ARCATA -- The California Post-Secondary Education Commission has granted final approval to Humboldt State University's new graduate degree in social work, and the first group of students will begin pursuing the degree this fall.

The new master's degree, with both full and part-time programs, is designed to help students gain advanced skills in social work, particularly emphasizing rural and American Indian needs in northern coastal California.

"Many members of the community had advocated for the master's of social work program and it finally has become a reality," said department chairwoman Pamela Brown.

The degree originally was proposed in 1990. Key officials and activists undertook surveys of North Coast social needs and tapped state and national studies on mounting demand for master's level social work professionals in tribal social services, child welfare, public health, mental health and aging.

California's Department of Labor projects that this year alone, the Northern California region needs an additional 640 social workers with a master's in the medical and mental health fields alone. U.S. Census data gathered in 2001 suggest that jobs for social workers will climb 36 percent by 2008.