Teaching Note—Teaching Students About Homelessness: A Model for Curriculum Integration

Social workers are charged to work with vulnerable populations and often encounter those experiencing homelessness. Despite this fact, social workers do not typically learn about homelessness in degree programs even though the topic aligns with the educational competencies set forth by the Council on Social Work Education. This teaching note presents a model for integrating homelessness content into social work education. The model is structured into three levels of integration strategies—low, medium, and high effort. Each level corresponds to the amount of effort needed to plan and implement, the level of educator expertise needed, and the relative weight or significance of the topic to course objectives. The curriculum integration model is flexible and adaptable across undergraduate and graduate education.