The Social Work Community Outreach Service (SWCOS) is an agency created within the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland. The agency began its operations in September of 1992. SWCOS is designed to demonstrate the critical interrelationships among practice, education, training, and research in fulfilling the professional social contract with society.
Mission SWCOS’ Mission is to create and implement innovative models of social work education and service that strengthen individuals, families, organizations and communities in Baltimore and Maryland. This is accomplished through a strategic collaboration between agency, staff, faculty, students and community representatives. SWCOS provides students with hands on experience working on critical social issues in an encouraging, creative atmosphere that prepares them to be leaders in community social work; it provides those in need with quality services; and creates research opportunities to generate new knowledge in social work practice.
Service Vision The Social Work Community Outreach Service [SWCOS] concentrates its efforts in vulnerable communities with people who have been marginalized to:
1. Identify and build the capacities of individuals, families, communities and community based organizations to solve their problems; 2. Demonstrate that the problems our society faces are solvable by creating, implementing, evaluating and publicizing model solutions; 3. Demonstrate to the larger society that all of its members have something valuable to contribute to the problem solving process; 4. Remind people that inclusion and participation of all in problem solving will lead to more effective solutions; 5. Inspire people to enter this exciting struggle for social justice and to create new professional roles in this struggle; and 6. Inspire and strengthen the profession to take a stronger role in the solution of society’s problems. top
Organizational Vision SWCOS will be a recognized leader in the use of Community-University partnerships to create and implement innovative models of social work education and practice which address pressing community issues, through:
1. A statewide network of community partners 2.A dynamic and engaged network of SWCOS alumni 3. A state of the art system for collecting data on SWCOS’ best practices in the field of community social work, and 4.An active effort to promote new knowledge on the national stage.
