Program History
The Central Coast tri-county area in particular is facing a critical shortage of Master of Social Work qualified social workers. The Master of Social Work (MSW) program at CSUMB is a response to the community's needs and focuses on local multicultural diversity and social justice.
The purpose of the MSW program is to fulfill the local needs that have been historically neglected. The program will prepare future generations of social workers to serve the needs of local residents and communities along California’s Central Coast. The scope of the program focuses on preparing social work professionals with clinical skills. The MSW program is devoted to provide quality graduate education, build alliances with social work employers, as well as maintain strong relationships with the local communities of diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic, and economic structures.
A group of devoted community partners in the California's Central Coast tri-county area (Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz) worked together to promote the development of the CSU Monterey Bay Master of Social Work program. The program was designed to tackle the chronic shortage of social work professionals and its impact on the vulnerable and under served populations in the area.
Spearheaded by Dr. Wayne Clark of the Monterey County Department of Health, the community partners secured funding through the workforce development of the California Mental Health Services Act and collaborated with CSUMB to implement a MSW program in an effort "grow our own"prepared and professionally trained social workers). Many of community partners remain actively involved in the MSW program's field education, mist/curriculum, accreditation process, fund raising, etc. creating a strong and suppportive partnership between the community and the university.
Dr. Mayleen True, founding MSW Program Director, joined CSUMB in 2008. Dr. True came to CSUMB from a CSU sister campus and immediately began securing approvals to develop the graduate program through five entities: CSUMB (internal review), CSU Chancellor's Office (internal & external reviews), the California Postsecondary Education Commission, the Western Association of Schools and Colleges, and the Council on Social Work Education. In March 2010, the MSW program completed all that was necessary to begin accepting applications from prospective students.
In June of 2011 the MSW program reached another milestone, obtaining candidacy for accreditation from CSWE. Candidacy status has opened doors to external funding sources and professional organizations including CSWE, the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, the California Social Work Education Center, the California Association of Deans and Directors, and the National Association of Deans and Directors.
Back in 2008, Dr. True was the sole faculty member. The MSW program now employs six full time faculty and four staff members in addition to more than ten adjunct faculty members, all working to educate and/or support nearly 150 enrolled MSW students. The number of applicants continues to grow every year.