CSSW Barbara had a very real sense of fear when she returned to college after a long absence from school. | | | ! Like many other mothers who return to school, Barbara wondered whether she could properly juggle her time between home and her three children and still get good marks with a full course load. But she knew she was doing the right thing. The program Barbara enrolled in, the Community Social Service Worker (CSSW) program at Douglas College, was exactly what she wanted to do. As she began classes, Barbara quickly tuned into the momentum of the two semes- ter program and discovered her fears were not as bad as she originally antici-} pated. For Lorna Kirkham, coordinator of CSSW, Barbara's story is not unusual. "Douglas College, with its beautifully designed New Westminster campus, can be a pretty imposing structure for some people, es- pecially if they have been out of school for ten or 20 years," Kirkham says. "But for people like Barbara, and the hundreds of other mature men and women who have taken CSSW, the importance of their training soon shadows any apprehen-! sions they may bring in," she says. | | CSSW teaches people how to help others, | whether in a Ministry of Human Resources office or in one of countless other organ izations who provide social services. | Graduates from this Douglas College pro- | gram have tremendous advantages over un- skilled workers who usually begin work as volunteers and move their way into the societies who employ Social Service Workers. The program attracts mature adults who | Mad Hatter Page 2 already have experienced work with people. Actually, one of the prerequisites® is that applicants have at least 100 hours ® of paid or volunteer time in the field. ; These settings could include places such as volunteer bureaus, like Lifeline, or any other community social service agency. For the CSSW instructors at Douglas College, like Lorna Kirkham, Bob Shebib and Sally Nordman, the important committ- ment is to teach their students profes- sional competencies that will be useful after they graduate. "That's why we are always in a state of change," Shebib says. "For instance, when unemployment statistics started rising a few years ago we added a special course to train people in counselling the unemployed with job finding skills." CSSW also enjoys collaboration with some 40 social service agencies who take stu- dents into their work setting during the course of the program. Practicums Most Important "This practicum experience is an integral part of CSSW," Kirkham says. Each stu- dent spends half of his time in the classroom learning the theories of social service work, and the other half is spent in work situations. "Practicums are probably the most impor- tant part of the program because this is where students apply the skills they learn in class," says Nordman. Another area CSSW places emphasis on is in work with senior citizens. Anita Hagen runs the New Westminster Seniors Bureau and she offers support and quidanceg to students taking their practicums in . her agency. Linda Mackintosh, a student now in her second and last semester of the program, enrolled because she wanted a change from her previous job in a medical lab.