Human Services

The Human Services Program delivers a structured combination of academics and supervised clinical experiences that instills knowledge, skills, and values essential to the field. Furthermore, it offers a gateway to advanced educational opportunities and meaningful careers in social work, health care, community advocacy, rehabilitation, education, and law. The curriculum and career-oriented fieldwork are oriented to addressing human needs and improving, often transforming lives through prevention and remediation. Theory and practice are effectively balanced to empower our students to meet their educational and career goals.

An interdisciplinary Liberal Arts curriculum provides the basis for understanding the issues that shape and constrain communities. To supplement this culturally engaging and intellectually stimulating foundation, Human Services majors take courses in social work theory and practice, sociology, anthropology, and political science. Further, a special topics course and electives allow students to delve deeply into areas of individual interest, such as substance abuse, disabilities, child welfare, or immigration. In addition to rigorous coursework honing academic skills, the Program cultivates student capacities for asking questions, communicating effectively, and offering appropriate counsel.

Students in the Program are immersed in service learning and experiential education through intensive, prolonged fieldwork experiences in preparation to enter the human services workforce. During year-long fieldwork placements in human service organizations – including hospitals, clinics, service facilities, and government agencies – students begin integrating and applying the content covered in the classroom. Our outstanding, expert faculty are dedicated to student-centered teaching, being accessible, building positive relationships, and providing mentorship, creating an inclusive, supportive, and collaborative learning environment. The Human Services Program thus fosters the intellectual, cultural, social, and emotional development of our students and enhances their personal and professional growth.

Human service professionals deal with psychologically, socially, medically, physically and economically vulnerable populations that need society’s protections. Human service workers are an important part of that protection and delivery of services and effect change at all levels of society to enhance the well-being of individuals, groups, communities and global systems. The Human Services Program at Guttman is dedicated to providing a supportive, collaborative and experiential learning environment and seeks to nurture and challenge students and to equip and prepare students with the basic knowledge, skills and values in Human services to make a difference in the lives of the clients they serve.

At the core of our program philosophy is a commitment to social justice, service to others through strength-based models of ethical professional practice. The interdependent, dynamic and resilient nature of systems provides a conceptual framework for the curriculum.

Our program recognizes that education should reflect a student-centered process within which students have opportunities for reflective learning along with knowledge and skill development. Intellectual inquiry immerses learners in multiple perspectives, theories, and disciplines, anchoring us in the diverse lived experiences of self and others. With a deep commitment to making a difference, students discover ways to intervene with individuals, groups, and communities and to facilitate processes for systems analysis, problem-solving, advocacy, and social change.

To promote career readiness within the curriculum, the Program implements course design and experiences that promote and incorporate the National Association of College and Employers (NACE) Career Competencies:

• Critical Thinking/Problem Solving
• Oral/Written Communication
• Teamwork/Collaboration
• Digital Technology
• Leadership
• Professionalism/Work Ethic
• Career Management
• Global/Intercultural Fluency

In alignment with Guttman Community College’s mission statement, the Human Services Program provides an academically rigorous, experiential, and supportive learning environment that prepares graduates with the values, knowledge, and skills for pursuit of advanced education and professional career attainment. Our philosophy is guided by the profession’s principles of respecting the dignity and welfare of all people; promoting self-determination; honoring cultural diversity; advocating for social justice; and acting with integrity, genuineness, and objectivity. Graduates from the Human Service Program experience foundational training in assessment, counseling, advocacy, and program development, and apply ethical, evidence-based practices in work with individuals, groups, and organizations.

Upon successful completion of the Human Services program, students will be able to:

• Recognize the scope and principal features of the human services field of study, including its main modalities, employment opportunities, advanced degrees, and licensing/certification requirements;
• Identify values, beliefs, roles, skills, and strategies of human services work with individuals, families, groups, and communities;
• Demonstrate professional and ethical interactions within a variety of human services agencies;
• Analyze and interpret health and social welfare policies over time for applications in advocacy and social change; and
• Identify, evaluate, and apply appropriate evidence-based research in everyday practice.