The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and the Social Work Coalition on NC Workforce Development are partnering to create a Public Service Leadership Program (PSLP) that will strengthen the state’s social work workforce.

The coalition consists of 25 universities and colleges in North Carolina that offer social work programs and are accredited by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE).

“The need for social workers is expected to grow over the next decade, but supporting this workforce has long been a challenge due to low salaries and challenging workplace conditions,” said N.C. Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai. “This program will work with high schools and universities to strengthen the pipeline of students interested in pursuing careers in social work by making them aware of these opportunities and providing training.”

The five-year project kicked off this fall with a one-year planning period, followed by a one-year pilot and a three-year testing period. The School of Social Work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will serve as the lead entity for the coalition. The School’s Office of Community Engagement and Outreach, led by Associate Dean Kathy Colville, will administratively manage the implementation of the PSLP. Students interested in applying for the program will be able to do so starting in March 2026. NCDHHS will provide more information when the application window opens.

“We are honored by the opportunity to collaborate with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services and deeply appreciate their trust, support and confidence in our shared mission,” UNC School of Social Work Dean Ramona Denby-Brinson said. “The people of North Carolina deserve a health and human services workforce that is not only highly skilled, but also compassionate and responsive to the diverse needs of our communities. Social workers are at the forefront of this effort; the PSLP is poised to transform how we prepare social workers to lead and serve across the state.”

“Social workers bring unique and highly valuable skills to our public system of care,” said Kelly Crosbie, director of the NCDHHS Division of Mental Health, Developmental Disabilities, and Substance Use Services. “This new leadership program will strengthen our workforce by preparing social workers to meet the complex needs of individuals and families across North Carolina. By investing in training, support, and career pathways, we are building a workforce that can make a lasting impact in communities — especially those that have historically lacked access to quality mental health, substance use, and intellectual and developmental disability services.”

The PSLP program will focus on and work toward three goals:

• Increasing awareness of careers in social work among students in North Carolina high schools, community colleges, colleges and universities;
• Strengthening the learning experience of current social work students by equipping them with the professional knowledge and skills needed to address the complex needs of NC families and communities. A special emphasis will be placed on rural communities and Medicaid-eligible populations, within these critical service domains: child and family services, mental health, substance use, aging, and intellectual/developmental disabilities; and justice-involved populations;
• Creating resiliency in the existing workforce to increase retention and compassion satisfaction while also effectively serving populations with complex needs.

“The social work profession is expected to grow by 12% over the next six years and the PSLP program will be a driving force to ensure that we meet that workforce demand,” said Sarah Reives-Houston, UNC School of Social Work interim assistant dean of workforce development. “Not only will it encourage the next generation of social workers to enter the field, but it’s also going to take care of the state’s current social workers and ensure they have the tools to support their communities. I’m proud of the colleges and universities that have banded together as part of the Social Work Coalition on NC Workforce Development to make this dream a reality.”

Ensuring there are enough mental health professionals in the workforce is a critical component of care. From early childhood educators to direct care workers and public health leaders, NCDHHS is committed to building a workforce that will continue to keep North Carolinians healthy and well.

What is social work? Social work is a helping profession focused on enhancing human well-being and addressing social and individual problems. Social Work’s core principles include empowering individuals, promoting social change, and advocating for social justice.

Almost everyone has interacted with a social worker. Why? Because social workers are employed in so many different settings. We connect people with resources, including finding housing, food assistance and childcare. We provide emotional support, counseling, and guidance to individuals dealing with personal and family problems.  We advocate for client’s rights in legal proceedings, social service agencies, and other environments.  Almost everyone has worked with a social worker or knows someone who has. 

Social work is a profession that combines compassion, knowledge, and advocacy to improve lives and create a more just and equitable society. As social workers, we actively engage with our communities to meet the needs of the vulnerable. It’s a skill innate to our profession.

Through an exciting collaboration of social work educators, leaders from across the state are working together to determine the social work needs of North Carolina—and the path to meeting them. The Social Work Coalition for NC Workforce Development is a coalition of educators dedicated to increasing the workforce of social workers to meet the high demand for social work professionals across the state.   

Over two years ago, social work leaders began to envision what a coalition of social work educators could achieve if unified and working together. Recognizing how North Carolina could be healthier and stronger with more social workers, the coalition formed around five key areas of need across the state: 1. Child and family services, 2. Mental and behavioral health, 3. Health, aging, and caregiving, 4. Intellectual and developmental disabilities, and 5. Service to justice involved individuals. Recognizing that the social work workforce needed to grow to address these areas of need, social work leaders from 25 schools and departments across the state gathered in November 2024 at North Carolina State University for our first in-person work group meeting. 

