Department of Social Work
Humboldt State University
Program Competencies and Practice Behaviors
BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.1
Identify as a
professional
social worker and conduct oneself accordingly
Advocate for client access to needed resources
Take initiative in the development of necessary
alliances to advocate effectively for change
Social workers serve as representatives of the
profession, its mission, and its core values. They
know the profession’s history. Social workers
commit themselves to the profession’s
enhancement and to their own professional
conduct and growth.
Practice self-reflection to make changes that
assure continual professional development
Model conscious use of self, self-reflection, selfmonitoring, and self-correction in practice
situations
Attend to professional roles, responsibilities,
relationships, and boundaries
Exercise leadership roles within social work
practice, congruent with one’s level and scope
of practice
Demonstrate respect for clients and colleagues
through appropriate professional behavior,
appearance, and communication
Model integration and internalization of and
shape professional standards
Identify resources for engaging in career-long
learning
Engage in planned and continuous professional
and educational development
Use supervision and consultation
Continually seek and apply the knowledge and
practice wisdom derived from supervision and
consultation
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.2
Apply social work ethical principles to guide
professional practice
Recognize and manage personal values in a
way that allows professional values to guide
practice
Articulate and advocate for social work values
and ethics among multidisciplinary situations
and settings
Social workers have an obligation to conduct
themselves ethically and to engage in ethical
decision-making. Social workers are
knowledgeable about the value base of the
profession, its ethical standards, and relevant law.
Make ethical decisions by applying standards
of the NASW Code of Ethics, IFSW/IASSW
ethical principles, and/or other social work
ethical codes
Conduct themselves ethically and engage in
differential approaches and strategies for
ethical decision-making
Recognize and manage ambiguity in resolving
ethical conflicts
Are able to critique ethical principals within
complex practice environments
Apply strategies of ethical reasoning to arrive
at principled decisions
Use and consult with others in applying
strategies for ethical reasoning to arrive at
principled decisions
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Apply critical thinking to inform and
communicate professional judgments
Distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple
sources of knowledge, including research-based
knowledge, practice wisdom, and clients’ lived
experience
Evaluate, integrate, and apply multiple sources
of knowledge including research based
knowledge, practice wisdom, and clients’ lived
experience
Social workers are knowledgeable about the
principles of logic, scientific inquiry, and
reasoned
discernment. They use critical thinking augmented
by creativity and curiosity. Critical thinking also
requires the synthesis and communication of
relevant information.
Analyze models of assessment, prevention,
intervention, and evaluation
Are able to challenge the “status quo” when the
status quo does not provide a best practice
response for a client system
Demonstrate effective oral and written
communication in working with individuals,
families, groups, organizations, communities,
and colleagues
Creatively synthesize, analyze, and interpret
relevant information through professional
presentations and documents across systems
Competency
2.1.3
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.4
Engage diversity and difference in practice
Recognize the extent to which a culture’s
structures and values may oppress,
marginalize,
alienate, or create or enhance privilege and
power
Generate and support structures that empower
people and their communities and mitigate
forces that may oppress, marginalize, alienate,
or create or enhance privilege and power
Social workers understand how diversity
characterizes and shapes the human experience
and is critical to the formation of identity. The
dimensions of diversity are understood as the
intersectionality of multiple factors including age,
class, color, culture, disability, ethnicity, gender,
gender identity and expression, immigration
status, political ideology, race, religion, sex, and
sexual orientation. Social workers appreciate
that, as a consequence of difference, a person’s
life experiences may include oppression, poverty,
marginalization, and alienation as well as
privilege, power, and acclaim.
Gain self-awareness to minimize the influence
of personal biases and values in
working with diverse groups
Engage self and others in recognizing and
transforming personal biases and values in
working with diverse groups
Recognize and communicate their
understanding of the importance of difference
and intersectionality in shaping life experiences
Advocate for and demonstrate the importance
of difference and intersectionality in shaping
life experiences
View themselves as learners and engage those
with whom they work as resources for
information
Promotes collaboration with diverse
constituents to adapt and apply theoretical
frameworks and practice interventions
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.5
Advance human rights and social and
economic justice
Understand the forms and mechanisms of
oppression and discrimination
Embrace the obligation to advance human
rights and foster social, environmental, and
economic justice
Each person, regardless of position in society, has
basic human rights, such as freedom, safety,
privacy, an adequate standard of living, health
care, and education. Social workers recognize the
global interconnections of oppression and are
knowledgeable about theories of justice and
strategies to promote human and civil rights.
Social work incorporates social justice practices
in organizations, institutions, and society to
ensure that these basic human rights are
distributed equitably and without prejudice.
Advocate for human rights and social,
environmental, and economic justice
Practice with understanding of barriers to
advocacy and advancement within social,
environmental, political, and economic contexts
Engage in practices that advance social,
environmental, and economic justice
Engage in practices across systems that
construct, modify, and evaluate strategies that
promote social, environmental, and economic
justice and human rights
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.6
Engage in research-informed practice and
practice-informed research
Use practice experiences to inform scientific
inquiry
Work collaboratively with communities and
across disciplines to design, implement, and
interpret social work research
Social workers use practice experience to inform
research, employ evidence-based interventions,
evaluate their own practice, and use research
findings to improve practice, policy, and social
service delivery. Social workers comprehend
quantitative and qualitative research and
understand scientific and ethical approaches to
building knowledge.
