The Title IV-E Child Welfare Education Program covers tuition and fees, excluding parking and health insurance, for competitively selected MSW and BSW senior students to prepare them for competent professional child welfare practice. By fusing theory and research from universities with practice in the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services service delivery will improve, benefiting clients and providing a richer academic content for students.
Goals of the program include:
- Preparing MSW/BSW graduates in competent child welfare practice
- Educating and retaining competent DFCS employees
- Providing better services for families with multiple challenges and needs
- Training family services staff in systems theory with solution-focused and trauma-informed practice
- Promoting collaborative efforts between the University of Georgia School of Social Work and DFCS
For the 2021-2022 school year, the School of Social Work covered tuition and fees, excluding parking and health insurance, for MSW students and BSW seniors. Full-time students also received a stipend of $750 per semester for books and mileage. Extended-time students received a stipend of $500. Stipends may be renewed until the student graduates.
Students in the program are required to take two child welfare courses, serve in an internship in a county DCFS office, and upon graduation from UGA work for DFCS for 12 months for each academic year that the support was received. Students may apply for the support for up to two years. Following the work requirement, most graduates of this program choose to continue DFCS employment.
To qualify for an interview, applicants must be MSW students or admitted to the MSW program for the coming year, or be rising junior BSW students. Applications for the 2022-2023 academic year are being accepted until April 30, 2022. Applications may be made online at https://www.gadfcs.org/grant/cwg.jsp.
For more information, contact Allison Dunnigan, Ph.D. at allison.dunnigan@uga.edu or (706) 542-5409.
This federally-funded program is made possible through a collaboration between the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services (DFCS) and the School of Social Work.