The UNBC School of Social Work (SoSW) is committed to a program of studies that is informed by a central concern for human rights, personal empowerment, community change, and social justice.  The SoSW has as its foundation an analysis of power in relation to class, race, ethnicity, gender, identity, age, and abilities. Incorporating structural, feminist, and anti-racist analyses, the School focuses on social work in northern and remote areas, social work with Indigenous peoples, community-based research and practice, critical and creative thinking, and connection through relationship. 

Consistent with the Canadian Association of Social Work Education’s Statement of Complicity and Commitment to Change (link here), we acknowledge that colonizing narratives, policies, and practices have been, and continue to be, embedded in social work education, research, and practice. We commit, both individually and collectively, to act in ways that lessen such harms with a goal of ending them.   

The SoSW seeks to provide its graduates with intellectual, practical, and professional skills and knowledge rooted in values consistent with provincial and national codes of ethics. By acknowledging the holistic, interdisciplinary, and activist nature of social work and its commitment to social justice, the curriculum and governance of social work education at UNBC will strive to provide a self-reflective balance between:

• theory and practice;
• research, teaching, community service, and social justice initiatives;
• critical self-awareness and respect for the ideas of others.

The School of Social Work will seek to ensure a safe and stimulating educational environment for students, faculty, and staff.