Self-Designed: BS in Human Services

Imagine life without cell phones, television, or the Internet. Recent technological developments have significantly altered all aspects of human life: at work; in play; and in personal, family, and social interactions. In this course, students examine the advantages, disadvantages, and controversies of living and learning in an ever-changing technological environment. By exploring multiple perspectives, students discover how technology is changing media, culture, business, health, human behavior, and overall access to information. In a dynamic, reflective, and engaging classroom environment, students use a variety of audio, visual, literary, and artistic resources, to engage in open dialogue. Students are also introduced to the tools essential to success at Walden. Students complete the course with a personalized success plan that provides a customized roadmap and tools that they can use immediately on their journey toward the completion of their bachelor's degree. *Note: virtual, cyber, digital, and asynchronous are used to describe online environments in this course.

The social service and humanitarian services field provides rewarding and challenging situations as professionals support diverse populations in an effort to change the lives of individuals, families, and communities. Students in this course explore the profession and the role of a humanitarian professional in this increasingly diverse and complex world. As students explore the range of humanitarian efforts, they self-assess their own aspirations, abilities, skills, characteristics, ethics, and cultural identity in preparation for their future in the humanitarian profession. Students examine a range of roles, responsibilities, and social change efforts of humanitarian professionals. Students also explore ethical issues that can arise when working in diverse cultures around the globe. Applying foundational concepts, students also investigate current trends in the field of humanitarian service.

Complex events, such as divorce, child abuse and neglect, and illness and death of family members, are common occurrences in today's society. This course is a survey of the ways in which professionals and families work together in supporting child and family resiliency within the context of these complex issues. Education professionals explore formal and informal communication strategies; family participation in group settings; family education; advocacy for families; and the impact of family, culture, and community on children's development and learning within early childhood programs. Through this course, education professionals have the opportunity to gain the communication and conflict-management skills needed to prepare for future professional challenges in the field of education.  

In light of global urbanization, students in this course discuss the components that contribute to a meaningful life in the city and the ways in which urban communities strive to achieve it. Students collaborate to explore multiple perspectives derived from the social and natural sciences and the humanities. Upon completion, students will understand the factors that contribute to improving quality of life in an urban environment.   ENGL 1001 OR ENGL 1010.)

In this course, students examine situational procedures and techniques necessary in defusing situations identified as crises. Students work toward gaining skills to evaluate crisis experiences by combining active listening with an understanding of crisis patterns. Through class activities, such as case studies and comparative analyses, they learn how to work through difficult emotional, social, and health crises. Students also assess concepts and share perspectives through peer discussion on related topics, such as intervention models and strategies; system crisis intervention; collaboration; countertransference; secondary traumatic stress disorder and vicarious trauma; burnout prevention; and referral resources.   PSYC 1001, or PSYC 1002, or PSYC 1003.)

In a world encumbered with conflict, tension, and injustice, strategies for building peace are essential. In this course, students assess theories and principles of conflict management and resolution. They examine and employ theories and applications of intergroup dynamics; principles and underlying philosophies of non-violence; and social science principles to understand conflict and promote peace. Students gain practical experience applying principles of peace building to proposing solutions for contemporary, individual, and social issues.   PSYC 1001, PSYC 1002, or PSYC 1003.)

Planning and applying effective budgeting strategies are critical elements in managing corporate and government criminal justice organizations. In this course, students have the opportunity to gain fundamental skills for effective management while focusing on short- and long-term financial analysis as well as on policy and budget creation. They complete practical application assignments, focusing on issues of plan development, grant sources, and different tasks and challenges related to budgeting. Students also engage in discussions with peers on a variety of topics, such as the public and private budgets, strategies, financing, forecasting, and ethical issues related to public budgeting.

This course is designed to provide students with practical skills for organizing and brokering community resources for human service clients. This will include emphasis on needs assessment for different client communities, developing plans for comprehensive care services, and utilizing formal and informal networks to maximize client access to services. Emphasis will be placed on interagency coordination as well as human service community resource building to achieve success in service delivery.  

This course is designed to provide students with basic skills for directly interfacing with a diverse community of clients. This will include emphasis on active listening, paraphrasing and summarizing, and respecting clients' cultural backgrounds in all aspects of information gathering. Emphasis will be placed on understanding the roles of different types of interviews, and the differing functions of open or closed questions for addressing distinct problems in living and areas of need that clients present.

Human service professionals engage clients with a variety of needs. How can students be certain, though, that their services are effective in preventing recidivism in a population of drug-addicted persons, or that they have provided the necessary life skills training for a homeless person to transition into the workplace? This course is designed to provide skills for community needs assessment, program development, design, implementation, and evaluation across a variety of human services domains. Specific focus will be given to planning quality measures that demonstrate a program's effectiveness to all key stakeholders.

In this course, students synthesize information and experiences gathered over the course of the Bachelor of Science in Human Services program. Students will identify a human service gap in their local area and develop a detailed proposal for addressing the needs of the client population who are affected. This will include a background literature review, description of the problem area and the history of the community's response, and a detailed plan for addressing the gap with attention given to multicultural considerations. In accordance with Walden University's mission, students will be expected to demonstrate clearly the social change implications of the plan that they develop.