Social Work - Child and Family Practice

Overview

With this Social Work - Child and Family Practice program from Illinois State University  you will have the opportunity to expand your knowledge in a variety of areas. Our electives and practicum experience center around special populations and social problems such as:

• foster care and special needs adoption
• substance use
• family violence 
• sexual abuse
• physical and mental illness
• agency administration and program planning
• supervision

Our agency-based practice gives you the opportunity to take what you learn in the classroom and apply it to working with children and families. Through this experience, you will learn how to develop, deliver, and manage services to meet the needs of clients.

Whatever your interest may be, we have just the spot for you. Agency locations include:

• mental health facilities
• child welfare agencies
• substance use disorder treatment programs
• youth centers
• prevention agencies
• hospitals
• homeless programs
• intimate partner violence centers
• courts

• community centers

Illinois State University's Center for Child Welfare and Adoption Studies established its First Start Academy in 2017 to help prepare high school-aged youth in foster care for college. There are only a handful of First Star academies in the U.S.