The coalition is dedicated to collecting information about how best to address these needs.  How many social workers does North Carolina need to be strong? What barriers do potential social workers find to an education? What are the mental health needs of the state, and do North Carolinians know and understand the value of social workers in their lives?  Answers to these questions will assist the coalition to develop a strategic plan that is effective and addresses the workforce needs of North Carolina. 

The coalition has also been divided into workgroups, developing strategy in key domains important to effective outcomes. These work groups are collaborating to find solutions to problems that could increase the social workforce across the state.

The Data Analytics work group, led by Ramona Denby-Brinson (UNC-Chapel Hill) and Kristin Mapson (UNC-Wilmington) is identifying existing data resources and gathering statistics to address workforce and service gaps in the social work field. By gathering data, we hope to identify key areas of need and resources across the state.

The Marketing and Communications work group, led by Barbara Wiedemann (UNC-Chapel Hill), is responsible for overseeing the creation and execution of strategies to effectively promote the Coalition’s mission, raise awareness, and engage and inform key internal and external audiences. By communicating our work, we hope to further engage social work educators who are interested in joining the coalition. 

The Innovations and Technology-Based Education work group, led by myself and Summer Woodside (UNC-Pembroke), is exploring how online social work degree programs can help address workforce shortages. Online education provides accessibility for educational opportunities for potential social work students.  By addressing existing barriers to education, we hope to establish the best practices for online and technology-based education, engaging more potential students to become social workers. 

The Workforce Diversity and Special Populations work group, led by Tauchiana Williams (UNC Chapel Hill) and Yarneccia Dyson (NC State), promotes a social work workforce that reflects and values diverse viewpoints, experiences, and backgrounds to better meet community needs and collaboratively generate innovative solutions. North Carolina needs a workforce that can serving a wide range of populations and communities across the state and beyond.  We hope to expand the workforce to various groups of people who may not know much about social work. 

The External Affairs work group, led by Valerie Arendt (National Association of Social Workers – NC Chapter), is responsible for assessing and supporting initiatives aimed at expanding and promoting the social work workforce in North Carolina. We hope to work with partners to find ways to expand social work by leveraging relationships and increasing knowledge of our field.

The work of these groups is ongoing and powerful. Together, we are stronger. As a Coalition, we aim to be together two to three times a year. We would love to have partners who care about this work as much as we do.

If you’d like to join us, you can learn more here.

“Here’s to the land of the longleaf pine.” 

This is the first line of a poem called “The Old North State,” written by Leonora Monterio Martin in 1904 and then adopted by the North Carolina General Assembly as the official toast of North Carolina half a century later. 

Here’s to the land of the long leaf pine,
The summer land where the sun doth shine,
Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great,
Here’s to “Down Home,” the Old North State!

The longleaf pine is an enduring representation of the state, not only for its symbolism throughout North Carolina history, but also its strength. Pines are notoriously resilient. They adapt to all weather conditions, the extremes of heat and cold. No matter the soil, no matter the conditions, they can grow, adapt and thrive.

A strong, healthy North Carolina is dependent on the field of social work and this Coalition exists to strengthen that field. When we’re strong, North Carolina is strong. What happens when North Carolina’s children and families are strong? They can realize their own dreams, participate in the world around them, make their own difference and strengthen the state in their own ways.

This is one reason we’ve chosen the pinecone as part of the visual representation for this Coalition – the tree’s cones open and seed the ground below them, just as social workers across our state connect with the communities to meet the most pressing needs – just as this Coalition will aim to impact every corner of the state by helping to diversify and expand the mental and behavioral health and child welfare workforce.

We’re excited to talk about and promote the amazing work happening from the collective strength and skill of so many social work leaders in our state and continue to tell that story of what happens when we all work together for a stronger, more resilient North Carolina.

Since our official launch in 2024, the Social Work Coalition on NC Workforce Development is off to a strong start. We are excited to announce a few of the important steps we have taken together to begin our work solving the challenges facing North Carolina’s social work workforce. 

At the Coalition’s May 2024 meeting, we discussed the five critical service domains identified by the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Social Work as key indicators of the need for social work workforce development in North Carolina. These critical service domains include: 

• Child and Family Services 
• Mental and Behavioral Health 
• Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (I/DD) 
• Service to Justice-Involved Individuals 
• Health, Aging, and Caregiving 

Please read below to see what we have accomplished in the last few months as well as information on our upcoming projects and meetings. 

