Sacred Heart University

Sacred Heart's MSW program is guided by ethical principles of service, respect for human dignity, social and economic justice, and the needs of vulnerable and diverse populations.

Why Earn Your Master’s in Social Work at Sacred Heart?

Through direct clinical or direct community practice, you will explore human behavior in the social environment, social work generalist practice, social welfare policy, social work research, human diversity and social justice. You’ll enhance this knowledge with specialized skills in social work practice and assessment, treatment planning, interventions, and practice evaluation. You’ll be prepared for leadership roles in generalist and specialized practice. 

Benefit from a flexible course of study

Choose from an option that fits your schedule. All options provide an exceptional learning experience taught by the same respected, experienced faculty.

In this program, you will also:

• Become a critical, anti-racist thinker, competent in integrated practice and fluent in the multi-leveled, ecological perspective, which includes a full range of salient theoretical practices, models and framework necessary for integrative understanding of people, their families and communities, and the social and political structures that affect them;
• Use empirically-based, cutting edge methods and approaches to enhance social work practice and policies in an ever-evolving, local-to-global social context;
• Develop skills necessary to engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate practice in work with individuals, families, groups, communities, organizations, and government systems, and to collaborate in work ranging from micro-to-macro settings to respond to expressed human needs and shape associated policy;
• Promote social justice and diversity and effect meaningful and productive social change in communities by collaborating with marginalized populations; and
• Commit to the values and ethics of social work, the principles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and champion the dignity and worth of every human being;
• Hone your practice skills and learn to work in a specialized area through supervised field practicum. 

Assessment of Student Learning

The program conducts ongoing assessment of student outcomes across program options at both the course level and the program level for all identified competencies at the generalist and specialized levels of practice. Multidimensional assessment occurs in each course and behavior assessment occurs in the field placement. Assessment of competence is conducted by faculty teaching the courses, the field placement supervisor, and the field liaison.  Other aspects of our program are assessed utilizing a variety of methods including, but not limited to, student satisfaction surveys, community partner satisfaction surveys, focus groups, and internal faculty assessment.