UMass Boston

CHW 500 Therapeutic Mentoring (offered in Fall 2025, Spring 2026)
Therapeutic Mentoring offers structured, one-to-one, strength-based support services between a Therapeutic Mentor and a youth (up to the age of 21) to support a specific goal on the child’s behavioral treatment plan such as developing social skills, interpersonal skills, problem solving strategies, or daily living skills. Therapeutic Mentoring is designed to give children and teens the opportunity for skill building through experiences that would naturally occur in their everyday life, at their home, foster home, childcare center, or other setting. To help the child develop a specified skill, their Therapeutic Mentor works to model, educate, motivate, and coach them on how to use and practice overcoming obstacles related to these skills. Services are provided in any setting where the youth resides, such as the home (including foster homes and therapeutic foster homes), and in community settings, such as schools, child care centers, respite settings, as well as other culturally and linguistically appropriate community settings.

CHW 501 Case Management (offered in Spring 2026)
This course address current practice and policy for human service workers assuming multiple and conflicting roles posed by case management with consumers in human services. Case management functions include client screening, risk assessment; service planning, implementation, monitoring and reassessment of the service plan. Case managers seek to support client self-determination but are also charged with controlling costs and rationing services posing ethical dilemmas for workers. We will examine best practice guidelines for case management and apply theory to practice in the field. We will examine case management from the perspective of the consumer, practitioner, other providers and the service system. A major focus of this class is critical examination of case management practice in a variety of settings. This highly interactive class will involve a combination of lecture, class discussion of anonymous case vignettes drawn from the field, and field interviewing.

CHW 502 Internship Seminar (offered in Fall 2025, Spring 2026)
This course enables students to apply theory to practice in Human Services through supervised internship and professional seminar. Students will have the opportunity to further develop their knowledge and skills through experiential learning and reflection in fieldwork seminar accompanying the placement. From this experience students will address ethical issues, improve their practice skills, gain a better understanding of themselves and the field, and gain familiarity with human service systems. There will be an emphasis on self awareness, growth and development, as well as, critical thinking, civic engagement, and professional identity. Students can expect to improve skills in communication and interpersonal relations; draw connections, between theory and practice; see how service agencies operate and work with diverse types of people. In the seminar we will discuss practice issues that emerge in the field, along with, professional issues such as use of self, self disclosure, supervision, termination, empowerment, and social justice and social control.

Fall 2025 Registration Close: September 2, 2025 (8:30 a.m.)
Cost*:

• Case Management = $895
• Therapeutic Mentoring= $895
• Internship Seminar= $1,595
  

* Please note, students are not eligible for a refund once the program begins.