Coalition Work Group Chairs Meeting

The Coalition work group chairs met for the first time in August 2024 for a planning meeting. The Coalition’s five work groups and their respective chairs include:

Data Analytics, Co-Chairs
Ramona Denby-Brinson and Stacey Kolomer
Innovations and Technology-Based Education, Co-Chairs
Mark Trahan and Summer Woodside
External Affairs, Chair
Valerie Arendt
Marketing and Communications, Chair
Barbara Wiedemann
Workforce Diversity and Special Populations, Co-Chairs
Yarneccia Dyson and Tauchiana Williams 

Thank you to our chairs for their work and support as these work groups get underway! Learn more on our Work Groups page.

Fall 2024 1st In-Person Coalition Meeting 

The Coalition hosted our first all-member, in-person meeting in November 2024 at NC State University. We were joined by 30 in-person and 30 virtual Coalition members to begin working collaboratively toward our objectives. Each of the Coalition’s five work groups discussed their key focus areas, shared progress, and announced new opportunities and projects.

Thank you to everyone who made this important event a success!

Spring 2025 Coalition Meeting

We are excited to announce our second all-member, in-person Coalition meeting, which will take place on Friday, March 28, 2025, from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at UNC-Greensboro. A virtual option is available for those who cannot attend in-person. Sign up for our email newsletter to receive information about the Spring meeting.

Program Specialist

We’re excited to announce the hiring of Allyson McCune as our Program Specialist. Allyson was hired in June 2024 and is a second-year MSW student at UNC-Chapel Hill. 

Allyson began her work compiling a list of all the representatives from social work programs across the state and communicated with the Coalition to collect the most up-to-date information for our members and ensure comprehensive representation. Allyson helped the Coalition plan the Fall 2024 work group chairs’ meeting and in-person Coalition meeting and is currently assisting with preparations for the Spring 2025 Coalition meeting. Allyson has also assisted with the development of our new Coalition website and will continue to assist with content creation for the website as well as other communications efforts.

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to info@socialworkcoalitionnc.org.

Member Registration

Interested in joining the Social Work Coalition on NC Workforce Development? Please complete the Coalition membership registration form. If you have colleagues, including other social work educators and practitioners concerned about workforce development in our state, please feel free to add their names and contact information to your member registration form and we will send them information about our work.  

Building Partnerships

The Coalition has continued to strengthen our work through partnerships with leading state organizations and by applying for grants that support cross-state collaborations. These include: 

• The Duke Endowment: The Coalition is working on a proposal to partner with The Duke Endowment on a program aimed at improving recruitment, training, and retention in the social work field, supporting the Endowment’s goal of bolstering the health and well-being of North Carolina’s residents.
• Blue Cross Blue Shield North Carolina Foundation: The Coalition is exploring ways to address the foundation’s primary aim to “expand access to mental and behavioral health services and resources for youth through models that are effective in the short term.”  
• North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services: We’ve been in continued discussions with NCDHHS. We met with Secretary Kody Kinsley and Director Kellie Crosbie in August 2024, and we are excited to deepen our partnership in preparation of a strong and sustainable North Carolina workforce. We’re creating a working document called “The 10 Things We Need to Do Differently” in conjunction with NCDHHS. We will help set up clear communications, tracking, and timely information exchanges between the Coalition and NCDHHS. 

Website Launch

We are excited to have launched our new Coalition website and introduced Coalition branding in Spring 2025. We researched similar coalitions across the nation and explored their websites for inspiration and organizational ideas. This site features general information about the Coalition and our focus areas, research supporting our work, upcoming events and opportunities for interested individuals to get involved, as well as updates on Coalition activities. 

This website is crucial for sharing information about the Coalition and our important work, and we envision that in the future it will also serve as a hub for materials and resources that social workers can use to create improved workforce development strategies. If you have a strong interest in this core area of the Coalition, consider joining the Marketing and Communications work group. 

Stay Involved

How can you stay involved with the Coalition? Ensure you have registered via the membership form to join our communications list. Share information, data, reports, research, and articles about our key areas or work groups that can be added to the library section of the website we are developing using the submission link. 

Sign-up to be on at least one of the five Coalition work groups: 

• Data Analytics 
• Innovations and Technology-Based education 
• External Affairs
• Marketing and Communications
• Workforce Diversity and Special Populations 

Use the work group interest form to sign up. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to info@socialworkcoalitionnc.org.