New innovative Field Education community partnership

Field Education department with UCPD at VA Hospital

The Mandel School's Field Education Department recently began partnering with the University Circle Police Department’s (UCPD) co-responder program. The program is a collaborative approach to behavioral crisis response, which seeks to reduce harm and facilitate alternatives to arrest.

Through this innovative partnership (one of the first partnerships in the country between police and a school of social work), MSW student Gwendolyn Terry became the first student to complete her field education practicum with both University Circle, Inc. and UCPD, paving the way for future students to complete their practicums with these organizations. Through her experience, Terry is both solidifying community partnerships and helping establish the co-responder program.

To better understand what our law enforcement partners experience when responding to calls, the Field Education Department team met with UCPD at the Veterans Affairs Hospital campus to learn the Multiple Interactive Learning Objectives (MILO) system.