Michelle Castano
Editor-in-Chief
Broward College created a 60 credit Human Services Associate of Science degree. According to BC, this degree is designed for people seeking employment or advancements in human services.
“Our
ultimate goal is to get you an associate degree, get you a job in the
field, and we are hoping to one day, grow this into a Bachelor’s
degree program,” said Dr. Robert Gallagher, Sociology and Introduction
to Human Services professor.
Along with the guidance
and help of Dr. Sonia Nieves, who is the Associate Dean of Behavioral
Sciences, Dr. Robert Gallagher helped design a program that not only has
a theoretical foundation but also a practical
application.
“Human services is a helping professions field; In fact, if you get a degree in human services whether it’s an Associates, Bachelor’s, Masters or PhD in human services, you typically work in social service agencies where they are going to help out clients who are elderly who need assistance finding a facility to live in, or helping clients apply for public assistance, or assisting with housing, hunger, substance abuse and child abuse and neglect issues,” said Gallagher.
A
human services worker assists clients and directs them toward services
in which they may not know how to assess help, guidance, and
mentorship.
The Human Services program
offers three tracks. They include family violence (child abuse and
neglect, domestic violence, partner violence), gerontology (senior
population) and substance abuse.
“For the local community, we thought these would be the three best tracks we could offer and they also were in the state wide system. We geared it toward county issues in order to make this program viable where students can learn something but also get a job immediately with your two-year degree,” said Gallagher.
Toward
the end of the program, students are required to complete two
internships. BC will help students with internship placement, whether it
be working with domestic violence, substance
abuse agencies or even BSO.
To ensure that there was
an actual need for human services within the job market, Gallagher and
his associates met with the Broward County Service Council and asked
what the county needed. The Service Council said
they were expecting workers to know about ethics to case management and
documentation from day one.
The current growth market within the human services field in Broward County was up at about 20 percent.
“We
are hoping that not only students will get a good education, however,
we talk about what goes on in the real world. We provide them with a
theoretical foundation, real world experience,
and then also make sure students get internships and essentially help
them with job placement,” said Gallagher.
Currently, BC is offering
an Introduction to Human Services course at South Campus. Students will
learn about the basis of the program and about the theoretical and
practical applications that occur within the field.
Having worked in the human services field for 15 years, Dr. Gallagher is able to provide real life examples and case studies within this course.
My
central focus is to get students to understand what human services is
and get them practical application —for example, for an upcoming
project, I want to give them an actual family
that has issues and students are actually going to do a needs
assessment, a case plan with the family, so students will need to figure
out what steps to take in order to help the client. (What services
work, what services don’t work).. It would give them a
feel to what it is to work in the environment; so when my students are
on the first day of the job, they will know how to do it and how to
perform,” he said.
The Human Services program
is intensely applied and hands on (great for a tactical learner).
Through guidance and the required internships, students will most likely
be guaranteed a job.
BC student, Isabella Lopez decided that the Human Services program was the path for her.
“After high school, I didn’t necessarily know what I wanted to do. I began working at a church with children and realized that I wanted to work with juveniles. Through research, I found the Human Services program and decided that this was the path for me,” she said.
Lopez
is currently taking the Introduction to Human Services class with
Gallagher and is certain that she wants to work in the field,
particularly counseling juveniles.
According to Nieves, the
Human Services Program has been approved to be on the list of a network
called Career Source Broward; in fact, students are now able to apply
for a scholarship through this organization.
Career
Source Broward assists with the cost of tuition, books and supplies and
guidance. According to their site, Career Source Broward explains that
if you are a Broward County resident,
you may be eligible to receive such scholarships for in-demand career
training.
For additional
information on the Human Services Program, visit
http://www.broward.edu/academics/programs/Pages/social-behavioral-sciences-human-services-SBSHS.aspx
for direct information within the Social Behavioral
Sciences and Human Services (SBSHS) programs and degrees.
castm46@mail.broward.edu
Photo: Dr. Robert Gallagher lectures students during his Introduction to Human Services course. Michelle Castano/The Observer