School of Social Work - Simmons College

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WWW.SIMMONS.EDU/SSW 20 Leading by Example: Johnnie Hamilton-Mason, M.S.W., Ph.D., and Dawn Belkin-Martinez, M.S.W., Ph.D. Co-Directors of the Urban Leadership Certificate Program Johnnie Hamilton-Mason and Dawn Belkin-Martinez like to say that they’re training “clinician activists”: social workers who can facilitate activism on a personal level and challenge oppressive systems. The term certainly fits with Simmons’s commitment to social justice — and the life’s work of these visionary professors. What sparked their careers: Hamilton-Mason began hers 30 years ago at Boston City Hospital as a medical follow-up coordinator for children with elevated lead levels. Belkin-Martinez started in the mid-’80s teaching English as a Second Language to Latino immigrants. Why urban populations: “People in urban areas are underserved and marginalized,” says Hamilton- Mason. “And the world can be quick to blame the individual for high rates of poverty or crime. Yet change often comes when we look at the larger institutional and cultural factors that impact urban populations. We teach students how to negotiate that change in communities and organizations and to develop ways to empower the individual.” How they define leadership: With a “little L,” says Martinez. “We view it from the perspective that everybody is a leader,” she explains. “It doesn’t matter what your title or job description is. When you lead by the way that you conduct yourself, people look to you for guidance and role-modeling.” What they bring to the classroom: Hamilton- Mason travels the world, from Jamaica to South Africa, as a consultant and educator for the National Association of Black Social Workers — and still sees clients at Boston’s South End Community Health Center. She also participates in the Hurricane Katrina Research Collaborative at the University of Texas, Austin, for which she is exploring the impact of post-traumatic stress on female African-American evacuees. For the last 14 years, Martinez has worked as a family therapist for Latino immigrant families at Children’s Hospital in Boston. In 2005, she helped to create the Liberation Health Group, a community-based advocacy organization focused on social justice in health care and social services. “We’ve had different opportunities and exposures,” says Hamilton-Mason, “but our values and philosophies on leadership are very similar.” Adds Belkin-Martinez: “We teach the Gandhian philosophy of being the change you want to see in the world.”
SIMMONS SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK 21 M.S.W./URBAN LEADERSHIP CERTIFICATE PROGRAM Leadership and community action in clinical social work Clinical social workers recognize that the problems an individual suffers frequently reflect larger issues in his or her community. In order to help the individual, it may be necessary to effect change at a societal level. With this focus, students in our Urban Leadership Certificate Program (ULP) develop the skills and confidence to work as leaders, advocates, and activists in the communities they serve. ULP students earn a master’s degree in social work, plus a certificate in urban leadership in clinical social work. Several components distinguish the ULP from the regular M.S.W. Program. ULP students take Leadership in Action for Social Work Practice and Leadership Skills for Social Work concurrently with their field internships, allowing them to connect leadership theory with practice — to identify, implement, and practice leadership skills. They also complete a yearlong agency-based project that examines a barrier to service. Students have the opportunity to analyze the root causes of the problem, examine the personal, cultural, and institutional factors that contribute to the problem, and develop an action plan that identifies both short- and long-term interventions. Finally, ULP students take four “mini” courses: oral presentation skills for social workers, grant writing, community politics, and one elective. Full-time students can complete the Program in two academic years. The M.S.W./Urban Leadership Certificate Program also can be completed in three to four years. Summer classes provide a flexible extended-study option. This Program attracts a diverse group of students, including career changers, seasoned professionals, and recent college graduates with substantial work and volunteer experience. Their goal: to develop a skill set that they can use at multiple levels individually, organizationally, and at the community level. ULP FIELD PROJECT EXAMPLES A collaborative evaluation and planning process for homeless women veterans at a shelter, identifying key priorities and action plans The creation of a team at a child welfare agency to bolster participation in an initiative for fathers A workshop series for public middle school parents to empower them to discuss difficult issues with their children An investigation into the availability of substance abuse treatments at a prison and the recruitment of the mental health team to increase options “Being in the Urban Leadership Certificate Program enriched my experience at Simmons a hundred times over. We were encouraged to seek out true challenges and not take the easy way out. I really learned how great leaders lead. I learned what I can do.” SARAH CLEVELAND ’10, M.S.W./URBAN LEADERSHIP CERTIFICATE PROGRAM IN-HOME CLINICIAN, WAYSIDE YOUTH AND FAMILY SUPPORT NETWORK, FRAMINGHAM, MASSACHUSETTS
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