Mission & Accreditation

Mission

Through education in empirically-based, state-of-the-art methods rooted in social justice, diversity, and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition, the MSW program at Sacred Heart prepares MSW students in the anti-racist, integrated practice skills and strategies necessary to engage with, assess for and intervene competently in the full range of micro to macro social work practice. 

Accreditation

The Sacred Heart University Master of Social Work program achieved its Initial Accreditation from the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) in February 2019 and was announced to the community on March 22, 2019.

CSWE accreditation is a multi-step process utilizing a benchmark framework that includes program self-studies, site visits, and Committee on Accreditation (COA) reviews. The process takes a minimum of three years. The steps in the process are as follows:

  1. Pre-candidacy status: preliminary planning
  2. Candidacy status: approval to begin program and accept students
  3. Full Accreditation: all accreditation requirements achieved

Initial Accreditation covers those students who were admitted in the academic year in which the program was granted candidacy and they are considered to have graduated from a CSWE-accredited social work program.

Current program status towards Accreditation:

  • Licensure by CT State Office of Higher Education: Achieved October 2015
  • Pre-candidacy status: Achieved May 2016
  • Candidacy status: Achieved February 2017
  • Full Accreditation: Achieved February 2019