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About SSA

The Mission of the School

The University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration is dedicated to working toward a more just and humane society through research, teaching, and service to the community.  As one of the oldest and most prestigious graduate schools of social work, SSA prepares working professionals to handle society's most difficult problems by developing new knowledge, promoting a deeper understanding of the causes and human costs of social inequities, and building bridges between rigorous research and the practice of helping individuals, families, and communities to achieve a better quality of life.

This statement of purpose, adopted in 2007 by the faculty of the master's degree program at the School of Social Service Administration, the University of Chicago, establishes the commitment and direction of the School.

All helping professions attract individuals committed to taking action on behalf of others. Two characteristics combine to distinguish graduates of the School of Social Service Administration from those trained in other helping and administrative disciplines:

SSA graduates have learned that the foundation of effective service is an understanding of the person-in-environment. Individual distress occurs in a social context involving the interaction of biological, psychological, familial, economic, and cultural factors. Effective helping requires a broad and imaginative perspective on the context and dimensions of need and on the range of possible responses. In most cases, alleviating distress requires an emphasis on helping individuals and families acquire the resources, skills, and authority to secure adequate solutions to their own problems. Some cases require an emphasis on individual and intra-familial dynamics calling for brief interventions or for sustained emotional support and psychotherapy.

SSA graduates understand that whatever the focus of their practice direct service, community action, agency management, policy analysis, or research their activities are informed by an appreciation of service in society. Social workers and social administrators must have a critical awareness of the web of institutional relationships linking efforts to promote individual well-being with the formation and evolution of social policy. Social welfare professionals must be able to scrutinize the assumptions, values, theoretical frameworks, and evidence on which service delivery and social policy are based, and from this analysis develop new strategies to promote social well-being. SSA graduates are thus agents of social change, as well as advocates for the alleviation of individual distress.

This level of achievement in understanding and skills necessary for successful careers challenges both teacher and student. Yet, the continuously changing nature of careers in clinical social work and social administration requires the adoption of such ambitious educational goals. Historically, social welfare professionals have been motivated by a commitment to help those in greatest distress through public and private welfare systems. Over time, the concepts of vulnerability and need have come to encompass the poor and those in precarious circumstances; the mentally and physically disabled; children and families with impaired capacities for successful growth and development; elderly people whose capacities for independent living are similarly impaired; young people with problems at home, school, or in their communities; individuals whose behavior is self-destructive or harmful to others; those who lack skills for any but the most rudimentary jobs; victims of crime, discrimination, violence, and serious illness; and residents of deteriorating, poorly-served communities and neighborhoods. The concept of alleviating need has also been broadened to include prevention as well as treatment. Graduates of the School engage in the prevention of distress and the promotion of well-being on several levels: through education and direct service to individuals, families, and groups in public and private agencies and community organizations; through assistance to communities in acquiring resources and authority; through supervision, management, and leadership of social organizations; through the design and implementation of public policies at federal, state, and local levels; and through research on issues of social practice and social policy.