Stipends, Fellowships and Research Assistantships

Mutual Aid Fellowship

Mutual aid involves community members coming together in solidarity to meet one another’s needs and share resources, particularly when systems in power have failed them. Mutual aid builds interdependent social relations and engages in social action that disrupts root causes of social struggles. In a weekly seminar, fellows learn about mutual aid concepts, history and political foundations and then apply these learnings to mutual aid in action in the Denver community. Students will contend with how mutual aid and social work’s approaches to care overlap and diverge. Students will develop understanding and tools for engaging in subversive social work that disrupts oppressive systems of care. The seminar continues through the duration of the internship (fall/winter/spring) and also serves as group supervision for all students in the fellowship. The fellowship is a yearlong program that runs fall to spring

Mutual Aid Fellows work with community partners doing a variety of mutual aid in Denver. Community partners have included Lifespan Local (a community center focused on community-driven well-being across the lifespan), Angelica Village (a conscious community living space for individuals and families seeking refuge from war or exiting homelessness), Colorado Safe Parking Initiative (a local organization supporting folks who reside in their cars to have access to safe parking throughout the metro area) and Mutual Aid Monday (a grassroots mutual aid community that cares for unhoused neighbors). Community partners may vary year to year. Learning projects may include things like developing and managing supply distribution, coordinating skills exchanges, working one-on-one with individuals and families in crisis, and managing food justice networks. Skills gained may include community engagement, program development and implementation, advocacy, facilitation and community organizing. Each placement and the goals are collaboratively created between the fellow and community partner, based on community needs, learning goals, and aspirations.

• Fellowship amount: $5,000
• Field education requirement: The fellowship fulfills concentration year field requirements through field hours through participation in a weekly field seminar plus a field internship with a local organization doing mutual aid
• Eligibility: Denver Campus MSW Program and Denver Campus Advanced-Standing MSW Program students in their foundation or concentration year who are interested in a non-traditional, collaborative, curious critical thinkers who want to respond flexibly and humbly to community-driven needs are encouraged to apply
• Number of fellowships available: 6
• Contact: Reach out to Maveryck Boyett with questions

Apply

CLIMB@DU Stipend

The Collaborative Learning and Innovative Educational Models of Behavioral Health Program (CLIMB) is a workforce training program funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Behavioral Health Workforce Education and Training Program. CLIMB offers stipends for students committed to working in integrated behavioral health in rural and medically underserved communities in Colorado and the Four Corners region.

• Stipend amount: $10,000
• Field education requirement: Concentration internship in an integrated behavioral health setting OR an opioid use disorder/substance use disorder-focused internship
• Eligibility: Denver Campus, Four Corners and Western Colorado MSW students in their final (Concentration) year with a Colorado residence
• Travel Requirement: Interregional Internship Exchange (Spring)
• Other Requirements: Fall kick-off, orientation, monthly/quarterly cohort meetings, intercultural development inventory, interprofessional speaker series
• Application process: Next application cycle will begin in early 2024
• Contact: Erin Poole

• Application Requirements
  • Completed application
  • Personal essay
  • Field Confirmation Form

   

  Students who are awarded a CLIMB stipend must also provide a letter of support from their Field Placement Supervisor in early September, prior to stipend payments starting. Failure to provide this letter in the time allowed will result in the student forfeiting the stipend.

