Brown School

To connect with communities locally and globally, the Brown School created Open Classroom – a series of free, one-hour webinars on a wide range of social work, public health, and social policy topics. The Open Classroom library now includes more than 250 programs, with new webinars offered every month.

Focused on fostering meaningful connections with our local communities, the Office of Community Partnerships (OCP) at the Brown School aims to cultivate, support, and sustain partnerships that bring about transformative social change for local communities and the region. The Brown School has identified priority geographic areas in the most critical need, making a measurable impact through social and economic justice.

Developed by experts at the Brown School of Social Work, this website facilitates access to curated multi-year Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) EHDI data–with data analysis to support research and benchmarking at the state and national levels–for Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) professionals.

MSW students complete nearly 1000 hours of practicum during their time at WashU. Translating the classroom theories and skills, students are able to provide meaningful care at their carefully selected practicum sites. Previous opportunities include the St. Louis Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center, PROMO (Promoting Equality for All Missourians), and Care International.

This collaborative effort between the Brown School’s Buder Center with leaders at the St. Louis Zoo, St. Louis Art Museum, Missouri Humanities Council, Missouri History Museum and Lutheran Indian Ministries, is meant to advance Native partnerships and programming. Strengthening collaboration and communication will allow better dissemination of knowledge, stronger programs, and improved outreach.

Social Workers Advancing through Grounded Education (SAGE) program recruits, trains and financially supports Brown School Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health students who are interested in completing 360 hours of their practica in Indian Country. Brown School students who are interested in serving Indian Country complete a foundation practicum or field placement within St. Louis. The placement can be on a reservation, or with tribal, social, educational, or governmental agencies.

The Brown School Evaluation Center works with organizations to create change through evaluation. Through training, planning, data, and communication, the Evaluation Center has been helpful in working with numerous organizations and their capacity and resources to elevate the organizations.

The Center for Human Service Leadership (HSL) supports the nonprofit tenants at Delmar DivINe, a new complex in North St. Louis city dedicated to community development, social improvement and collaboration in the St. Louis area. Directed by Professor Barry Rosenberg, this initiative uses racial equity lens to contribute to the long-term development of social service organizations, assisting in organizational governance, data-driven strategic thinking, innovation, talent development and collaboration.

HomeGrown STL aids in the development of young, Black males in the St. Louis community. Bringing together key partners, Professor Sean Joe from the Brown School leads this program to provide infrastructure to better inform services and policies with the overall goal of improving outcomes for young Black boys and men.

The Clark-Fox Policy Institute works to advance social and economic justice. The goal is to connect policy solutions to public awareness, practicum training, and policy decision-making. The institute provides students with the opportunity to participate through a number of different avenues: the Graduate Policy Scholars, internship and practicum, and working through the master of Social Policy.