Community & Civic Activities

Worden School faculty serve on the Board of Directors of local and regional social work agencies and are actively involved in the San Antonio community. Some of the various community service activities the faculty are involved with include the UJIMA Project which promotes African American adoption of African American Children, the Visitation House, the DePaul Center Daughters of Charity, the SAMM Shelter, the St. Mary's Legal and Social Justice Clinic, the Children's Defense Fund, the University Health Systems, the Bexar County Community Health Assessment, the Wesley Community Centers, and the Good Samaritan Center. This listing is only a small sampling of the Worden School's commitment to community service.

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Relationship with Practitioners

The Worden School of Social Service is affiliated with professional practitioners in various ways:

• Faculty, both full-time and adjunct, serve on numerous boards in the community through which they are engaged in current practice developments as they affect agency governance.
• Faculty participate in various professional associations, such as the National Association of Social Workers, the Council on Social Work Education, the Association of Baccalaureate Program Directors, the Texas Society of Clinical Practitioners, the North American Association of Christians and Social Work, the Gerontological Society of America, the Association of Mexican American Social Workers, the National Association of Black Social Workers, and others. The Worden School has designated faculty assigned as liaisons to the National Association of Social Workers and the Texas Society of Clinical Practitioners.
• The Worden School annually hosts the C.J. Collins Field Practicum Symposium which takes the form of a day long professional development symposium for agency field instructors and faculty. In recent years the Worden School has been able to bring in noted experts in the field to deliver colloquium addresses on topics of interest to field instructors and faculty. The Symposium also includes time for sessions delivered by field instructors or faculty; and for the exchange of information between field instructors and faculty.
• The Practice Advisory Council, composed of local social work practitioners from various fields of practice who are current or recent field instructors, meets quarterly to exchange information and ideas about the development of the field practicum.
• Several of the faculty have participated in developing curriculum and delivering training sessions. Most notably, the project provides for a loan practitioner for the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services to be housed at the Worden School to assist faculty and students.
• The Worden School is a participating partner in the Child Protective Services Training Institute which is a Title IV-E funded consortium of the four graduate social work schools and select BSW programs in Texas to provide social work training to Child Welfare practitioners in the state. 
• The field practicum program and faculty involvement in the liaisoning function are also channels through which faculty and the practice community maintain linkages.
• Many practitioners serve as guest lecturers in the courses offered by the Worden School.
• Each year, Worden School faculty present papers at local, regional and national conferences. 

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