create opportunities to participate in Smith College’s learning environment around issues of clinical and/or anti-racism practices.

STRATEGIC PLAN UPDATE Staying the Path Towards a Vibrant Future

The Process Smith College School for Social Work (SSW) engaged in a comprehensive and inclusive strategic planning process that was grounded in faculty governance.

The Strategic Planning Steering Committee was established with resident faculty, adjunct faculty, faculty advisors and student leaders, with representation from both the M.S.W. and the Ph.D. programs. The Committee met approximately once a month from May 2016 through May 2017. The School secured the services of Regina Corrao (M.Ed.), long-time leadership and organizational development consultant, and Anna Rubley (M.S.W., M.P.A.), nonprofit operational leader, to provide strategic planning guidance and project leadership for the Committee.

The Committee conducted an environmental scan consisting of information existing within the School such as completed surveys and reports commissioned by the School, newly gathered data from students, adjunct faculty and field affiliates via online surveys and focus groups and external resources from the larger environment such as a degree competition analysis looking at programs of clinical social work, marriage and family therapy and mental health counseling, social work licensing requirements, social work workforce predictions, behavioral health trends, the Social Work Grand Challenges and commissioned assessments of the School’s strengths, weaknesses and opportunities by other social work educators.

Following the lead of the Smith College Strategic Planning Process, the Comm­ ittee solicited proposals from the larger SSW community for consideration. SSW constituents contributed their innovative and creative ideas for strengthening the School and responding to trends or issues in the field of clinical social work.

ssw.smith.edu/strategicplan sswdean@smith.edu | 413-585-7950 Lilly Hall, Northampton, MA 01063

MAY 2019

In May 2017 resident faculty and administrators met for a full day retreat facilitated

by Regina Corrao to discuss the data and information that had been gathered, compiled and analyzed by the Committee over the previous year. During this meeting participants identified themes in the research and areas of opportunity and challenges for the School. These themes were noted and helped to guide the process of developing the final Strategic Plan. The final Strategic Plan was discussed and voted upon at a faculty retreat in October of 2018.