Entry level jobs in Social Work

Looking for more jobs in Social Work? Check out the most recent job postings in Social Work.

Below you'll find all of the companies that we've covered that may offer entry level jobs in Social Work. You can also look at internships in Social Work.

Health Leads

by Willy Franzen on March 3, 2012

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying “When all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” This often seems to be the case in medicine. Doctors are the only people who can prescribe drugs, so that’s exactly what they do. Sometimes it works, but for many (most?) health problems, medication isn’t the most effective answer–especially for low income patients who have trouble paying for basic needs. What if doctors could prescribe “food, housing, health insurance, job training, fuel assistance, or other critical resources just as they do medication?” They can if they’re working in a facility affiliated with Health Leads, which is a Boston, MA based non-profit organization that currently operates in Baltimore, MD; Boston, MA; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Providence, RI; and Washington, DC.

Be a Health Leader

Health Leads relies on college student volunteers to be their “pharmacists.” These people work in the clinic’s waiting room and “fill the prescriptions” by helping patients access available community services. What I find really impressive is that Health Leads is already doing this on a large scale. They’ve had more than 1,000 volunteers work with more than 9,000 patients (that patient to volunteer ratio seems kind of low to me). Half of the patients got a prescription that solved at least one critical need within 90 days, which is pretty amazing (that’s more effective than a lot of drug prescriptions). If Health Leads sounds like an organization that you’d want to get involved with, you have two options. You can volunteer or you can consider a job with Health Leads. While their current postings aren’t ideal for new grads because they require a decent amount of previous experience, I still think it’s worth checking out their Data Analyst (Boston, MA) and Program Manager (Chicago, IL; Washington, DC, and Providence, RI) positions.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

What have you heard about Health Leads?

Tagged as: all employers, health care, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, medicine, New York, non-profit, public health, Rhode Island, social work, Washington DC

Pathways to Housing

by Willy Franzen on September 3, 2011

It’s hard not to notice homelessness when you live in a big city like Chicago. I can’t even leave my apartment without seeing a panhandler–there’s one guy who is always sitting in front of the Starbucks down the street during the day and in front of the Hooters next door at night. I don’t give him money because I don’t think that it helps solve the root of the problem, but I often think about what would be an effective solution. Pathways to Housing is a non-profit organization that seems to have it figured out. They’re based in New York, NY with offices in Burlington, VT; Washington, DC: and Philadelphia, PA, and they’ve taken a “housing first” approach that is focused on “addressing homelessness among people with psychiatric disabilities.” In other words, they provide housing before any other services, and they’ve found that this is a far more effective way to attack the root causes of homelessness.

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Tagged as: all employers, New York, non-profit, outreach, Pennsylvania, program development, psychiatry, psychology, social work, Vermont, Washington DC

Child Mind Institute

by Willy Franzen on April 2, 2011

Children are by definition immature. They can be confusing, frustrating, and annoying for adults, but nobody should ever be surprised when children act like… children. But when is it something more? Psychiatric and learning disorder issues can be particularly hard to diagnose in kids. Yet identifying and treating such issues as early as possible is essential to ensuring that a child can live a full and happy life. The Child Mind Institute is a New York, NY based non-profit that “is devoted to transforming mental health care for the world’s children to enable them to reach their full potential.” By focusing on finding new ways to identify and treat childhood psychiatric and learning disorders, the Child Mind Institute is helping those who are least equipped to help themselves.

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Tagged as: administrative, advocacy, all employers, analyst, data, health care, medicine, mental health, New York, non-profit, psychiatry, psychology, research, social work

The Partnership at Drugfree.org

by Willy Franzen on February 13, 2011

I don’t drink, don’t smoke, don’t do drugs, and have never have (I also avoid caffeine and can’t remember the last time that I took an aspirin). This makes me a bit unusual among my peers, so I often have people ask me why I am the way I am. I don’t have a good explanation. It’s not really a religious thing or a family thing—it’s more that I want to be healthy and be able to focus 100% on the things that I like to do. Or maybe D.A.R.E. worked really well on me. Regardless, I’m sure the folks at The Partnership at Drugfree.org would love to figure me out so that they can replicate it. They are a New York, NY based non-profit organization “that helps parents prevent, intervene in and find treatment for drug and alcohol use by their children.” While many people are skeptical of the anti-drug movement in general, there’s no doubt that substance abuse continues to be a major public health problem in our country.

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Tagged as: addiction treatment, advertising, advocacy, all employers, development, events, health care, New York, non-profit, psychology, public health, social work

Volunteers of America

by Willy Franzen on February 6, 2011

When you’re job searching, volunteering is a great way to both put your skills to use and develop new skills. There are countless non-profit organization that put volunteers to work in situations where they can really make a difference. One of our country’s largest volunteer organizations is Volunteers of America, which is a faith-based non-profit headquartered in Alexandria, VA. With their staff of 16,000 paid employees and 70,000 volunteers, they’re able to help “more than 2 million people in over 400 communities in 48 states.” Since the organization was founded in 1896, they “have supported and empowered America’s most vulnerable groups, including at-risk youth, the frail elderly, men and women returning from prison, homeless individuals and families, people with disabilities, and those recovering from addictions.” An organization that has been around as long as Volunteers of America has must adapt to changes over the years. While they continue to remain focused on providing neighborly aid to all people, it looks like Volunteers of America is putting more emphasis on helping the growing population of aging Americans.

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Tagged as: administrative, Alabama, Alaska, all employers, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, health care, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, nationwide, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, non-profit, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, outreach, Pennsylvania, program development, social work, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming

Housing Works

by Willy Franzen on September 6, 2009

Homelessness is pretty terrible, but the problems that it leads to can be even worse. One of those problems is often AIDS. Housing Works is a New York City based non-profit that “provides homeless and low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS and their families with housing, meals, medical care, drug treatment, social support, employment opportunities and other lifesaving services.” The cool thing is the scale that they’re doing this on—they are “the largest community-based AIDS service organization in the United States.” That means that since 1990 they’ve served more than 20,000 New Yorkers.

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Tagged as: all employers, community development, New York, non-profit, outreach, program development, social venture, social work

Green Chimneys

by Willy Franzen on May 16, 2009

Have you ever heard of animal-assisted therapy? Wikipedia defines it as “a type of therapy that involves an animal with specific characteristics becoming a fundamental part of a person’s treatment.” This type of therapy can have all kinds of beneficial effects for a wide array of ailments, and it can be done with animals ranging from dogs to horses to elephants to lizards. Green Chimneys is a Brewster, NY based non-profit organization that “operates residential treatment for children and a special education school” with a large focus on animal-assisted therapy. They’re located on a 200-acre farm, and they’re constantly working towards “restoring possibilities and creating futures for children with emotional, behavioral, social and learning challenges.”

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Tagged as: agriculture, all employers, animals, education, New York, non-profit, outreach, psychology, social work, teaching

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