Rooted in Boston.
About the School of Social Work
The Boston College School of Social Work (香蕉秀SSW) educates students to address the world鈥檚 most pressing social problems in innovative and effective ways. We collaborate with communities embedded in social dilemmas to design enduring solutions and prioritize equity, justice, and inclusion in everything we do.
Grounded in the ideals that inspired our Jesuit founders, Boston College urges students to look inward but always to reach out鈥攖o develop their minds and talents to the fullest and use them in service to others.
Our mission is twofold:听
- To prepare social work professionals with the knowledge, values, and skills needed to initiate and sustain change and provide visionary leadership within a framework that promotes individual dignity, respects diversity, and seeks distributive justice in the Jesuit tradition.
- To cultivate an atmosphere of intellectual discipline that facilitates faculty and student scholarship and research that contributes to the knowledge base of the profession and improves society鈥檚 understanding of the national and global systems in which people, organizations, and communities thrive.
Our Vision
Improving vulnerable lives through pioneering social work education, research, scholarship, and practice at home and in the world.
Dean's Impact Reports
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The Gateway Initiative: Mobilizing Community Change
The Boston College School of Social Work partners with nonpro铿乼s and organizations in the City of Lawrence through agency and community-led projects, 铿乪ld placements, and a fellowship program to enhance the quality of life.听The Gateway Initiative is dedicated to building
capacity across Massachusetts鈥� 26 Gateway Cities.听
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Tackling Complex Global Challenges: Our Collective Response
Humanitarian crises are increasingly an outcome of complex emergencies. Millions of families, women, and children are a铿�ected and displaced by war, civil strife, climate and environmental risk, famine, and epidemics around the globe, including those arriving on the doorstep of the U.S. border.听
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Serving Latinx Communities: Our Collective Response
The demand for social workers trained to respond to the needs and aspirations identified by Latinx communities, from culturally and linguistically appropriate social services to accessible mental health and healthcare, is urgent. Through award-winning academic programs and research, the 香蕉秀SSW has established a community-centered approach to meet these aspirations and needs.
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Crisis Migration: Our Collective Response
Ten faculty members in the Boston College School of Social Work are working to address the compound needs of migrants who have been forced to flee their homes because of war, natural disasters, political upheaval, and other problems around the world.
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Dean Gautam N. Yadama
"Engaging in place-based work and transcending disciplines to tackle complex social problems amplifies and strengthens the contributions of the School of Social Work. When we are in partnership with communities and with scholars from across our universities, our work not only has translational impact, but solutions to the world鈥檚 most complex problems are within closer reach."
香蕉秀SSW Initiatives
Latinx Leadership Initiative
The LLI develops leaders equipped to work with the Latinx community on sustainable solutions for complex problems.
Black Leadership Initiative
This initiative supports, develops, and prepares MSW-level practitioners regarding issues faced by the Black community.
Trauma Integration Initiative
The goal of this initiative is to establish 香蕉秀SSW as a national thought leader in trauma-informed social work education within three domains: curricula, field education/student formation, and research.
听Global Symposium on Forced Migration
"鈥溝憬缎� is a global university, and opportunities to come together and talk about issues that extend far beyond our campus are critically important.鈥�
At a time when the number of forcibly displaced people worldwide has reached unprecedented levels, the Boston College School of Social Work鈥檚 Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA) and the Trinity College Dublin Centre for Forced Migration Studies gathered together at a symposium in Dublin to discuss the spectrum of resources and services necessary to aid such populations in remaking their lives.
香蕉秀SSW at a Glance
126
Number of Full- and Part-time Faculty
8
U.S. News and World Report Ranking (2024)
$10.5M
In grant expenditures (2025)
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Global Practice at 香蕉秀SSW
Boston College School of Social Work student Natalia Evens De Menezes reflects on her field experience in Kigali, Rwanda, with the Research Program on Children and Adversity (RPCA).
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Our Community
Our core commitments to equity, justice, and inclusion emphasize empathy, collaboration, and innovation in all that we do to foster an environment of support and success.听