Program Overview

The Boston GEM Consortium, is a Practicum Partnership Program (PPP), funded by The John A. Hartford Foundation, through grants awarded by the New York Academy of Medicine, with additional funding provided by Atlantic Philanthropies.  The PPP project provides an innovative masters-level social work training program, focused on preparing social work practitioners to meet the unique needs of the aging population.

The Boston GEM Consortium is based on a collaborative partnership between Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW) and eleven health and social service organizations: Boston Housing Authority (BHA), Boston University Geriatric Services (BUGS), Hearth, Inc., Hale Barnard Services for Older People, The Institute for Geriatric Social Work (IGSW), Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE), Kit Clark Senior Services, Uphams Corner Health Center Elder Service Plan, The Psychopathology of Hoarding Project, The Brookline Council on Aging and The Brookline Center.

Based in the Boston neighborhoods of Roxbury, Dorchester, Brighton, Brookline and the South End, the Boston GEM Consortium project has two core educational components:  (1) an internship comprised of a primary placement as well as an enrichment experience in a second agency and (2) a monthly Integrative Seminar.   Each graduate social work intern is assigned to a primary site in one of the consortium agencies and provides clinical and/or macro services to elderly clients, their families and caretakers, and the organizations and communities with which they interact.  In the enrichment sites, interns do a project or assignment for 2-4 hours/week.  The monthly Integrative Seminar, co-taught by BUSSW faculty, Consortium agency field instructors and other agency personnel, focuses on themes of critical importance in geriatric social work practice as they apply to the range of services represented by the consortium agencies. 

Underlying the Boston GEM Consortium project is the belief that MSW students trained in this model will develop a sophisticated understanding of the needs of older clients and their families, the services available to meet those needs, and the complexities of providing client-centered care within interacting multiple health and service systems.  

Click here for a full description of the Boston GEM Consortium project.