• Course Requirements
  • SOWK 4401: Integrated Health Care — Models & Practice (offered fall, winter, spring and summer quarters)
  • SOWK 4390: Cultural & Linguistic Competency in Integrated Behavioral Health (offered winter quarter only)
  • One additional course from the list below:
    • Assessment of Mental Health in Children and Adolescents
    • Practice Elements in Interventions with Children and Youth
    • Substance Use Interventions
    • Child and Adolescent Trauma
    • Intimate Partner Violence
    • Digital Justice
    • Social Work Practice with LGBTQIA Communities
    • Suicide Assessment and Interventions
  • Psychopharmacology: One weekend workshop (no credit)
• Preferred Internship Sites

  In addition to an emphasis on cultural and linguistic competency in medically underserved and rural communities, preferred internship sites may include the following:

  • Placement in an integrated primary care outpatient clinic
  • Position in a primary care health team working alongside behavioral health providers
  • Utilization of evidence-based practices for mental health in these health settings

   

  Although internships at primary care sites receive priority in the application process, internships that are not primary care but include an interdisciplinary team providing interdisciplinary training of two or more health disciplines using a team-based-care approach to provide quality behavioral health services will also be considered for the stipend program on a space-available basis.

  We encourage students placed in nontraditional experiential training sites dedicated to promoting integration of behavioral health in high need and high demand areas to apply to CLIMB. Examples of nontraditional sites include, but are not limited to, hospitals, crisis centers, state and local health departments, emergency departments, faith-based organizations, first responders and judicial systems.

  To check if your internship site is already a CLIMB partner site and to get more information on integrated behavioral health, please check our placement list: CLIMB_Placements_2023.docx

  If you would like to discuss other sites, please contact Erin.Poole@du.edu to see if your field placement is a good fit with CLIMB program requirements.

Child Welfare Stipend

The Colorado Child Welfare Scholars Consortium (CCWSC) is part of a statewide effort to invest in the education of selected students to attract qualified social work professionals dedicated to the provision of equitable and inclusive services within public child welfare in Colorado. Students who are awarded Child Welfare Stipends agree to commit themselves to public-sector employment. They will be required to complete a specified term of “payback” employment in a Colorado county or tribal department of human/social services in a child welfare position serving Title IV-E eligible children and their families in exchange for receiving the Child Welfare Stipend. View the full program description.

• Stipend amount: $12,000 – $14,000
• Field education requirement: Foundation or Concentration internship in a Colorado public child welfare (county) agency
• Eligibility: Denver Campus, MSW@Denver, Four Corners and Western Colorado MSW students with a Colorado residence
• Post-Graduation Requirements: For every year the stipend is received, following graduation, awardees are required to work one year serving child welfare populations in a Colorado department of social/human services or with a tribal nation within Colorado.
• Application process: Next application cycle will begin in Winter quarter- January.
• Pathway Preference: Child Welfare
• Contact: Christa Doty 

• Application Requirements

  The earlier you apply, the better your chances are of being awarded a stipend. Please see the following important links.

  • CCWSC Main Page
  • Eligibility & Requirements
  • CCWSC Resources & Links
  • Application Information
• Course Requirements

  Required: SOWK 4418 Child Welfare Practice: Assessment and Intervention

  Recommended: SOWK 4600: Child Welfare History & Policies

GeriCare EveryWhere Stipend

In partnership with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), we offer two, $10,000 GeriCare EveryWhere stipends to students who are passionate about a career working with older adults and their families. Students who receive a stipend must contractually agree to practice in a geriatric setting in Colorado for a minimum of two years after graduation. 

GeriCare EveryWhere Stipend Application Information

• Program Eligibility: Denver Campus, Four, Corners, Western Colorado, and Online MSW students with Colorado residences
• Student Eligibility: 
  • Engage in up to 1 hour per week of synchronous virtual instructional learning and 1 hour of asynchronous of learning activities with other medical, dental occupational therapy, physical therapy, nursing, physician assistant students on age-friendly health care.
  • Dedicate 2 hours per week of your concentration field internship to clinical learning objectives related to age-friendly health care.
  • Attend interdisciplinary clinical rotation for each discipline that involves immersive training with other interdisciplinary fellows and site visits for about 4 hours per month.
  • Participate in the annual geriatric conference through CU’s Multidisciplinary Center on Aging.
• Application Deadline: July 1, 2025
• GeriCare EveryWhere at GSSW Application
• Questions: Please email leslie.hasche@du.edu