TORRINGTON – A new degree program scheduled to launch during the fall semester this year will train students to work for a variety of different agencies with the goal of helping people.

The Associates Degree in Human Services program received its final approval in mid-February from the Wyoming Community College Commission, said Ellen Creagar, the instructor in the EWC Social Sciences Department who designed the program. The impetus for the program grew from discussions between Creagar and various recruiters at the college, she said.

“We were brainstorming about ways we could increase enrollment, get kids in here, and also do it on the budget we have,” Creagar said. “They’d had a lot of inquiries about human services types of degrees. 

“I realized, talking to them, we can do this without adding any personnel at EWC. That was hugely attractive.”

The Human Services program is designed around a core of course work already in place at the college, Creagar said. The program will add four, new classes to the curriculum, focused on what human services is and the finer points of case management.

The second year of the two-year degree will put students out in the field to put what they’ve learned during year one into practice, Creagar said. She’s already been in contact with several service agencies, ranging from school districts, the Department of Family Services, the Department of Justice and more.

“One of the things I heard from people and agencies who’d take our interns is they need people trained in case management,” Creagar said. “One of the specialized classes students will be taking is case management. That was one of the skills every person said they need.”

The potential employment market for students in the new program is growing, she said. Creagar quoted Bureau of Labor Statistics numbers indicating a 16-percent growth rate in the job market projected over the next decade, for example. 

Individuals who complete the Human Services degree would fit in well in a school district as a paraprofessional, for example, particularly in an at-risk or special needs classroom. Another potential source for employment would be a Victim’s Advocates office, working under the advocate.

“This is exactly the sort of person who’d work under the victim’s advocate,” Creagar said. “They be able to work cases, they’d have the confidentiality training, and they’d be able to answer the phone and talk to these victims.”

The beauty of the two-year degree in Human Services is, in part, that it only takes two years. One of the things Creagar and EWC recruiters kept hearing from potential students is they didn’t want to spend four or six years in the classroom. They wanted to be out, in the workforce in their communities, earning a living.

“This came from students saying to us, ‘I don’t want to go to school for six years. I want to go to school for two years and I want to be done and I want a job,’” Creagar said. “Some kids want to work in a corrections facility or in a school district – they want to work in and around people, doing these service-type of jobs.”

While credits from the four new classes that make up the core of the Human Services degree wouldn’t transfer to a four-year college, the rest of the credits students earn would. But it still would be easy for a two-year graduate with the new degree to enter the workforce, find out they had a passion for the work and continue on to earn a social work degree or more.

“They’ll be in those agencies, working,” Creagar said. “Then, as they work, they could go back to school. This could turn into many degrees – in health care, hospital administration, criminal justice.

“I think anything a student is interested in, taking care of people, this is going to be perfect.”

The ideal student for the Human Services degree would be someone who cares about people, but is able to buttress themselves against potentially the worst the world can do to someone, Creagar said. Once out in the workforce, graduates will be dealing with people, ofttimes at some of the worst moments of their lives.

“I think they’re going to have to be people who care about society, making sure we keep our communities places where the people are safe and fed and cared for – giving them a basic level of service,” she said. “They’re going to be on the front line with people, all of the time.

“A lot of the students who may be drawn into this are students who may have worked through things in their own lives – they get this, they get that people can find themselves in difficult situations,” Creagar said. “How powerful is that to have a group of students who’d be trained to help these agencies? 

“That’s a pretty beautiful thing – young people who want to go out, be independent and earn a living, doing something to help their community.”