Social Development Worker

  • Program Title: Social Development Worker
    Credential: Diploma
    Delivery: Online
    Program Length: 3 Semesters (One year)
    Program Availability: Full time or Part time
    Offered: This program is available starting every Monday.

    Program Description


    The Social Development Worker program provides you with the knowledge and skills required to make a meaningful contribution in the human service field. You will be challenged to examine your own beliefs and values, develop interpersonal communication skills and promote social justice, human dignity and equity. Your success in this program will be measured by both your ability to grow and change and your academic performance.

    Your studies will include: interviewing; counselling and relationship-building capabilities; effective membership and leadership in group settings; working with families; the creation and maintenance of helping relationships; and practice in such specialized areas as case management, community development and social policy.

    Students have fifty-two (52) weeks to complete their program requirements, starting from the date of their first course.

    Learning Outcomes


    1. Develop and maintain professional relationships which adhere to professional, legal, and ethical standards aligned to social service work.
    2. Identify strengths, resources, and challenges of individuals, families, groups, and communities to assist them in achieving their goals.
    3. Recognize diverse needs and experiences of individuals, groups, families, and communities to promote accessible and responsive programs and services.
    4. Identify current social policy, relevant legislation, and political, social, and/or economic systems and their impacts on service delivery.
    5. Advocate for appropriate access to resources to assist individuals, families, groups, and communities.
    6. Develop and maintain positive working relationships with colleagues, supervisors, and community partners.
    7. Develop strategies and plans that lead to the promotion of self-care, improved job performance, and enhanced work relationships.
    8. Integrate social group work and group facilitation skills across a wide range of environments, supporting growth and development of individuals, families, and communities.
    9. Work in communities to advocate for change strategies that promote social and economic justice and challenge patterns of oppression and discrimination.

    Your Career


    Graduates are employed in a wide range of community organizations, including but not limited to social innovation hubs, immigrant and refugee centres, shelters, drop-ins and social justice organizations, both locally and internationally. Positions include: community development worker, program planner and facilitator, counsellor, advocate and organizer.

  • Admission Requirements


    College Eligibility

    • Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) or equivalent; OR
    • Academic and Career Entrance (ACE) Certificate; OR
    • General Educational Development (GED); OR
    • Mature Student status (19 years of age or older and without a high school diploma at the start of the program).

    Call the Admissions Office at 1 (800) 267-2577 for more details. Academic prerequisites for this program may be obtained free of charge through Academic Upgrading.

    Application Process
    Program intake – Apply to this program by visiting our Registration page. If you are entering into this program as a mature student please attach your resume when submitting your registration information online.

  • Courses


    Semester 1
    Study Skills Strategies
    Project Management
    Conflict Resolution
    Communication Strategies
    Report and Proposal Writing
    Social Development in First Nation Communities

    Semester 2
    Introduction to Professional Counselling
    Stages and Skills of Counselling
    Assessing Client Needs
    Defining Strategies and Selecting Interventions
    Termination and Follow-Up
    Research Skills Development

    Semester 3
    Introduction to Social Services
    Policy and Regulations
    Service Models and Delivery Mechanisms
    Canadians Living In Poverty
    Family Dynamics
    Special Needs Populations
    Social Welfare of Aboriginal Canadians
    Cross-Cultural Skills

    Every attempt is made to ensure the accuracy of information provided on our website. The College reserves the right to modify any course, program, curriculum, fee, timetable, or campus location at any time.

  • Course Descriptions


    Semester 1
    Study Skills Strategies
    This course will enable students to assess their current study skills and plan for improvement. Students will practice time-management techniques for successful studying. Students will learn to develop powerful reading skills and practice memory techniques to enhance ability to learn and improve test performance. This course will also help students to develop specific study skills for mathematics and related subjects and implement an action plan to improve them.

    Project Management
    This course provides students with baseline knowledge of the tools and techniques required to manage projects. This course gives students a comprehensive foundation in project management and organizational management that applies to not-for-profit, for-profit and government organizations of all sizes.

