Community Partnership Action Award

The CSWE Commission for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice is proud to announce the Community Partnership Action (CPA) Award to honor the contributions of schools and departments of social work and social work students (BSW, MSW, PhD/DSW) in advancing community partnership action. The CPA Award will be presented at the Carl A. Scott Memorial Lecture, which is given annually at the CSWE Annual Conference. "Community" is broadly defined as a self-organized network of people with a common agenda, cause, or interest and is not limited by physical locality.

Community partnership actions are central to advancing social and economic justice, which is intrinsic to social work education. Historically, dating back to the settlement houses, our profession is rooted in working with the community to solve social problems and issues. Community partnerships enhance social justice work by promoting meaningful reciprocal collaboration. These activities also develop connections between theory and practice in real-life contexts toward promoting social, economic, and environmental justice competencies.

Two awards will be given annually, one for each of the following categories.

1. Social Work Program Award: Recognizes a CSWE-accredited social work program that encourages its faculty, students, and staff members to engage in community-based social, economic, or environmental justice activities. Some examples might be particular classes, advocacy activities, field assignments or projects, interprofessional collaboration, and culturally based interventions.
2. Student Project Award: Recognizes a student (BSW, MSW, or PhD/DSW) who has engaged in a community partnership activity that successfully promoted social, economic, or environmental justice.

 

Selection Criteria

All submissions will be peer-reviewed by the CPA Award subcommittee of the Commission for Diversity and Social & Economic Justice using the following criteria:

• The extent to which the educational efforts or the community partnership action project effectively address social, economic, or environmental social justice issues
• The extent to which the educational efforts or the community partnership action project empowers the community or the community leaders
• The extent to which the educational efforts or community partnership action project are evaluated and disseminated

CSWE membership is an eligibility requirement for all commission and council awards. To check your membership status, or link your membership your social work program visit https://www.cswe.org/membership and click Link to Program/Join CSWE.
 

Applications