Children & Youth Pathway

This course will provide you with knowledge about critical theories of child and adolescent development. The course focuses on understanding development in context, considering the concepts of trauma, damage, resilience, potential, difference, resources and healing. Ecological factors, including systemic conditions, that are deleterious to development and those that promote healthy development will be considered. The role of oppression in enabling or constraining children and adolescents’ progressive developmental trajectories is highlighted. 

This course focuses on the assessment of psychological, social and biological contributors to mental health disorders in children, youth, adults and older adults. You’ll examine the strengths and weaknesses of the DSM-5 classification system in the context of social work values and ethics and learn about symptoms, theories of etiology, treatment interventions and prognosis within each diagnostic category. You will also learn about assessment tools in the context of gender identity and expression, ethnicity, cultural diversity, sexual orientation and historically oppressed and/or disadvantaged populations.

This course provides an overview of the positive youth development (PYD) approach to working with young people diverse in age, gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability status, socioeconomic status, geographic location/neighborhood, religion/faith and culture. Many services provided for young people focus on reducing societally-deemed negative outcomes such as teen parenthood, violence, substance use, and school dropout. Instead of focusing on deficits or reducing problem behaviors, the PYD approach reframes the historical pathological approach to treating deviance and focuses on youth’s strengths and building assets and skills. PYD programming employs an intentional, prosocial approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, and families in a manner that is productive and constructive. It promotes positive outcomes by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships, and harnessing youth leadership. The PYD approach draws attention to opportunity gaps that social workers can address in partnership with young people. Students in this course will design an innovative PYD program, taking into account how such an approach to social work practice can be applied across different community settings to promote young people’s well-being.

This course offers an integrative framework of theory and research to understand and intervene in the major mental health problems experienced by children. This course is also designed as an introductory experience to play therapy. Interventions include direct work with children and collaborative/conjoint work with parents. Play therapy techniques include both directive and non-directive approaches, such as child-centered play therapy and cognitive-behavioral interventions, among others. Children’s development is considered from a multidimensional perspective including cultural context, risk and protective factors, and the development of psychopathology with an emphasis on early and middle childhood.

This course facilitates the development of family systems by practicing skills with clients, individuals, couples, families, organizations, constituencies and communities. You’ll develop multisystemic strategies and techniques using family systems theory as part of the ongoing process of engagement, assessment and intervention. Students learn strategies and techniques through role-playing demonstrations; by practicing intakes, assessments, goal setting and professional documentation; and by developing preliminary interventions. You will reflect on your personal bias, cultural bias, assumptions, values and affective reactions that may influence your relationships with clients.

This course will prepare you to engage in strategic planning and program development roles and practice within a social work community, organizational or policy practice setting. You will gain knowledge in the principles of planning, social enterprise, the engagement of stakeholders in planning processes, community collaboration and the elements of designing and implementing programs. You’ll put this knowledge into practice by developing a comprehensive program proposal, applying strategic thinking, planning and critically evaluating research-informed practice and practice-informed research.

Art from Ashes provides creative empowerment workshops for struggling youth in the Denver area. Interns facilitate youth workshops, track grant data, and manage and train other facilitators.

Read More

The Options Alternative High School serves students who require accommodations around educational, behavioral and/or medical needs. Interns meet with students individually, in group settings and through restorative justice practices.

Read More

Using philanthropy as a vehicle, YouthRoots engages high school students in personal development, community partnerships and innovative ventures to foster leadership, integrity and social action to cultivate a network of thriving adults who envision a better future and realize their full human potential. Because YouthRoots is a new nonprofit, the intern has various roles, including administrative work, marketing and advertising, budgets and generating program ideas.

The Heart & Hand Center is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of at-risk youth and their families in Denver’s Five Points community. It supports families by providing case management, resources, referrals and emergency assistance to guardians. Interns work with elementary or middle school students in an after-school setting. They assist program staff with student behavioral challenges—supporting students who need one-on-one attention in activities, pulling students out for interventions and creating program-wide spaces for student reflection and refocus.