Social workers welcome possible move to downtown Windsor

The possibility of moving to downtown Windsor has excited members of the School of Social Work.

The University announced May 30 the launch of a quest for proposals process to investigate the feasibility of moving the social work program to the Windsor Star buildings located downtown at the corner of Ferry and Pitt streets.

The school’s director, Brent Angell, said that just being able to look out their windows and see the community they’ll be engaged with will lend a great deal more authenticity to the educational experience for students.

“They’ll see that everything they do is part of community revitalization,” said Dr. Angell. “Our students are really engaged in the community just virtue of what they do. This opportunity will create a vibrancy for them that you just don’t get on main campus.”

The School of Social Work comprises approximately 830 students, faculty and staff who currently work with several agencies downtown.

Mary Medcalf, the school’s coordinator of field education programs, said most spend too much time apart from one another because they’re spread out around campus or doing practical placement work in community agencies. Having the students all in one location will be a huge benefit for them because they’ll be able to better learn from each other’s experiences, she said.

“We’ll now be able to build much stronger relationships between students themselves and between faculty,” said Medcalf. She directs the award-winning Community-University Partnership program, whose primary focus is to transform social housing neighbourhoods in Windsor by relying on student, faculty and community resources.

UWindsor President Alan Wildeman said that moving the social work program downtown presents an opportunity to significantly broaden the bandwidth between important academic programming and the needs of the community.

“In the same way as our new Centre for Engineering Innovation has been designed to transform the California and Wyandotte intersection into a regional address for innovation and engagement with the manufacturing, industrial, business and other sectors that are so vital to the future of our region, there is no better place to position our arts and social programs than in the heart of this caring and creative community of Windsor,” he said.