    Conflict Resolution
    In this course students will learn how to recognize how their own attitudes and actions impact others, effective techniques for dealing with difficult people, strategies for dealing with anger, and how to cope with the difficult people and situations that we will inevitably encounter in our everyday lives.

    Communication Strategies
    This course will enable students to identify common communication problems and develop skills to ask questions. Students will learn what their non-verbal messages are saying and develop skills in listening actively and empathetically to others. Upon completion of this course students should have an enhanced ability to handle difficult situations and communicate assertively.

    Writing Reports and Proposals
    In this course students will learn four stages of report writing, and nine tips for effective writing that will help them create materials that are engaging, understandable, and most important, get read. In addition, students will learn about using persuasive language to write effective proposals.

    Social Development in First Nation Communities
    This course will enable students to assist First Nation individuals and communities to become more self-sufficient; protect individuals and families at risk of violence; provide prevention supports that allow individuals and families to better care for their children; and support greater participation in the labour market. Students will learn to assist First Nations men, women and children in achieving greater independence and self-sufficiency in First Nations communities across Canada. This course will familiarize students with the available National Social Programs to help First Nation communities meet basic and special needs; support employability and attachment to the workforce; and ensure that individuals and families are safe. This course also covers reporting and monitoring funding arrangements with AANDC.

    Semester 2
    Introduction to Professional Counselling
    In this course, we introduce a number of concepts and conditions that are fundamental to the counseling process. In so doing, we provide a structure for the remainder of the book. Counseling must be viewed within a context. The factors that contribute to that context include philosophy, current theoretical premises, and culture— in other words, the social milieu. That milieu changes as a society changes. And, of course, it changes when one moves from one society or culture to another. In addition, we address helper qualities that are universal, crossing cultures and time. Our ultimate objective is to help you, the student, begin to identify yourself within these parameters and to do some introspection regarding how your personal qualities match those of the professional counselor.

    Stages and Skills of Counselling
    The overall objective of this course is to present the structure of the counseling process and how that structure helps you determine what the counselor should be doing. The beginning point of counseling is a time when you and your client must decide, both independently and mutually, whether this particular pairing of persons and personalities offers the potential for growth and change. Beyond that decision, you must reach agreement on what the problem is; how counseling might assist in changing problematic circumstances; what counseling activities would help produce that change; and, finally, when the helping effort should conclude. This course examines this process from the client’s perspective, which will be different from your own.

    The second part of this course examines the first of the five stages in the counseling process: establishing rapport and a positive therapeutic relationship. Counselor qualities and behaviors and cliequalities and input that are associated with therapeutic relationships are discussed. The increased likelihood that counseling will be a multicultural experience is recognized as an important factor in forming the relationship. This course addresses relationship issues that will likely be part of that multicultural counseling experience, including the counselor’s responsibility for the client’s cultural identity and sensitivity as well as his or her own.

    Assessing Client Needs
    Students will examine the process by which the counselor and client can work collaboratively to define what that desirable outcome might or will be. Students will also examine the first of the five stages in the counseling process: establishing rapport and a positive therapeutic relationship. Counselor qualities and behaviors and clienqualities and input that are associated with therapeutic relationships are discussed. The increased likelihood that counseling will be a multicultural experience is recognized as an important factor in forming the relationship. This course addresses relationship issues that will likely be part of that multicultural counseling experience, including the counselor’s responsibility for the client’s cultural identity and sensitivity as well as his or her own.

    Defining Strategies and Selecting Interventions
    In this course, we examine the process by which counselors can assess the client’s presenting problems. That process involves the collection of information relevant to problem definition, conceptualization of that information into a cogent picture of the client in his or her world, and consideration of client resources. Cultural factors that affect client perceptions of their world and counselor perceptions of client problems are introduced. Clinical assessment in counseling may occur at an in- take interview prior to assignment to a counselor. Or it may occur during the assigned counselor’s sessions with the client. When it occurs prior to counselor assignment, it typically includes paper- and- pencil assessment instruments in addition to information gathering in the interview.

