Center of Excellence | Centro de Excelencia

The Atrévete Center of Excellence for Latinx/Hispanic Social Work Practice is designed to build a pipeline of Latinx students from high schools and community colleges to the Accelerated B.S.W. to M.S.W. program, recruit and retain Latinx faculty, facilitate student-faculty research on cultural adaptations of evidence-based interventions, and build community partnerships to provide experiential learning for the clinical social work students.

Directly Combatting a State Inequity

Housed inside the School of Social Work at Rhode Island College, and funded through a grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Center of Excellence (COE) was created to fill the void of racial and cultural diversity in Rhode Island's behavioral healthcare workforce. By 2027, the COE anticipates it will add as many as 55 trained bilingual providers to the state. 

"Latinx/Hispanics in Rhode Island experience the highest rates of fair/poor health overall among all racial and ethnic groups in the state. Moreover, all these factors result in a greater risk of behavioral health problems for Hispanics in Rhode Island."

5 Major Goals

The mission of the center is multifaceted and it plans to address these goals:

A Pipeline

• create a pipeline of Latinx students from high schools and community colleges to Rhode Island College's B.S.W. and eventually M.S.W. programs (specializing in clinical social work)  

Recruiting and Retaining

• recruit and retain Latinx faculty at the School of Social Work

Community Partnerships and Experiential Learning

• build community partnerships to provide experiential learning for clinical social work students

Revamping Curriculum

• strengthen curriculum to address issues regarding Hispanic and other minority populations

Culturally Responsive Research

• conduct research on culturally adapted evidence-based interventions for mental health issues that impact the Latinx and Hispanic community

Focus Areas for Success

Our lead staff members are responsible for necessary, varied, yet complimentary focus areas that will be pivotal in fulfilling our goals as a center. Our focus areas consist of:

• curriculum and training development, including interprofessional practice competencies
• student recruitment, mentoring, retention, and graduation
• student-faculty research
• faculty development
• community partnerships