Over the past three years, the School's faculty has made a number of changes in the design and content of practice courses. In their first year of study, students now take three required foundation practice courses. Foundations of Social Work Practice introduces students to the profession and its values and ethics, practice methods, fields of practice, and practice skills. Direct Practice emphasizes assessment, intervention, and systematic evaluation of practice with individuals, families, and groups. Advocacy in Social Work Practice: Case and Cause focuses on assessing organizations, communities, and social policies that affect clients' daily lives and intervening differentially in the pursuit of effective social service delivery and social and economic justice.

The majority of practice faculty who teach these three courses are actively engaged in direct practice with clients, advocacy on behalf of client populations, and/or program design and evaluation in collaboration with community agencies. Darrell Wheeler provides peer education support groups for community and street outreach workers engaged in HIV/AIDS preventive interventions and participates in the CDC- mandated New York City HIV/AIDS prevention planning group. Andrew Hamid facilitates a cognitive behavioral relapse prevention group for substance abusers and provides clinical supervision for outpatient substance abuse practitioners. Brenda McGowan is engaged in a number of agency-based advocacy initiatives for children in the child welfare system. Neil Guterman is designing and implementing an early intervention agency-based program to prevent child abuse; and Claudia Moreno facilitates "Parents Helping Parents," a support, education, empowerment and advocacy group for parents of children with autism. Marianne Yoshioka is collaborating with a transitional housing program for battered women in designing HIV prevention programming for women at high risk, and Karina Walters provides mediation for the American Indian Community House.

Another CUSSW practice curriculum innovation consists of in-depth specialized coursework for students in their final semester. Students concentrating in either Advanced Clinical Practice or Advanced Generalist Practice and Programming select two seven-week courses from a broad range of specialized topics focusing on practice with a particular population or on a professional practice issue. Specialized course topics are updated each year to reflect developments in the field. For example, in Spring 1999 Advanced Clinical Practice students could select from many topics, including: Clinical Practice with Sexually Abused Children and Adults; Clinical Intervention with High Risk Families; Task-Centered Practice with Children and Families; Clinical Practice with Patients and Families Coping with Life-Threatening Illness; Integrating the Use of Multiple Family Groups in Clinical Practice; and Theory and Treatment of Suicidal Behavior. Advanced Generalist Practice and Programming students could enroll in Program Development, Evaluation, and Grant Writing; Supervision and Staff Development; Trauma Interventions Across Systems and Populations; Conflict Resolution and Family Mediation; and What We Bring to Advanced Generalist Practice.

These specialized courses both support students' advanced practice in their field internships and provide faculty with an opportunity to draw upon their current practice activities. For example, Mary McKay currently provides school-based multiple family groups designed to decrease children's behavioral difficulties. Mary Sormanti facilitates a bereavement support group, and Ellen Lukens supervises clinical social workers who lead psychoeducational multiple family groups for families with a member with severe mental illness. Nabila El-Bassel is collaborating with the Ackerman Institute for the Family in designing and implementing a social-cognitive HIV/AIDS preventive intervention for low income African American and Latina women and their sexual partners. André Ivanoff is planning and carrying out a program for patients with suicidal and aggressive behaviors with a state hospital that serves chronically ill persons. Helene Jackson and Renee Solomon are engaged in independent social work practice.