{"id":44100,"date":"2019-02-28T23:00:49","date_gmt":"2019-03-01T05:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44100"},"modified":"2019-02-26T16:27:52","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T22:27:52","slug":"where-innovation-and-service-flourish-partners-find-each-other","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=44100","title":{"rendered":"Where innovation and service flourish, partners find each other"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

W<\/strong>I love how our spirit of innovation combines education with service to our communities! It is especially gratifying when community partners join us to accomplish goals of education, access, opportunity and service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have written previously about\nseveral of our community-based partnerships, as we are so proud of our faculty\nand students and how they positively contribute to Western Kansas communities.\nIn fact, over the past couple of weeks, Dr. Tim Davis, chair of the Department\nof Social Work, and I have been visiting with legislators about furthering the\nwork we are accomplishing in addressing the state\u2019s need for social workers \u2013\nespecially in Western Kansas. Did you know that only 11 percent of the state\u2019s Licensed\nBachelor\u2019s Social Workers and Licensed Addiction Counselors live and work in\nWestern Kansas?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the key aspects our faculty\nrealized early on is that if we were going to make an impact on social worker\nneeds in Western Kansas, we could not wait for students to come to us. Boldly,\nwe would go to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So in 2006, we partnered with\nGarden City Community College to address a severe shortage of licensed social\nworkers in Southwest Kansas. The solution was a partnership between the state\u2019s\nAccessUS program through the Kansas Board of Regents, Garden City Community\nCollege and our Department of Social Work. Students who were committed to their\nhome communities could gain their associate degrees through Garden City\nCommunity College and then, without leaving their homes, enter into the\nthree-year social work cohort program and gain the credentials needed to seek\nlicensure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A cohort is a group of students who\nenter the program together and stay for the three-year course of education. Classes\nare taught by FHSU faculty at the local community college. Dr. Davis said the\nmodel has proven successful in Southwest Kansas, noting in a recent story that,\n\u201cThe first three Garden City cohorts graduated 30 Bachelor of Social Work students,\nthe majority of whom have remained in Finney County to practice. These students\nnow make up over half of the Licensed Bachelor\u2019s Social Workers in the county.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program later expanded to Dodge\nCity, and Dr. Davis said the cohort scheduled to graduate there this year has\n13 students. If all finish, it will double the number of LBSWs in Ford County.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social workers perform valuable\nservices in their communities. They work in child and family service agencies,\nmental health centers, hospitals and health care agencies, schools, nursing\nhomes, social service agencies, addiction treatment centers, the courts and\nmore. The services they provide, as it says on the FHSU Social Work website,\nhelp \u201cpeople cope with complex interpersonal and social problems and assist in\nobtaining resources.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program also expanded into\nSeward County, Dr. Davis said, because local child welfare agencies could not\nfill open professional positions. The eight in the cohort there will more than double\nthe number of the county\u2019s licensed social workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Northwest Kansas also needs many\nmore social workers than it has available. By Dr. Davis\u2019s count, the 26\nNorthwest Kansas counties that the Dane G. Hansen Foundation in Logan considers\nits service area \u2013  stretching from\nSaline County in the southeast to Cheyenne County in the northwest \u2013 have a\ntotal of 166 licensed, bachelor\u2019s level social workers, but 92 of them are in\nEllis and Saline counties. Five of these counties have none, 16 have three or\nless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the AccessUS program was\ncreated by the Kansas Legislature to expand educational opportunity only in\nSouthwest Kansas. The fund helps pay for the added costs that come with\noffering an entire educational program at a distance, and not only does it pay\nfor certain administrative costs, but it also provides for student\nscholarships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Absent additional legislative\nfunding, Dr. Davis and the department sought other partners. The Hansen\nFoundation stepped in. A $95,000 grant will fund expansion of the program to\nColby and Colby Community College this fall and, with the assistance of Valley\nHope Inc. and the CCC outreach center, to Norton as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two more communities and faculty\nwith a vision to further serve the needs of Western Kansas \u2013 that is impact.\nThat is evidence of a culture of thinking out of the box. We understand that\nour success is the community\u2019s success and the region\u2019s success. This is a\ngreat example of reshaping education and opportunity in new and creative ways\nto prepare students for the future and communities for success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Fort Hays State, we say that our\npersonality as an institution and as people is one of innovation, hard work, dedication,\nand caring about others, seeking ways to help them succeed. In many ways, the\nsame can be said about Western Kansas \u2013 the values of one reflect the other,\nand each is willing to invest its energy and creativity in the common goal of\npreparing people for successful lives and making the world better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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