    Termination and Follow-Up
    Termination, the fifth and final stage of counseling, is the transition from assisted functioning to counseling- free functioning by the client. In this course, we discuss the dynamics that affect this transition, the counselor’s role and responsibilities in seeing that this transition occurs, and the occasional necessity to make client referrals to other mental health professionals. It is important to keep in mind through each of the counseling stages that the ultimate goals of any counseling relationship are success and termination. How this is accomplished is the focus of this course.

    Research Skills Development
    This course introduces students to several different tools so that they can become a stronger researcher and can create proposals, reports, or simply find good information and review it. Students will start by learning basic research skills techniques like reading, memory recall, note-taking, and planning. Participants also learn about different kinds of outlines, and how to move to writing, editing, and polishing the final work while sharing how to use different sources such as libraries, journals, and the Internet.

    Semester 3
    Introduction to Social Services
    This course introduces students to the purpose, value base, principles, and methods of generalist social work practice. Students will have the opportunity to explore their own personal values and life experiences in the context of social work and the broader society.

    Policy and Regulations
    This course is designed to provide students with a basic understanding of the role of the law in social work, and to equip them with sufficient knowledge of the law to assist them in their roles as advocates or case managers. Students will learn to recognize when someone’s legal rights or their rights to dignity and equality have been violated and how to challenge these violations effectively.

    Service Models and Delivery Mechanisms
    This course will introduce the concept of social agency and the main characteristics of social agencies and describe community-based residential and non-residential organizations, and the community system of care. Students will explore the internal structures and functions of social agencies in terms of strategic and operational frameworks and examine the primary features of organic organizational structures. Students will review the main characteristics of the public, commercial, and voluntary sectors in a social welfare context and examine the alternative service delivery models and implications. This course will describe the expanded service delivery role of the voluntary sector.

    Canadians Living In Poverty
    This course will introduce students to the concept of poverty and explore definitions and measurements of poverty, and identify at-risk groups. Students will discuss the effects of poverty and examine the programmatic and systemic approaches to poverty. Students will examine a social work approach to working with low-income and marginalized groups.

    Family Dynamics
    The dynamics of healthy families and those that are struggling, family scripts and family legacies will be explored in this course. The impact of power relationships and how these contribute to family violence will also be outlined. How families are structured, boundary and attachment issues, as well as cultural issues and traditions will also be examined. How marital relationships can contribute to or detract from children’s functioning will also be explored.

    Special Needs Populations
    The dynamics of healthy families and those that are struggling, family scripts and family legacies will be explored in this course. The impact of power relationships and how these contribute to family violence will also be outlined. How families are structured, boundary and attachment issues, as well as cultural issues and traditions will also be examined. How marital relationships can contribute to or detract from children’s functioning will also be explored.

    Social Welfare of Aboriginal Canadians
    This course introduces students to concepts and social issues related to Aboriginal peoples. Students will explore the historical roots of Canada’s Indian Act and discuss describe attempts to bridge the divide between government and Indigenous peoples. This course examines Aboriginal approaches to helping, healing, and wellness and identifies issues and achievements of selected Aboriginal groups. Students will review topics and programs related to Aboriginal families and youth and explore the role of social work in the lives of Aboriginal peoples.

    Cross-Cultural Skills
    This course is designed to provide students with an opportunity to appreciate and understand the knowledge, attitudes and basic skills that are necessary in the development and delivery of effective social services to a diverse urban population. Students learn about how culture influences their own personal values and beliefs, as well as that of their clients, and how similarities and differences in values and beliefs can lead to conflict. To promote effective interventions that promote advocacy and client empowerment, students examine both the multicultural, as well as the anti-oppression frameworks to service delivery and intervention.

  • Fees & Expenses


    Fees Apply for this Academic Year.

    • Registration: $100.00
    • Textbooks: $1025.00
    • Shipping: $61.00
    • Tuition: $4,414.00

    Total Tuition & Fees: $5,600.00

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