Coker College helps create social work consortium

HARTSVILLE — Coker College’s Department of Social Work has partnered with the S.C. Department of Social Services (DSS) and six other colleges and universities in the state to create the S.C. Professional Development Consortium. The consortium is working to increase the number of credentialed social workers in child protective services and foster care units across the state.

As part of its efforts, the consortium awarded two Coker College senior social work majors $15,000 each to complete internships for DSS. Gertrude Stoney of Camden is working with foster care supervisors in Marion County and Sarah Gerrald of Mullins is working with case managers in Darlington County. The internships are for three semesters.

The consortium also provided Coker College’s social work department with additional funding for program expenses, supplements for faculty, and the hiring of a new professor. That position was filled by Dr. Elaine Townsend, visiting assistant professor of social work, this fall. Townsend has served as the program and clinical director at a child advocacy and assessment center in Jonesboro, Ga., and as a social worker at a psychiatric institute in Columbia. She holds a Ph.D. in social work from the University of South Carolina.

The consortium includes the University of South Carolina, S.C. State and Winthrop universities, Benedict Limestone and Columbia colleges.