Use research evidence to inform practice
Integrate qualitative and quantitative research
to inform practice, policy and social service
delivery
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.7
Apply knowledge of human behavior and the
social environment
Social workers are knowledgeable about human
behavior across the life course; the range of
social systems in which people live; and the ways
social systems promote or deter people in
maintaining or achieving health and well-being.
Social workers apply theories and knowledge
from the liberal arts to understand biological,
social, cultural, psychological, and spiritual
development.
Utilize conceptual frameworks to guide the
processes of assessment, intervention, and
evaluation
Articulate human behavior theories and
conceptual frameworks that inform their own
practice
Critique and apply knowledge to understand
persons and environments
Actively engages with clients, communities, and
colleagues in the co-creation of knowledge of
persons and environments and differentially
applies this in practice
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.8
Engage in policy practice to advance social and
economic well-being and to deliver effective
social work services
Analyze, formulate, and advocate for polices
that advance social well-being, human rights
and social, environmental, and economic
justice
Conduct nuanced analysis, formulate
collaboratively, and advocate with
communities for effective polices
that advance social well-being and
acknowledge the intersectionality of human
rights and social, environmental, and economic
justice
Social work practitioners understand that policy
affects service delivery, and they actively engage
in policy practice. Social workers know the
history and current structures of social policies
and services; the role of policy in service delivery;
and the role of practice in policy development.
Collaborate with clients and colleagues for
effective policy action
Provide leadership in developing opportunities
to advocate with colleagues, clients, and
agencies for policy change
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Respond to contexts that shape practice
Continuously discover, appraise, and attend to
changing locales, populations, scientific and
technological developments, social movements,
and emerging societal trends to provide
relevant services
Create ways to shape contexts that inform and
improve services for clients and communities
Social workers are informed, resourceful, and
proactive in responding to evolving
organizational,
community, and societal contexts at all levels of
practice. Social workers recognize that the
context of practice is dynamic, and use knowledge
and skill to respond proactively.
Provide leadership in promoting sustainable
changes in service delivery and practice to
improve the quality of social services
Build necessary coalitions in response to
contextual changes to create sustainable
strategies for communities and social programs
Competency
2.1.9
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BA/MSW
Foundation Year
Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.10(a)-(d)
MSW Advanced
Year Practice
Behaviors
Engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and
communities.
Professional practice involves the dynamic and interactive processes of engagement, assessment,
intervention, and evaluation at multiple levels. Social workers have the knowledge and skills to practice with
individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities. Practice knowledge includes identifying,
analyzing, and implementing evidence-based interventions designed to achieve client goals; using research
and technological advances; evaluating program outcomes and practice effectiveness; developing,
analyzing, advocating, and providing leadership for policies and services; and promoting social and
economic justice.
BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Substantively and affectively prepare for action with
individuals, families, groups, organizations, and
communities
Embody reflective and mindful practice for action
with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and
communities
Use empathy and other interpersonal skills
Cultivate and sustain empathy and other
interpersonal skills in challenging contexts across
social identity borders
Develop a mutually agreed-on focus of work and
desired outcomes
Evaluate complexity of client circumstances and
design approaches with clients and communities that
effect change at multiple system levels
Competency
2.1.10(a)
Engagement
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.10(b)
Assessment
Collect, organize, and interpret pertinent
information at multiple system levels
Differentially, collaboratively, and
autonomously apply appropriate culturally
relevant, evidence-based assessment
frameworks, tools and instruments at multiple
systems levels to collect, organize, and interpret
pertinent information.
Assess client strengths and challenges
Systematically and purposefully utilize
assessment data to assess client strengths and
challenges
Develop mutually agreed-on intervention goals
and objectives
Based on differential and systematic
assessment develop mutually agreed upon
intervention goals and objectives.
Select appropriate intervention strategies with
individuals, families, groups, organizations,
and communities
. Develop and utilize appropriate and effective
intervention strategies across client systems
that reflect strength-based, culturally relevant
empowerment oriented, and globally aware
approaches
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.10(c)
Intervention
Initiate actions to achieve organizational goals while
attending to professional values and ethics
Initiate actions to actualize the professional values and
ethics of social work practice while attending to the
specific organizational goals of the employing agency.
Implement prevention interventions that enhance client
capacities
Implement interventions that enhance the capacities of
primary, secondary, focus and action systems at
multiple systems levels.
Partner with clients in the process of finding solutions
Partner with clients, client systems and other multiple
systems levels in the process of finding solutions and
seeking change.
Negotiate, mediate, and advocate for clients from
empowerment perspectives.
Partner with clients from empowerment perspectives to
enhance their capacity to negotiate, mediate and
advocate for themselves on their behalf.
Facilitate transitions and endings
Actively promote opportunities for clients to engage in
transitions and endings as a part of normal
developmental work.
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BA/MSW Foundation Year Practice Behaviors
MSW Advanced Year Practice Behaviors
Competency
2.1.10(d)
Evaluation
Critically analyze, monitor, and evaluate interventions
in partnership with clients
Develop systematic strategies to critically analyze,
monitor and evaluate interventions, assessment
procedures, organizational culture and other variables
in professional social work practice in partnership with
clients.
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